Educational Leadership & Technology » podcast

End of Another School Year

tsbray — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:08:20 +0000

Well it is time to say goodbye to another school year, but I think 08-09 will be one I remember for a very long time. It was an action packed year for me as I learned the ropes of administration and worked closely with teachers to encourage and support their use of technology. The list of achievements for the Technology Integration Specialists at KIS is quite impressive:

First ever Phoenix Film Festival
First ever Korea International School podcast
First ever Korea International School Youtube channel
First ever Technology Showcase
Development of the Middle Matters KIS MS publication for parents
Several on going Wiki projects like our technology sharing wiki and middle school advisory wiki
Not to mention the countless hours spent planning and supporting teachers

I feel like it was been a productive year with technology. Teachers are trying new things in the classroom and students are making amazing collaborative projects with technology. It is actually working!

2009 — The Year Blogging Died

tsbray — Wed, 13 May 2009 06:16:03 +0000

First, trust me, I see the irony about writing a blog post about blogging being dead. I wrote it for all the bloggers out there, not for myself. Second, just as God was declared dead quite some time ago, and billions of people are still going to churches, mosques, and temples, I doubt that my proclamation will stop many people from blogging. So then…

“Why,” you ask, “why is blogging dead?” Blogging is the Internet’s newspaper. Just look at the competition — multi-media, video, Twitter, and podcasting websites all offer a richer exeperiences to the audience than blogs. Sure there will be some old professors somewhere in universities that continue blogging, but the majority of us will move on to other forms of communication. We will use Twitter, PodOmatic, and YouTube to micro blog, podcast, and share our self created videos. Who will blog? And more importantly why? With more and more teachers assigning blogs to students and grading the blogs like assignments, less and less students will blog for pleasure or personal reflection. It will become just another assignment to do and, as Clay Burell said, “It will be full of too much schooliness.” So goodbye blogs! Rest in peace.

Korea International School Podcast and Youtube Channel

tsbray — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:24:48 +0000

Recently we added a couple of new features to our school’s online profile. The ADE’s (Apple Distinguished Educators) who work at KIS decided to add a podcast to share our experiences with 1:1 education. Hopefully this will be a useful tool for us to share some of the awesome student, teacher, and administration work that has been accomplished so far at KIS. The Korea International School ADE podcast is open for business! The first episode is an interview with Rich Boerner our director about the reasons for going 1:1 and the successes and pitfalls of the process.

Also, we have a Youtube channel now up and running. We will be adding some content in the next few days. I was busy, busy, busy dealing with wave of student discipline last week as well as collecting samples of students’ digital work to display during the parent-teacher conference going on this week. The whole thing almost killed me, because I also came down with a cold in the process, but it is finished. The parents and students are enjoying watching the short movies I put together with iMovie about different things that have happened in the middle school this year. After the conferences I will upload the movies to the Youtube channel. The idea for making a school channel came from a colleague in Shanghai — thanks Amanda!

Creativity III

tsbray — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:27:12 +0000

Back in December I posted Creativity II and received a response from Clay asking for links to the creative work I mentioned. The Internet was so painfully slow that I felt a nice water-boarding session from Military Intelligence would have been more enjoyable than working through the problems of the Turkish keyboard, slow Internet, and other small difficulties I was facing; in addition, I was on vacation and visiting with family and friends, so I waited until my return to Korea for a follow-up with links. I have posted some of my music, oral stories, and poetry reading on my PodOmatic page. Many of the songs were made with the GarageBand music Wizard feature that allows you to audition and choose instruments; others were completely made from scratch. I will be uploading more music in the future, because I have so many on my computer right now. Most of the new ones are totally assembled by me without the use of the Wizard.

Some of you have looked at my Youtube channel before, but I recently uploaded two new movies and am currently working on three more projects with my limited time. The trip to Turkey provide plenty of inspiration as well as photos and movie clips for future work. I’m not sure if I will be able to complete all these projects before we go to Saipan and Australia, where I will take more photos and movie clips. Projects and ideas are stacking up around my ears.

Websites I Use for Class and Why

tsbray — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:32:50 +0000

Continuing on with follow up about the KORCOS conference, I thought a list of websites that I use for work with explanations of what they are for would be a helpful post. Here is a list of the different websites in no particular order and how I use them in class. Something to remember is that technology is simply a tool for helping communicate the curriculum. It is a way to help students engage, process, and create with information. Websites are the same; they are only tools. Any tool can be used correctly or incorrectly; they job of educators is to guide students in correct usage, to help them understand the world around them and their place in it. To do anything less is unethical and a disservice to them. I’m not going to use the term 21st century learning, because as Jeff Utecht has pointed out many times in his presentations and on his blog, the 21st century isn’t the future anymore. Let me just say that the future demands that students begin using this tools and skills; it is their future, not ours and it will be full of change.

Wikispaces: This is where my class is organized. I place assignment and assessment information here, online discussions and feedback for students, students upload projects, and comment on their own work and the work of others. It is laid out unit by unit with each student or student group having their own page for assignments.

Youtube: Yes, for those who don’t know, it is a very useful site for education. It allows students and teachers to upload videos to the Internet and then embed the videos in a Wikispaces or other website. You are thinking, “Why bother? Why not have the students upload directly to a wiki?” Many sites have limited amounts of storage space and videos use a lot, so embedding uses virtually no storage, but makes the videos easy to access in one location for management, reviewing, and sharing.

Podomatic: Basically this is the podcast version of Youtube and I use it for the same reason — save storage space on my wiki. Students and teachers upload the actual podcasts to Podomatic and then embed in our wiki.

Slideshare: Again this is a place to store student and teacher presentations without eating up space on the wiki. My students upload their Keynote and PowerPoint presentations to this site and then embed it in our wiki.

United Streaming: The school I work for has a United Streaming account. It is full of videos on different topics that are designed for educational use. Great classroom resource. You can use the videos best by downloading them directly to your own computer and then using them whenever you want/need.

TeacherTube: Similar to Youtube, but with reliable content added by educators. I don’t actually post much content here, but I find videos to use in class; especially if I can’t find the thing I’m looking for on United Streaming.

Edublogs: This is where I have my students blog and where I have my professional blog about education. I have the students embed links on the wiki to make for easy access.

Diigo: It is a social bookmarking tool. You can share resources, leave notes on website, and make groups to share websites. Diigo helps remove a level of junk from the Internet. Students and teachers can share reliable and useful websites that they have discovered. Great for helping students with group research for projects, because they can share resources and take notes collaboratively.

Voicethread: This site I haven’t use much myself, but I feel it can be a great resource for classes. You can post up a photo and students and teachers can make comments centered around the photo with a built in podcast producing device.

Facebook: Believe it or not: Facebook can be used in educational ways. Students can join groups or causes that allow them to connect with people around the world who have similar interests. They can share information and knowledge and teach each other.

Certainly the last website on my list is going to draw fire from several people in education. But as I stated before, these are tools and students need to learn how to use the tools. Tomorrow, next week, next month, or next year these tools will probably change; in fact, they will change. But change is the only constant in the universe, my colleagues and friends. Isn’t time we start acting like it?

I will write a follow up post to this about different programs I use and how I use them for class in the not too distant future. Stay tuned!

KOCROS Follow Up part 2

tsbray — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:59:01 +0000

Funny video about podcasting on Teachertube.

During the job-a-like session at KORCOS, several people were looking for basic information about podcasts, vodcasts, wikis, and other resources. This post is in response to those questions and holds several useful links.

What is a podcast? It is a recording of a persons voice that is uploaded to the Internet and available for other people to download for listening. A podcast can be as simple or as complex as you like, but the important part is that the file is shared with other people. There needs to be an audience for it to be a podcast. Tools you can use to make a podcast could be GarageBand on a Mac, or you could download Audacity for a Mac or a PC. All the equipment you need is a microphone, which you can purchase at any Hi Mart in Seoul (Sorry to those in other countries). You can also create and post podcasts to PodOmatic.

What is a vocast? It is a recording using of a person that captures their voice and image and uploaded to the Internet for people to view. As a podcast, there has to be an audience in order for it to be a vodcast. You could use iMovie (Mac), Movie Maker (PC), or Photo Booth (Mac). You need a microphone and a webcam, both easily and cheaply purchased at any Hi Mart (again, sorry to those who live else where). You can create or post vodcasts to Youtube or Teachertube.

What is a Wiki? A wiki allows more than one user to edit/add content to a webpage. I answered this in my previous post, so take a look there for the sample wikis. You can build wikis at Wetpaint or Wikispaces.

KORCOS Follow Up

tsbray — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:13:09 +0000

The day of the conference came and went, and, as usual, I met very wonderful and enthusiastic teachers who all want to learn new methods of teaching; exploring new possibilities with student learning and finding new ways to reach all students. During the Job-a-Like session, I facilitated a discussion about technology use in the classroom. Great questions came up and people seemed to get a lot out of the conversation that went on in the room. During my afternoon session, a smaller group discussed the reason for metacognitive activities and how podcasting and vodcasting could be used to help students think and process their learning. I also attended a session on Comic Life (you can download a free 30-day trial here) and learned that I wasn’t the only teacher to see the educational applications of the program. Finally, I closed out my day with a session about becoming an administrator for DOD schools; although it was focused on advancement within the DOD structure, there was excellent advice for professional and career development.

Several of the people I met at KORCOS asked for follow up information, so this post will be providing some extra information for those folks.

For those interested in the potential of a wikispace you can check out any of the following sites:

Ms. Digges Yearbook Wiki Good beginning wiki by a teacher who is new to using Wikispaces.

Mr. Brightman and Mr. Bray’s World Literature Page 2007-08 You can track the evolution of our skill with a Wiki over the previous school year. Includes examples of student writing, podcasting, collaborative exercises and movies.

Mr. Spivey’s Social Studies Wiki Here is a shameless plug for my friend and colleague — this is the third most edited Wiki in the world. Seriously! His wiki is basically the way his class works. You can find examples of just about any type of student work involving technology.

If you aren’t nesscessarily interested in wikis, but want see examples of student movies, vodcasts, or podcasts the following will be helpful.

These is from a project where my students used the play A Doll’s House to make a modern adaptions. They were only given five minutes of actual movie time (doesn’t include title, credits, and outtakes).

Stuffed Happiness Overall concept of this film was great. Very original and creative work; especially how the one girl plays two different roles by use of camera angles.

A Pet’s Life The opening film segment where the girl is primping her hair and the boy looks up at her in shakes his head from the background is a brilliant shot. That moment is a wonderful example of digital story telling; without even one word spoken, we understand the relationship and the two characters.

Rat Race Another one that overall hit the nail on the head. A little melodramatic, but it works.

The following examples are first time efforts with metacognition about the writing process and using vodcasts and podcasts.

English Seminar Scroll down the page and click on student names to find different examples of podcasts and vodcasts.

Hopefully everyone will find a little something that will make that inspiration spark for lesson planning. If you have further questions, want to contact me for support, or want to get together and discuss technology and teaching just email me at tsbray@internationalteacher.info.

KORCOS Presentation October 17th

tsbray — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:56:18 +0000

vodcast)">

I finally had a chance to sit down and make my presentation for the KORCOS conference on October 17th. I will be presenting on using podcasting and vodcasting in metacognitive excerises in the writing process — it doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue, right? Anyway, I hope to generate some interesting discussion and inspire a few of my fellow teachers. I have put my Keynote presentation on Slideshare for others to view and use, and here is a link to it for those curious about the idea… Better yet, I’ll embed the bugger.

Podcasting and vodcasting for reflection in the Writing Process

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: metacognition vodcast)

For those not fimilar with Slideshare, I highly recommend it. It is easy to use and allows you to view, use, edit your slideshows as well as those of other members. Absolutely awesome for educators of all types.