Web Cast on TAG

When people ask me what TAG is, I can send them my web cast. the quality was better originally, but I had to convert it to get it posted on Teachertube.

Medieval Role Play

I've created a pod cast explaining a role play I used to do with students as part of the Grade 8 History unit on Medieval Societies. I;ve explained it to several teachers over the years and now I can email them the podcast as an overview of what it is.

Zotero

I've checked out zotero. too bad I never had this tool 15 years ago when I was writing papers in my history courses. It is quite interesting to see the changes that have occured when searching and quoting references. Zotero makes this seem easier to do. I've experimented with zotero when I was researching Cyber-Bullying for a presentation I am doing for the school board. A question I had was how are you certain what the type of web page you are viewing? In other words how do you know if it is a journal, report, publication, etc. ? Is that important?

You Tube

I've done a podcast on You Tube and my thoughts about using this in the classroom based on the article by Stephen Downes. That was cool! I played with the effects, but just left it at normal.

Podcast

So I've set up a Pod cast and posted this to my blog. It took some time to get the microphone and headset properties configured, but overall it was fairly straight forward. There are some interesting elements to the Audacity program such as adding effects. While trying to make a test recording I noticed that when I retuned to the begining and tried to record over my previous recording it didn't record over top but recorded simultaneously. This created the effect of it sounding like there were several of "me" talking which was somewhat eerie. I will experiment with having the podcast play automatically when someone views my blog...that could get annoying though.

I am wondering about the applications for the program. Obviously making recordings and posting them to your blog is yet another way to pass on information. This would be quite useful for presentations. the school I am at has a homework hotline which is accessed through a landline. It is seldom used most likely due to the antiqueted technology. I can see a creating a school blog with each teacher peridocally creating podcasts for parents and students to access. Teachers could create a podcast of upcoming events and projects. they could review and edit this information quite easily through Audacity.

Mind Mapping

I've actually seen this before as part of an educational package. When I first logged onto mind mapper, it was slow and a little sluggish. Maybe it is my computer. Whatever the reason I have used these in classes before on a white board. I think students would react more positively to this digital version that can be updated quickly. Students could conceivably add to mind maps outside of the classroom and these could be used as part of their assessment, much like portfolios are used today.

After reviewing this for some time I began to think about how students learn now as apposed to the pre-digital age. Does there need to be an entertainment factor included in our lesson planning as compared to before? Or is the use of technology a natural evolution in how we now gather and process information.

del.icio.us

This is a terrific tool. It was easy to set up and I will no longer be using "My Favorites" as a way to track my web sites. I have many sites affiliated with Egyptian, Viking, Roman, Greek, Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation history when I used to teach Grade 8 Social Studies. Frequently I would research at home and at work and more than once after I had found a relevant and interesting web page I lost it because I made it a favorite on another computer. This would be very beneficial for my school where there is a lot of team teaching. Teachers could build their own web site catalogue to share with other members of the team. I have already started tagging sites for administrators.