Collaborative Tools

Preparation

Go to Yugma, get registered and install Yugma.
Go to Notemesh

• Create a user profile with your name and MSU email address
• They will email you a password to the MSU email address (or wherever you have your MSU mail forwarded)
• Return to NoteMesh and log in, using your MSU email address and the password provided in the email.
• Search for and add the class (CEP 416).
• I recommend going to the User Panel and clicking on Edit Your Info to change your password to something easy to remember.

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What are collaborative tools?

Collaborative tools include the wide range of web-based applications that allow you to work collaboratively with others to create pieces of writing, concept maps, drawings, spreadsheets and much more. You can even participate in web conferencing with video and audio and have the option to create presentations collaboratively. The best part is that most of these tools are freely available and require only a web browser to use.

What are the Obstacles prior to Web 2.0

• Accessibility – Everyone need to have the same local software
• Synchronicity – While collaboration was made more efficient, it was not in real-time.
• Scalability – The scale of the collaboration was restricted to smaller groups. Pretty much impossible to have global collaboration

Several Popular Online Tools

(1) Writing Tools:

Each of the following allow you to create a new document online or upload an existing document that you can make public and share with other authors of your choice. When you share the document you can decide if other authors can view and edit or just view the document.

• Notemesh
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Educational Implications: 7 things you should know about collaborative editing

(2) Web Conferencing Tools:

These tools allow for free web conferencing. They have different features that include chat, file sharing and more.

• Yugma
• Vyew
  Demos

Educational Implications: 7 things you should know about virtual meeting

(3) Wikis

Wikipedia
Wikispace

• Tutorial
• Example: Examples of educational wikis; Wikibooks ; http://te958nclb.wikispaces.com/

Benefits

• Created in real time
• Everyone is “editor in chief”
• Considered “Open source” – no one owns it
• Everyone can: start, add, fix, erase
• Organic and democratic in nature

Challenges

• Ÿ Some wikis are questionable resources for research
• Ÿ Anonymous authors
• Ÿ Student-posted information may be modified/spammed

Educational Implications: 7 things you should know about Wikis

(4) Concept Mapping

These tools allow you to collaboratively create and edit a concept map with other users.

• Mindomo
• Mindjet

Podcast Assignment

Weekly Gallery Project

For our project this week, we will be creating both an audio and a video podcast. As far as content for your podcast, please develop a 2-3 minute mini-lesson for students of a specific grade-level. As you have done in the past, identify the specific grade-level you are intending this for as well as at least one grade-level expectation that your lesson would help satisfy.

In addition to Audacity and iTune, you will also need some kind of video-editing software. Most computer already come with this software. For PCs, look for Photo story 3, and Mac users probably will want to use iMovie.

There are numerous ways you could go about completing this project.
You could choose to follow our step-by-step tutorial. A different and more popular way of creating movies with Photo story 3 or iMovie could be found here: Photo story 3 tutorial, iMovie tutorial.

Creating the Audio Podcast

1. Create a new folder on your computer where you are going to save everything for this project.
2. Develop a polished PowerPoint with images that you would use to teach students during your 2-3 minute mini-lesson (Don't use animation in the PPT; it won't come through in the video version). You can use your own photos, create your own screen-captures, or draw on CC-licensed works. Be sure to save this PPT in the file you created.
3. Open audacity and start recording. Minimize audacity letting it run in the background and then view your PowerPoint, narrating each slide. When you are finished narrating your PPT, click back into Audacity, stop the recording and save your project to the project folder.
4. Because of switching between Audacity and PPT, you will have a bit more audio at the start and beginning of your audio. You can cut those segments out of your audio.
5. Export your audio to .mp3 and save the .mp3 to your project file. Next, upload this file to your afs space or Googlepage space.
6. Once the file is uploaded, be sure to check to make sure you can access it. We have talked about what the appropriate URL for your file should be.

Creating the Video Podcast

1. Go back to your PPT, and Choose File-"Save As"--"JPEG" and tell it to save all of your slides as jpegs to your project folder.
2. Open up Photostory or iMovie, and import the jpegs of all your slides as well as the .mp3 audio file.
3. First, lay down your .mp3 file on the timeline, then pull down each of your slides in the order they should appear.
4. Listen to your audio to figure out where each of the slide transitions should occur. You can resize each of the slide clips by dragging on their edges.
5. Once you have the audio and the images aligned properly, you can save your movie to your computer. Be sure to save your movie as either a .wmv (Photostory) or .mov (iMovie).
6. Upload your movie to your afs space (or Googlepage space) the same way you did with the audio file. Again, test your address to make sure it routes to your video.

Weekly Blog Post

1. Please identify the grade-level this mini-lesson is for as well as the grade-level expectation that it meets.
2. In a paragraph or two, discuss how teachers might use podcasting in their classrooms. In order to complete your podcast, you will need to create links (embedded please) in your post to both the audio file and the video file you uploaded to AFS (or Googlepage space). The act of creating the link is what enables the files to be available through your RSS feed.
3. Please link the permalink of this post to the Wiki Gallery under the "Podcast" column.

Double-Check

1. If you've done everything right, you should be able to acquire both your audio and video podcasts through a media aggregator such as iTunes.

Final Thoughts
This assignments pulls together many of the technologies and ideas we've been developing across the semester and it probably is the most complex project to date. While I want you to see what you can do "on your own" so to speak without jing videos that walk you through step-by-step, I also don't want you to struggle unnecessarily. Ask for help when you need it; remember, that, too, is part of our learning new technologies strategies.

Maps and Mashups

This week, we are going to learn about mashing technologies together. One of the most popular K-12 applications of mashing is with map programs.


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Readings about Maps and Mashups

To learn more about what mashing is, read through the following resources:

1. 7 Things You Should Know About Mapping Mashups - (A nice concise overview)
2. The Horizon Report 2008 - Feel free to read the entire report, but the section on Mashing is on pages 20-22.
3. Dr. Mashup or, Why Educators Should Learn To Stop Worrying and Love the Remix - A more in-depth look at mashing and remixing.

Examples of Maps and Mashups

To see some examples of Mashups, check out these resources:

1. Using Google Maps and Google Earth - Look at section titled "Google Mashups"
2. Map Mashing Classroom Applications - A wiki produced by people at MSU
3. Google Lit Trips - Also has some nice resources for how to create Lit Trips

Discussion

How can we use Maps and Mashups in our teaching and learning?

Weekly Gallery Project

Your task for this week is to create your own map mashup to represent content that you could share with students as part of a lesson. Here are the requirements for the project:

1. Your map must have at least 5 different placemarks on the map.
2. Each of the placemarks should contain text for your students to read to help them understand why the placemark is important. Envision that your students will be looking through the maps on their own, so the text should be elaborate enough to help students be self-sufficient.
3. At least three placemarks should contain embedded images within the placemarks. You can either use CC images or images that you have taken. If you use CC image, be sure to properly cite the images as well. Smaller images will work better for this exercise.
4. At least two of your placemarks should included hyperlinks to web pages that students can click on to help them learn more about the content introduced in the placemark.
5. If you really want to go all out, you can embed a YouTube video inside a placemark. You can count an embedded YouTube video in lieu of one of the images. Be sure to give credit for the video though.

To learn about placemarks, adding images, including hyperlinks, etc. draw on some of the learning new technology strategies we are working on. For example, you might search through Google Video, YouTube, or TeacherTube. You might look through the help resources or user guides that accompany the mapping program. Feel free to choose whatever mapping program meets the assignments needs. In the past, students have found Google Maps easy to use, and it provides a link so that you can also view your map in Google Earth.

Weekly Blog Post:

1. Embed your map in your blog. You may need to tweak the zoom on the map and change the settings so that the map looks good in your blog.
2. In your post,
   1. Identify what grade level and subject matter you might use this map for. ( A single sentence is fine)
   2. Give us an overview of what you think the mashup could help students learn and how you might use this map with students (at least a paragraph)
3. Link to the permalink for your blog post in the Wiki Gallery under the "Mashup" column.

Podcast

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What Is Podcast?

The term "podcast" is a portmanteau of the words "iPod" and "broadcast". Podcasting is basically the creation and distribution of amateur radio, plain and simple. In addition, Podcasting makes it easier to get a lot of people to listen to it through the use of RSS feeds.
Just like it allows people to subscribe to your blog, RSS allows people to subscribe to your podcast. Just like new blog content shows up in your aggregator whenever it’s posted, new podcasts show up in your MP3 player (eg. iTune) whenever they are created.

Watch the about podcasts video.
(Reference: Making a Podcast)

Podcast Lab

(1) Make a Sound File

• Ÿ Download Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
• Ÿ Record sound
• Ÿ Download Lame at http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/
• Ÿ Use Audacity and Lame to convert the sound file to mp3 file
• For details, please refer to Podcasting in your classroom.

(2) Put Your File onto a Sever

(Put Your File to AFS Space or Google Page Space)

• Ÿ Go to your FTP space: ftp://afs.msu.edu/ (By using Internet Explorer) OR Go to your google space
• Ÿ Put your sound file into a new folder in your “web” folder OR Upload your sound file to Google space or a folder in Google space
• Ÿ The address for the file is: www.msu.edu/~username/podcasts/filename.mp3
  OR http://username.googlepages.com/foldername/filename.mp3

(3) Create a Link to the File on Your Blog

(4) Burn Your Feed with Feed Burner

• Ÿ Go to http://www.feedburner.com and get registered
• Ÿ Type in your blog address and burn your feed
• Ÿ Choose “RSS”
• Ÿ Change feed title and feed address
• Ÿ The feed address is created

• Skip directly to feed management
• Click "Publicize"
• Click "Chicklet Chooser"
• Click "Subscribe in a reader", scroll down, select Use as a widget in "blog", and click "Go".
• Login your blog
• At "import page elements" page: choose the right blog, and type in a title, and click "Add Widget"
• Change "Subscribe in a reader" to "Subscribe to Podcasts"

(5) Subscribe to Your Podcast Feed

• Ÿ Download iTune at www.apple.com . (Just google: iTune, download)

If there is an orange subscribing button

• Click on the button
• Click "Add to iTune"
• The feed is now monitored

If you only have feed address

• Click on the “Advanced” menu, and choose “Subscribe to Podcast”
• Ÿ Type in your feed address and let iTune download the file.
• Ÿ Play it!
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Educational Implication of Podcasting

• 7 things You should know about podcasting
• Educational Podcasting

Ditigal Storytelling

Digital Storytelling

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What is digital storytelling?

Educational Uses of Digital storytelling.
educational-uses-of-DS.ppt

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Examples and Discussions

Explore examples of digital storytelling at Educational Use of Digital Storytelling
Other examples:

• Federal Holidays
• MathCasts Project
• Great Books Stories Wiki
• SFETT's ICAN

Discuss in groups

• How do people use digital storytelling in education?
• Identify one example of digital storytelling that you like most, and explain why you like it.
• How are you going to use digital storytelling in your teaching

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Tools

• VoiceThread
• Powerpoint
  Add narration to your powerpoint presentation
• MS Photo Story
  A Microsoft application that can be used to create slideshow movies from still pictures. You can add music, transitions and basic effects to your slideshows.
• Windows Movie Maker
• iMovie
• iPhoto

Voice Thread

VoiceThread has several nice tutorials about their product that are worth exploring. At the very least, please look over the following:

1. Introduction on VoiceThread.
2. How to manage identities.
3. How to moderate comments.
4. How to use zoom in VT.
5. Here is one about the doodler feature.
6. This will show you how you can embed a VT in your blog or website.

Weekly Gallery Project

1. Open a VT account and upload an image for your avatar. The identities tutorial will show you how to do this. If you want, you can upload a picture of yourself to clearly identify yourself. You can also have one identity where the picture is not of you or someone else (be creative) and use a name other than your own. You can use this identity when you want to leave comments that are more anonymous, and it is also what I would recommend if I were having students use it.
2. Choose one of the following options for creating a digital story this week.
   1. Create a digital story that you, as the teacher, would use to share with students as part of a lesson or unit.
   2. Create a mock digital story that provides an example of something your students might construct as part of a lesson or unit in a course you teach.
3. When making your digital story, please make sure that you:
   1. Have at least five slides to it.
   2. Have at least one comment on each slide.
   3. Have at least two different voices (identities) on it - you could enlist the help of friends, colleagues, or you could use the two identities you've set up.

Weekly Blog Assignment

1. Embed your VoiceThread in your blog post for Week 7. Here is a VT on how to do this. I recommend using the 480X360 version they have for blogs. When you get the code, you will need to paste it into your blog post when you are using the "Edit HTML" tab rather than the "Compose" Tab.
2. In your text, please write about
   1. Which option you chose for your digital story and what your experience was like in creating the story.
   2. Devote a paragraph to explore some of the different ways teachers could use digital story telling in the courses.
   3. Please link the permalink to this post on the Wiki Gallery under the "Story" Column.

Here is a checklist for this week. Please complete the Week 7 tasks by Sunday evening, Feb 24.

Digital Images

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Creative Commons

(1) The issue of Copy Right

(2) Creative Commons

A. What is Creative Commons
Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."
Check out the following movies and comics

1. Wanna Work Together
2. Get Creative
3. Sharing Creative Works
4. How it Works

B. Types of License (can be used in combinations)


C. Search CC licensed work

• Creative Commons Search
• FlickrCC

D. Give credit to others' work


Photo Attribution:
Original image: "Erickson Hall"
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/211/521366682_a6d488c52e_m.jpg
by: Joe Freidhoff
Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/>

E. License your own work

• Add a Creative Commons license to your website/blog
• Add a Creative Commons license to your Flickr photos
• Posting your licensed images at Flickr

Discussion

Look at the example on how a teacher is using digital images in her classroom.
(You will also find this specific example: Jane Goodall's Camp and the Classroom Displays Blog from the above link.)
Discuss the following two questions:

• How does the teacher use digital images? What are your reactions (good use? bad use?)?
• What are other possible ways of using digital images in your classroom?
• What are some of the concerns of using digital images in the classroom?

Lab Section

1. Get Familiar with Creative Commons

• Find a CC image using __FlickrCC__ or CC Search and add it properly to a post on your blog. Here is a jing video to show you how to do this.
  
• Add a Creative Commons license to your blog

2. Store, Publish and Share Pictures

(1) Create an account at Flickr. Consider this a professional account that you will use to host images for your blog/website. In the future, it might even have images of students' work that you could share with parents.

(2) Try these things in Flickr

• Upload some of your photos
• Tag the photos
• Change the publicity of the photos
• Add notes to your photos;
• Add your photos to Sets;
• Comment and Add notes to others’ photos
• Add a creative Commons license to your Flickr photos

3. Having Fun with Your Pictures

(1) Editing Images

• Desktop Photo Editor: Gimp is a free Windows based software that allows you to do many of the same things as Photoshop
• Online Photo Editor: Fauxto has many of the features of Photoshop and is quite extensive for a free online editor.

(2) Create Effects

• dumpr - fun with your photos

(3) Create Slideshows

• Slide - slideshows, slide shows, photo sharing
• Animoto - is an easy way to create a short (30 seconds or less) slideshow with great effects and animations.
• You need at least ten pictures to make it work! (an example:slideshow)

(4) Some examples of Using Images

• Flickr Badge (HTML) - Flickr images only
• Flickr Flash Badge - Flickr images only
• Flickriver - Flickr images only
• PicasaWeb slideshow - PicasaWeb images only
• Slideoo - Flickr only
• Slide - Flickr, Photobucket and image urls

Assignments

Weekly Gallery Project
Create a page in your portfolio that utilizes the badges or slideshow tools. This page could be a revision of a page you have already created or it could be a page you haven't completed yet. Aim to have at least five images in your badge or slideshow. Link this page of your portfolio to the Wiki Gallery under the "Photos" column.

Blog post
Imagine you are at your field placement this week and a student asks you for help. She wants to find an image that she can use in a presentation she's creating. Generally, she has two questions. First, where do I go to find images to use? Second, what do I need to do to be sure I've given the creator of the image proper credit?
In this post,

• Write about what you would have suggested to the student in the scenario BEFORE this week's lesson. (Where would you have had her look for images and what would you have told her to do to cite the image source?)
• Based on what you've learned this week, what would you recommend to her now?

Here is a checklist for the week.

For next week, we will be getting into VoiceThread. VoiceThread offers a free general account that you can use, but there are a few restrictions on how many VTs you can create (and some other things, too). They do however, allow a free upgrade to their Professional account if you are a K-12 educator. Joe wrote to them and asked if pre-service teachers could also qualify for the professional educator accounts. They granted us permission. If you want the educator account, when you sign up for it, you will need to use your msu email addresses and list Joe's email as the school contact (freidhof@msu.edu). I recommend that you take time this week setting up your account so that when we start digital storytelling next week you are all ready to go.

Organizing Internet Resources

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Introducing social bookmarking tools

1. Definition
2. Function
3. The idea of tag


Writings about social bookmarking
(read one of them)

*
7 Things You Should Know about Social Bookmarking - EDUCAUSE

* Sites to See: Social Bookmarking - Education World



Discussion

* How is social bookmarking tool different from or similar to RSS feed readers?

* How can social bookmarking be used in professional development and teaching?


Lab Section

Basics
1. Register and Install Extension
2. Add URLs to your del.icio.us

* Add two links from "CEP416Resources"
* Change the name of your bookmarks
* Tag your bookmarks
* Bundle your tags

3. Share Your Bookmarks

* Enable “Private Saving” function
* Add CEP416Resources to your network
* Add Linkroll to your blogs (Optional)


Weekly Gallery Project

Imagine your collaborating teacher asks you to plan a week-long unit of your choice. Though the topic is up to you, she does want to see a few things:

1. You need to identify at least two specific content expectations your unit will meet. Here are links to the K-8 GLCES, and to High School. In your blog post, you will need to tell us the grade level you are planning this unit for.
2. You also need to identify at least two specific technology standards from the METS that you will be working on in this unit.
3. You must supplement the content of the unit with at least five websites that address different aspects of the unit.
4. You need to use a public calendar to communicate with parents and students what you will be doing each of the five days.


Therefore, the agenda for this week is:

1. Read through the GLCEs and the METS linked to above to help you pick a unit topic that you can clearly align with the content expectations.
2. Weekly Gallery Project
1. Set up a social bookmarking account of your choice (del.icio.us, is a popular one, but there are others as well.)
1. Organize at least five websites under a common tag that you can use with your students to help them learn your topic.
2. Set up a public calendar (google has one) in which you briefly outline what you aspects of the unit you will cover for each of the five days.
3. WIKI gallery
1. Please link the permalink of your blog post for this week to the wiki gallery column "bookmark."
2. Please link the public page of your calendar to the wiki gallery's "calendar" column. Here is a jing video to show you how to find the public url.



Assignments

In your blog post for this week:

1. Identify the grade-level you've created this unit for.
2. Identify at least two GLCE's and two METS that this unit addresses.
3. Identify the tag you used to organize your five resources. Please embed a link back to this tag on your del.icio.us account (or whatever you chose). Here is a jing video to show you how to do this.
4. Devote a paragraph to each of your five web resources to let us know how you would use the site to help students learn. For example, you might consider saying, "On Monday, the lesson focuses on part A of the unit. The website URL will be used to help students x..., y... and z. On Tuesday, the topic changes to part B . . . "

Web pages

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Search Tools

The following six search tools belong to three different categories. Can you group them?

* Google
* Librarians' Index to the Internet
* Dogpile
* AltaVista
* Yahoo Directory
* Ixquick

Study the URLs

* http://www.nytimes.com/pages/technology/index.html
* http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.htm


Do you know the function of these operators?

* Quoted Phrases
* The + Operator
* The – Operator
* The ~ Operator
* The OR and | Operators
* The .. Operator
* The * Operator


How much do you know about Google Search?

Suppose you are not using the operators above,

* Will Google return only pages that match all your search terms?
* Will Google return pages that match your search terms exactly?
* Will Google return pages that match variants of your search terms?
* Is there any word Google will ignore during search?
* Is there a limit to the number of queries?
* Does the distance between the two queries matter? ( eg. [ snake in the grass ], [ snake grass ])
* Does the order of query matter?
* Is Google case sensitive?




Evaluating Web Pages

1. Read Evaluating Web Pages
2. Read Evaluating Website.doc by Nell Duke
3. Evaluate the following sites:

All the following sites are about Immigration.
Please evaluate these sites and think about how you decide whether the site is good or not.
a) http://www.historychannel.com/ellisisland/index2.html
b) http://www.aiisf.org/
c) http://www.msu.edu/course/mc/112/1920s/Immigration/Jamiespage.html
d) http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/introduction.html
e) http://www.ellisisland.com/ellis_home.html
f) http://immigration.about.com/
g) http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm


Lab Section

1. Set up an account with Google Page Creator, Weebly or another web creation site. You might want to draw on some of learning strategies we talked about during week 1. Note: if you use GPC, make sure that you use the page that has the home icon in it as your home page!
2. Create the main pages of your site. At the very least you should have the following sections:
1. An Autobiography/About Me page. Students want to know who you are as a person and so do administrators. Devote at least one section of your site to this purpose. You might consider it like a bulletin board you would put up in your room.
2. Resume Page: I'm rather specific about this part. Because your resume is the most common piece that will be printed out, you need to have a version on your site that is in .pdf form. If you don't know how to convert a document to a pdf, click here. You can either link directly to the .pdf from your home page as the resume section, or you could include it as a "printer friendly version" or ".pdf version on an html page."
3. Teaching Philosophy: Don't be concerned if you haven't written a teaching philosophy yet. Most students in the past have not. However, by the time your portfolio is evaluated, you ought to have a draft you can build on as you continue through the program.
4. Technology Integration Project: You will build this section later in the course, but you can create the page and set up the links now.
5. Other types of pages that have been popular in the past, but are not required have been coursework, web resources, and lesson/unit plans.
6. As far as navigation is concerned, a person should be able to get to any of your major pages from any page. That means each page should have links to About Me, Resume, Teaching Philosophy, Tech Int. Project, etc.
3. For this week's Wiki Gallery Project:
1. Create your home page and five major sections pages that are linked to from the home page
2. On the home page, insert a picture, add text, and a link to your blog.
3. Give each page a clear title, and set up the links to each of the other pages.
4. Choose one other major section besides the home page to develop for this week. The remaining sections only need a title and working navigation links. As you build these pages, think about balancing your use of written texts with visual ones. In later week's will learn some technologies that will help us with this.
5. Update your portfolio link on the Wiki Gallery so that it links to your homepage.



Assignments

1. Find a topic you are interested in. Use Google to search for related information. Don’t just use Wikipedia! Write about what you have learned about this topic and what you have learned about search.
2. Respond to your classmates’ posts.
3. Continue working on your web portfolio.

Personalize the Internet

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Introducing RSS Feeds and Other Tools

1. What is RSS feed?
2. Google Reader, Bloglines, Pageflakes
3. iGoogle
4. Google Alert

Writings about RSS Feeds

1. Why RSS is crucial for a Blogging Classroom
2. Educause. (2007, April). 7 things you should know about RSS. Educause Learning Initiatives. Retrieved January 17, 2007 from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7024.pdf

Discussion

1. Ÿ How will RSS help you as a teacher?
   
2. Ÿ How can your students use RSS readers?
   
3. Ÿ How can parents use RSS readers? (How about using blogs or websites?
   

Assignments

1. For your Weekly Gallery Project, do ONE of the following:
   1. Pick a topic you can see yourself teaching. Your goal will be to supplement whatever materials you have inside the class with the freshest content possible. Therefore, look for web pages specifically about your topic. Each page or blog, though, will need to have an RSS feed on them. Create a new folder in your Reader account in which you subscribe to at least 3 RSS feeds about your topic. Make this folder public and add it as a widget to your blog. I've included a Jing video below on how to do this.
   2. Imagine that you have parents asking for information about a certain topic (In my experience, this could be things like test-taking and study strategies, behavioral strategies, enrichment activities, etc. It usually starts with parents saying . . . "Hey, can you recommend . . .?" or "Where could I learn more about . . .?" Your task will be to look for web pages specifically about the topic you've chosen. Each page or blog, though, will need to have an RSS feed on them. Create a new folder in your Reader account in which you subscribe to at least 3 RSS feeds about your topic. Make this folder public and add it as a widget to your blog.
   3. As educators and advocates of lifelong learning, we are constantly seeking out new ideas and information to improve our teaching. Think about an area you want to focus on for development. Your task will be to look for web pages specifically about the area you've chosen for professional development. Each page or blog, though, will need to have an RSS feed on them. Create a new folder in your Reader account in which you subscribe to at least 3 RSS feeds about your topic. Make this folder public and add it as a widget to your blog.
   4. Here is a link to the Jing video that will show you how to make your folder public and add it as a widget to your blog.
2. On your blog, please create a post in which you talk about:
   1. Which of the three Gallery Projects you decided on and why. Be sure to provide us with enough context to so that we can understand the resources you have linked to. Please also create an embedded link to the public page url for your project (see the Jing video) as well as linking the permalink of the post to the Wiki Gallery (the Aggregator column please).
   2. Please also write about how you might use RSS feeds in your future teaching. You might want to think about each of the three categories above-- for student learning, for communicating with parents, and for professional development.

RSS feeds Lab

1. Set up a Google Reader Account.
2. Watch this Jing clip on how to add your classmates blogs to your reader account.
3. Create a new folder in your Reader Account where you subscribe to all of your classmates' blog. You might even want to subscribe to classroom blog as well.
4. Play with iGoogle and Google Alerts -- http://www.google.com/alerts
5. Use iGoogle to personalize your Google homepage

• Add gadgets onto your homepage: such as your google reader, weather, movie…
• Move the gadgets around
• Create tabs

Week 2: Blogs

Blog Survey

Take the Survey Here!
Survey Results

Comparing Blogs and Websites

Directions: Below are 8 links to sites found on the web. As you look at each site, classify each site as either a website or a blog. When you have finished classifying each site, go back and create two lists that outlines the key features of both websites and blogs. That is, what are the defining characteristics of each that allowed you to classify each of the 8 sites as either a website or a blog?

A. http://www.educ.msu.edu/
B. http://www.mackenty.org/index.php/site/index/
C. http://www.assortedstuff.com/
D. http://technosavvy.org/
E. http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/
F. http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
G. http://elps.k12.mi.us/education/school/school.php?sectionid=2

Discussion:
1. Classify each site as either a) a website or b) a blog and
2. Make separate lists of the key characteristics of websites and blogs. You will report back to the class on your work, so be sure to take notes.

Examples of Professional and Educational Use of Blogs

Read Seven things you should know about blogs
Locate one example of teachers using blogs in ways you find interesting.
You can go to Edublog Awards 2007 Finalists, you might try using a blog search engine such as Technorati or Google Blog Search, or you can also find a list of educational blogs here--There are different categories there, so be sure to scroll through the entire page.
Questions:

• How does the teacher use his/her blog? What is an specific example (a post or a comment)?
• What function does the blog serve?
• What do you think is the benefits of using blog this way?
• Do you have any critiques?
• What are some helpful strategies you are using to read the blogs?

Example: Grade 5/6NT Blog

Writings about Educational Implications of Blogs

• The Educated Blogger by David Huffaker
• Ferdig, R. E., & Trammell, K. D. (2004). Content delivery in the 'blogosphere.' T.H.E. Journal, 31(7), 12, 16-17, 20. link
• Echlin, H. (2007, January 7). Digital discussion: Take your class to the Internet. Edutopia. Retrieved January 13, 2007, from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-discussion-take-your-class-to-internet.
• Colombo, M. W., & Colombo, P. D. (2007). Blogging to improve instruction in differentiated science classrooms. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(1), 60-63. link
• Lesesne, T. S. (2006). Technology meets literature: Meeting authors through their blogs. Teacher Librarian, 33(5), 58-59. link
• Ishuzuka, K. (2006). History teacher 2.0. School Library Journal, 52(4), 26-27. link
• Richardson, W. & Mancabelli, R. (2007). High-tech inspires the read/write website. The Education Digest, 72(9), 14-18. link

Sell your blog ideas!

Think about the educational implications of blogs through the following group work.

Pro: try your best to persuade others to use blogs in your classrooms

• Explain what teachers/students can do with the blogs…(find and explain in detail at least three specific ways of using blogs)
• Explain the advantages of using blogs…
• Find out one particular blog to support your arguments, and talk about how this blog can be further improved.
  • You can find some examples from http://del.icio.us/CEP416Resources/blog
  • You can also search for blogs at: www.technorati.com or http://blogsearch.google.com/)

Con: try hard to avoid using blogs in your classrooms

• Better or alternative approaches?
• The disadvantages of using blogs?

Group 1: Teacher's Online Journal – created and maintained by the teacher himself/herself
Group 2: Student Blog – created and maintained by individual student
Group 3: Classroom/Student Group Bog – created and maintained either by the teacher or by a group of students

Blog Lab

Basic:

• To create a blog
• To create a post that includes text, a picture, and a link to an outside resource
• To leave a comment

Advanced:

• To tag/label a post (Why do we need this?)
• To create “Important Links”
• To edit "About Me" page
• To add a picture

Bonus:

• To add writers/members
• To restrict the right of commenting only to the members of the blog
• To embed a video

Assignments

• Create a post on your blog in which you a) devote at least one paragraph to each of the blogs you liked best and tell us what it was about them that you liked. Be sure to create an embedded link back to each blog so we can see the blogs you are referring to--hint, the links in this post are embedded links because they do not display the url address
• Capture some of your current ideas on how you might be able to use a blog in your teaching both as a classroom management tool and for student learning. Please try to tailor these ideas to the grade levels and subject areas you are most interested in teaching.
• Update your blog link on our Wiki Gallery. Here's a quick clip on how to do this.

Week 1: Introduction to Course

1. Discussions on a vision of k-12 students
   
   
   
2. Student and instructor introductions
3. Syllabus and course overview
4. Look through some of the past student galleries
5. presentation on Learning New Technologies