Monthly Archives: October 2007

Digital Internship Session #3

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Live blogging from our Digital Internship Project

Here are some sites he shared. I will add links and descriptions later.

9:00 – Alec shows us some tools from a brainstorm list

9:45 – A short explanation of Creative Commons. Re-useable content, crediting

10:00 – Dean Shareski is getting us Geocaching. I have looked forward to this presentation for some time.

geocaching.com

Dean is going to share how geocaching is applicable in a variety of ways. Technology doesn’t have to be sedentary. Anecdotes of GPS in dogs, senile grandparents, agriculture (GPS in tractors), prior to 2000 the satellites were only used for military use.

video from howstuffworks.com

video Simpsons on Google Earth

video – geocaching on UNC-TV

What is GeoCaching. Hidden Caches like a treasure hunt. Multi-cache sites, Dozens of forms of geocaching. Scratching the surface of how we can use it in the classroom.

People are starting to use GPS for all sorts of businesses and hobbies.

How to: look up on web, get coordinates, find location with a GPS

10:20 Getting Ready to go outside. Passing out devices to go over interface. Looking at geocaching.com
viewing the online map, clues and cordinates. Finding the location on Google Earth. Read the logs of other people that went looking for the cache to make sure of existence of the cache.

Winning The GeoCache Race

Fun way for students to learn coordinates, longitude, latitude. Need to learn more about mapping marked points. I will need to spend some time geocaching and thinking about classroom implementation before I get students going.

More to come.  This is something I want to learn more about

wow, sure has been quite around here…

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I guess I am embarrassed at the lack of technology integration within my classroom. I have been saying that we are going to start blogging for about 4 weeks, hasn’t happened. Last week my students finally email addresses but we haven’t had time to introduce them. Planning, time constraint and my status as an intern have made me hesitant to rush the blogging. It will come, it will grow.

Here is a quick reflection of some of things that we have been doing:

Math PODS – We are supplementing 25 year old Houghton-Mifflin Texts with time where we break into groups and visit a variety of stations. These include computer activities, manipulative tasks and problem solving.

Social Studies – Canada: A World Player Task Card Unit – For this task card unit students are learning about Canada’s global role and our relationship with the world. Students complete tasks by conducting research of a variety of resources, but on paper and through cyber text.

Wakamow Valley Field Study – In order to enhance our study of eco-systems we visited to one in our own backyard. We focused the introduction of our classroom study on the importance of Water to the world. With a focus on how it sustains all life. While examining the eco-system we kept track of animal signs – manure, tracks, feathers, shells. We examined the lack of life in the Moose Jaw River. We returned to the classroom to learn about Food Webs and the interdependent balance of all things. It was a great learning experience for all of us.

Live Blog Video Editing and Podcasting Presentations

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This afternoon I will be sitting in on presentation on podcasting and video editing for an hour and 15 min each.
Dean Shareski is presenting Podcasting in the Classroom. I will paraphrase Dean throughout his presentation.  Dean has been working with the Digital Internship Project.

Nothing to do with iPods. Dean suggests that maybe we shoud call it ‘netcasting’. Podcasts are another way of sharing information. It is important to spend some time and look at what other people are doing with podcasts in the classroom and what kind of content is out there. Find exemplary work.

We are talking about how we can subscribe and use podcasts successfully through iTunes.

What kind of content would be of interest to students and listeners?

How do we make and load podcasts? (simply & quickly)

Lots of related links to tools through Deans wiki. Podcast People is recommended as the easiest tool to use in creating podcasts. Dean is demoing how we create content direct to the web, similar to voicethread. Not as rich as using a tool like GarageBand but is a great online application.

Dean is showing the process of how he recorded his recent Skype conversation with Clarence Fisher, using audacity. He then uploaded the .mp3 of his Podcast 33, the third installment of his interviews for his K12 presention on classroom design. to archive.org.

Students can write scripts and practice talking. Try to make it sound like you are telling a story. That is the initial start, show examples of kids that don’t sound like they are reading directly from the script.

Dean showed the video of Bob Sprankle’s work.

Session 2: Alecs Digital Video Presentation 2:30-3:45

All you need a camera and a firewire cable.

Take video’s off youtube

iMovie trials

Live Blogging Alec’s Media Awareness Presentation

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We are streaming live

Alec has created this wiki on Media Literacy, unfortunately his slides are not posted. The wiki provides many great examples on the dark side of the web.

Looking at the dark side of the web. Alec touches on history and problems since 2000.

  1. Scams, bullying (starwars kid)
  2. racist sites, pro-suicide sites, anti-immigration

We touched on Prensky’s idea of Digital Natives vs. Immigrants.

Touched on how consumerism drives companies (iPhone).

Neil Postman 5 things we need to know about Tech Change. Missed the last two and am looking for a link.

  • tech change requires tradeoff
  • +/- are never distributed equitably
  • not addictive, ecological

Parents have little idea of what’s happening. Alec shows metaspy.com what people are looking at.

Whats big with teens

– poker, rating sites (hot or not), alcohol sites, downloading/sharing,

– video assults, phone bans

Interns shaddy experiences on the net

– Axe deordant ad on website

Plagiarism is a major issue with internet. Sites that trade and sell papers. I did this, but would never now that I understand content. I had a lack of awareness and understanding of researching and consequences.

turnitin.com is a solution that cross checks references. Policing is the last thing we need, Alec says more groundwork needs to laid. I think being proactive should always be the first step. We need to teach what plagiarism is and why it is wrong. Need to teach importance of citations and reference.

Democratic creation of material is a foundational component of Media Literecy. We need to teach awareness so that our students can achieve the potential of the internet while avoiding dangers.

Safe Searching images, wikimedia commons

Sharing with Digital Interns

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Today at the we started the day breaking into groups of eight to share our experiences to date. It was really interesting sitting and listening to interns from a variety grade levels and their experiences. It seems everyone has road bumps with school tech infrastructure, and starting the basics of blogging. We spoke of the importance of procedure and management and how we are getting the students started. Despite the challenges, it is good to hear about everyone else situation, this is powerful learning for me. This network of like-minded folk opens insights into blockades and we are discussing together how we are jumping the hoops. More interns should be doing this project.



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