Technology and Diversity

The issue of technology and diversity can be thought of in different ways. I initially took it to mean diversity amongst special education students. Since that is what I teach that was the first thing that came to mind. On the other hand I work in a school that has a very mixed ethnic population so it could be useful for many.

I think that technology be a great tool to help diverse populations. There are programs available that can help students learn different languages, academic skill practice and even assistive technology devices. After doing a search on technology and diversity on the Internet I found that technology does have potential for all students but it isn't always utilized.

I found that there are some issues that should be thought about when considering what types of technology to use and what groups to use it with. One of the key issues is to make sure that these students have equal access. Often students that are unfamiliar with technology may shy away. Without encouragement and help these students may not feel comfortable which could impede their comfort and skill level. Another issue is that technology is often geared towards test-taking practice skills due to the high stakes of standardized testing such as the CRCT and ITBS in Georgia. Using technology to practice test-taking skills limits there use and provides a narrow focus. You also need to be aware of cultural issues. Some cultures focus on family and interdependence. Technology make create independence which is not as acceptable. Other cultures may not favor girls becoming as technology literate as their male counterparts.

Relating technology to the special needs population. Many students can use technology that is available to their peers. It is important to create expectations for these students and to not just assume that they can't do something. I also found and have used assistive technology devices. Many of these types of devices enable students to communicate or responds in ways that weren't available years ago. It is important to utilize these devices and make sure that they stay in working order. It may also be a good idea to show all of the general education students what the device is, what it does and why it is used. That will create more acceptance.

On a final note. When I first started teaching in 1992 they were just beginning to talk about cochlear implants. (If you don't know what that it I'll give a quick explanation. A student that receives a cochlear implant has to have invasive surgery. Wires with up to 24 electrodes are would through the cochlea. There is an internal part and an external processor that takes speech sounds and turns them into electrical signals and sends them to the brain.) Students either were oral or deaf. If you could hear you learned speech and if you couldn't hear you learned sign language. Now almost 20 years later that is no longer true. I have had numerous deaf students in my program that are learning oral language due to having a cochlear implant. Being able to communicate orally completely changes their future. This technological invention has made a major impact if the Deaf world.

Electronic books

I’m not sure why I am so sad about the prospect of e-books. I can certainly see why they are convenient. They are easily portable, don’t take up much space, are instantly available and you can carry multiple books in your e-book reader at once. My current school (elementary level) uses on-line encyclopedias, but has print versions as well. I like Christopher Harris’ thought that children born now will be “bilingual” in that they will be able to read print books and e-books equally well, although I’m thinking as the cost comes down for e-book readers, technology will win out. While walking through a high school recently, I couldn’t help but notice the number of students with mp3 players attached to their ears. I can see where electronic media may encourage students to at least listen to books (or textbooks?) if they could upload the information to their iPod or mp3 player. The John Green article mentions e-books that include videos in place of illustrations. This seems to be a natural progression for e-books, but as a result, will this create generations of children with ADD and no imagination? David Lankes makes an argument for e-books and e-readers as a social activity. He points out several advantages to e-books: how they can evolve to encourage virtual book clubs and real time discussion. This could be used in schools also, possibly in a rural area so students can connect with others reading the same material and discuss it through their iPads. For now, I see the cost of obtaining e-books and e-readers and replacing lost or damaged ones as cost prohibitive for most school systems. I have recently heard, though, that Davis Academy is aspiring to provide ALL their students with an iPad! For me…I still want to walk into a book store or library and smell the books and feel their weight and touch the paper, but I’m sure I will eventually come around. Maybe.

Here's a story...of a lovely lady

Since my 10 years of experience in education have been with preschool students, I have had a limited amount of opportunities to work with the technologies that are popular in schools. Digital storytelling is one of the technologies that I am most excited about using in my future job as a media specialist. The textbook promotes digital story telling as a way to connect the story teller and his or her audience emotionally. It states that the combination of video, still shots, music and the story teller’s voice brings great meaning to the story. Digital stories can be used to represent student knowledge in science, social studies and language arts. Having students create a digital story gets them more involved in learning and helps them retain the information longer because it becomes more personal meaningful to them. Digital stories can be shown by a media specialist to reinforce a classroom lesson, or the media specialist could lead a multi-week project on teaching students how to make a digital story and having them create one (possibly in teams) and present it at the end of the unit. Having students create a digital story taps into higher forms of thinking such as analyzing, synthesizing material and developing and expressing their own opinions. The University of Houston’s Digital Storytelling web site points out that digital story telling can accomplish cross-curricular objectives. In teaching students how to create a digital story, you are teaching “library” skills such as research, writing, technology use, and proper use of citations along with the subject content. There is an incredibly comprehensive amount of information on copyright on the website. It has multiple articles on the legal ramifications and fair use. There is also information on where to obtain copyright free music and other resources. If you haven’t looked at this link that was provided on the digital storytelling website yet, check it out. It has a fantastic and easy to understand visual representation of the 7 elements of digital storytelling. I am thinking about making a poster out of it so the students can refer to it as they work on their digital stories. http://www.jakesonline.org/seven_elements.pdf

Technology Training at Kell HS... Trainees Wanted

At Kell High School in Cobb County, the staff's knowledge in technology varies widely. Some teachers are very skilled with technology, often becoming early adopters of the latest and great technical instructional tools. Others, however, are quite the opposite, and instead view technology as a hindrance to their teaching. In fact, a few teachers at Kell either refuse to use email or do not know how to use email and will call another teacher to have him/her send an email on their behalf. According to the technology specialist "IT guy" who spends some of his time at Kell, the ability levels seem to coincide with age. The younger teachers are more technologically advanced and more willing to learn new technology while the older teachers are often technologically inept and afraid of experimenting with technology.

And it's not because Kell High School/Cobb County doesn't try to train teachers on technology. Just recently, during an early release day, all teachers were required to attend a one-hour training session on using iRespond units since it was mandated that all teachers use the response systems for check-point tests for EOCT (end of course test) classes. One teacher I talked to said that the technology training did not provide very adequate explanation of how to use the systems and he left still very confused. Being a younger teacher, he basically taught himself how to use the systems since he was required to use them for a check-point test. He said that he had to go help many other teachers who were struggling to set-up the systems even though they attended the training session.

While this training course required attendance of all teachers, the majority of technology training sessions are optional and available throughout the day for the teachers to attend during their planning periods. The teachers I talked to about this topic said they rarely, if ever, attend these optional training classes (which are typically offered by the county and not the media specialists) because they have more important things to do during their planning time. It's during their planning that they try to grade papers, respond to parent's inquiries/concerns, and plan for upcoming days. Rarely, do they feel they can justify spending time on technology. As one teacher said "Even if I do attend the class, if I don't work with that technology immediately, I will forget it by the time I have a free hour to try out the technology on my own."

The Kell High School media specialists have some "tech tips" available on the school drive, such as how to use the LCD panel and importing images to PowerPoint, but at this time they are not sure how often the "tips" are used and if they adequately fulfill the goal of aiding teachers in learning technology.

Through my field experience and questioning of teachers, there always seems to be one common theme when it comes to technology - lack of time. Teachers are burdened with so many tasks in so little time that they feel overwhelmed if they try to also add technology to that "to do" list. One way I think to overcome this is to allow for multi-tasking during training sessions. Perhaps the trainer can offer free lunch as an incentive or allow teachers to bring lunch so they can sit through a "lunch-n-learn". This way, teachers using their lunch period to do what they normally do, eat lunch, but while learning new and exciting things. Also, if the trainer advertises the training session so that potential attendees learn that they could save time by learning this new technology, I think attendance to technology training would increase dramatically.

Technology Training...At My School????

Back in the olden days we used to have a Teacher Technology Specialist (TTS) who provided training. I know because I was that person. I got a monthly stipend to serve as a support person to the rest of the teachers and to provide technology training. Sounds great right? Well it was...until the county stopped doing that. Years ago DeKalb paid a para to do technology. They decided to make them become A+ certified and they also got pay raises and became known as Technology Support Specialists (TSS). That was great for them because keeping up and maintaining the technology has become harder and so they should be paid more. Unfortunately that meant they cut out the teacher TTS. They know have the TSS sharing schools so that she is only at our school two days a week.

Since then there really hasn't been a lot of technology training within my actual school building. The media specialists didn't know how to use the technology and the TSS didn't have the technology training knowledge. There have been a few times where a person has come from the Technology department to give a quick training on how to use the Smartboard and how to use the iMac computers. One hour for each really doesn't do it in my opinion.

We have a new media specialist this year that came from a high school so she does have a lot of technology knowledge but since the county cut out all media clerks she has had very little time to do anything extra.

My county does provide training in order to earn PLU's in order to keep your teaching certificate up. I went last year and attended a class on how to use Smartboard's. My county has technology staff that mainly do tech training classes that are available to all of the teachers in the county. I learned a lot from the class however since I have minimal access to Smartboards I've forgotten a lot of what I learned.

I like the idea of having technology people train us because they consistently do it and so they are knowledgeable and efficient when training you. You have to commit to attend all of the classes in order to earn the PLU credit. What I don't like is that when you are back at your own school and experiencing a problem that person isn't right there to help you. Instead you have to email them and wait for their response. They will come out and help you also but again this doesn't really help when you need them right then and there.

There are a few teachers that use technology often so they typically are the ones that everyone seeks out. This can get kind of stressful for them because they are supposed to teach their classes and then troubleshoot for others. It can become time-consuming and frustrating in some instances.

I think that I have learned a few ways to help make this easier on teachers. The idea of creating Tech Tips is a perfect way to have some handy tips readily available to teachers. If they are in a Word document or PDF teachers can print them off and follow them step-by-step. Another great idea would be to make a video or podcast showing the directions visually. I think that if I had a visual refresher I would quickly remember some of what I learned about Smartboards from last year. I would have a Teacher link posted on my media center website so that teachers could pull up the suggested help tutorials whenever they need them.

I used Disney clip art-so sue me!

The Copyright Act is taped over our copy machine at school right at eye level. Teachers see it multiple times per day as they make copies or walk through the work room. It is the media specialist’s responsibility to try to enforce it. I believe that most people at the school are not aware of what the Copyright Act entails and are not aware of Fair Use, either, but have no interest in learning about it. Most teachers believe that they will never be tracked down for copying images off web sites and using them for newsletters or lessons or for making a zillion copies from a textbook, or even keeping videos recorded from TV longer than 10 days. Before I started the media program, I remember a school event where the media specialist developed and played a slide show to a Sarah MacLachlan song. THE WHOLE SONG. I bet she didn’t even ask Sarah’s permission, and yet she was never sued or thrown in jail. It was the end of the school year, and the slide show was of fifth grade students at various times throughout the year. The song was “I will remember you”. Parents of fifth grade students were invited to the event as well. After beginning this program, I remember a professor tell us that instead of using licensed popular songs for events like these, we should use music that was specifically created for these events and was available on the internet for free. She gave us a couple web sites to check out. I went to the site and listened to the music, and let me tell you, no fifth grader I know would be moved to tears by listening to that music while watching pictures of themselves with all their buddies since Kindergarten. I think the point is that we should be respectful of other people’s property, but not to the point where we deny our students the education and emotion that popular media can evoke.

Video Distribution Systems at McCleskey Middle School

McCleskey Middle School in Cobb County has a video distribution system, however, it has been malfunctioning for the last two weeks due to a lightning strike. When operable, there are two components of the video distribution “headend” unit. One side connects to the school’s Comcast cable receiver and displays cable television up to channel 13, while the other side plays DVDs or videos. Because the school does not currently offer school news or subscribe to ChannelOne, the video distribution system is mainly used for cable as well as PeachStar and GPB Digital Education programs. The teachers at McCleskey Middle School do not have much input into the video distribution system other than submitting requests to the media specialist to have certain DVDs, videos, or programming played through the closed circuit cable system.

Cobb County is technologically advanced compared to some other school districts in Georgia, and as a result, the Video Distribution System is not currently utilized as much as it was in the past. For instance, each room is equipped with a DVD/VCR player so teachers can play DVDs and videos whenever they desire. Each room also has an LCD projector that can connect to the teacher’s laptop, so teachers use on-demand Discovery, PBS and other GPB United Streaming educational videos via the internet rather than contact the media specialist for assistance. When Comcast moved from analog cable signals to a computer-based digital video system in 2009, McCleskey lost many of its channels and decided not to pay to receive more channels. Currently, the signals only go up to channel 13, therefore, denying access to important channels like The Weather Channel and PBS. According to the media specialist, the video distribution system is only used when videos and programming needs to be broadcasted to multiple classrooms at one time.

I believe on-demand streaming is going to quickly become mainstream in all schools. This new technology allows so much more customization for each classroom and allows the teacher to play educational videos on his/her own schedule. If the teacher wants to play 10 minutes of one GPB program and then immediately follow it with 30 minutes of another, he/she can do so with digital streaming because it offers so much more flexibility.

Social Networking...too cool for school.

Social networking is no doubt a hit with the kids. Many of the teenagers I know spend the majority of their spare time frequenting social networking sites like Facebook and Foursquare. With such popularity, it seems like a no-brainer to incorporate social networking tools into instruction in order to adapt to the needs of today’s students. Many schools have already tried. Per the American Association of School Librarian’s 2008 longitudinal study on social networking tools in education, 53% of k-12 schools have already implemented collaborative tools to enhance instruction. In fact, the two schools where I conduct most of my field experience both use Destiny Quest, an OPAC with social networking capabilities. With Destiny Quest, students can rate and write reviews on books they have read. At Kell High School, many of the teachers also use blogs to keep their students updated about assignments, events, and recent lectures. McCleskey Middle School teachers have tried to use the social bookmarking site, Delicious.com, to share useful Websites with students, while other teachers at the school have attempted to use Goodreads.com or LibraryThing.com to create discussions about books.

However, all of these attempts have been rather unsuccessful. While many of the teachers’ blogs at Kell allow for group discussions through the comment function, almost all of the blogs I reviewed lacked any student comments. The same holds true for Destiny Quest in that students do not take the time or effort to login to Destiny Quest to rank a book or write a review. Most of the books are unrated and the only book reviews that are posted, are ones submitted by teachers or the media specialists. At McCleskey, teachers experienced good success with students logging into social bookmarking sites, but only for viewing purposes and to obtain information needed for an assignment. Students neglected to share their own bookmarked sites or post their own information unless the teacher made it a requirement for a grade. When students don’t take advantage of educational social networking sites for group collaboration and discussion, these tools join the ranks all other non-interactive tools used prior to the invention Web 2.0.

According to my mentor, many teachers are also less than thrilled with the idea of using social networking because it instills more work on their part. Some teachers that have classroom blogs, have disabled the comment function in order to prevent students from using obscene wording. The teachers that do allow for commenting often times have to review all comments prior to posting, therefore spending time that could otherwise be used for planning, grading, etc. Then of course, there are teachers who are just intimidated by Web 2.0 tools and do not have the technological expertise or desire to incorporate social networking into their classrooms.

I think students utilize social networking sites only in areas that truly interest them, like keeping in touch with friends and staying up to date about local events. For instance, the Kell High School soccer team has a Facebook group page that has been widely accepted by the soccer players, however, students not involved in soccer are less than interested in using the Facebook group page. Unfortunately, the majority of students are not interested enough in Shakespeare, for example, to want to join a social networking site to discuss Shakespeare during their free time. So, unless students are participating in distance learning or the teacher finds a topic that generates an enthusiastic response, my opinion is that the tried and true way of group discussion via face-to-face interaction during class time is still the way to go.

Media Center Web Pages

Developing and maintaining a media center web page is a wonderful opportunity for a media specialist to show off her resources and capabilities when it comes to technology! Many parents may not get to visit the media center in person, but can access the web page either from home or work. It is also convenient for teachers and students to be able to access the information outside of school hours.

I think there is some basic information that needs to be on every media center web page. Contact information for the media specialist, including hours of operation of the center and a link to e-mail the media specialist should be included at the very minimum. I think it is wonderful to post pictures and/or video of the media center as well. Pictures and video of recent events (author visits) and school events (Spring Carnival) should be posted as well. This will help drive people to the site. I can picture students going home and asking their parents to log on to the site to see what happened at school that week or even to see a picture or video of themselves!

The media center web page should include links to teacher web pages, kid friendly search engines and research sites. The information for research sites and “fun” site should be divided by grade level. For parents, I think it would be helpful to have information listed such as the number of resources allowed to be checked out by grade level and the amount of time for a resource allowed to be checked out. Links to reading program sites, such as Accelerated Reader, are also helpful for parents trying to check their child’s progress and those keeping tabs on their child’s AR goal for the quarter. There should ALWAYS be a link to the OPAC!! I have seen media center web sites without a link to the OPAC, and I don’t understand why anyone would not want that resource available to their students from home!

When I look at web pages, I like the ones that don’t have too much text and don’t have a cluttered page. I really like the use of color and graphics to denote subject. I believe teachers should be able to visit the web page and view the media center calendar so they can sign up for a visit, story time, or lesson. An idea that was mentioned in our Jurkowski text that I liked was to list community information such as local attractions (zoo, museums, etc.) in order to interest parents in going to the site.

Media specialists should take care to keep their web page updated. There is nothing worse than going to a site and reading incredibly out dated information (I’ve seen some with information from a year ago) or to click on a link that no longer works. I understand that will happen sometimes, but the site should be checked for accuracy on a regular basis.

One elementary level media web page I really like is Findley Oaks Elementary: http://www.findleyoaksmediacenter.com/. Check it out!

My Two Cents on Media Web Pages

When learning about all the new sophisticated Web 2.0 tools that have popped up in recent years, one has to ask herself if a “plain old Web page” is still the best choice for hosting the media program information that needs to be available to stakeholders. My answer is both yes and no.

Static Web pages that are rarely updated and appear as though they were developed as part of an elementary school project should be a thing of the past. These sites are likely created by the media specialist who lacks the resources and sufficient knowledge to properly develop a Webpage. And why should they have that knowledge? Media specialists have many roles and responsibilities, and last I checked, Web programming wasn’t one of them. So, media centers with outdated, low-functioning Web sites should definitely consider changing them over to user-friendly blogs or wikis. However, in my opinion media specialists that have the proper resources to build an easy-to-use, eye-appealing Website with good functionality should continue to maintain Web pages and here’s why…

Unlike journal-like blogs, Websites allow the user to find information and access links much quicker. Ideally, the Website includes menus that provide direct links to specialized information, whereas blogs typically do not have extensive menus other than an archive of the last few dates or topics scrolled along the side. There have been countless times where I tried to locate a specific piece of information and had to scroll through (what feels like) hundreds of posts before I finally find the information I need. For instance, if I wanted information on how to find an Accelerated Reading book from Eastvalley Elementary School (http://eastvalley.typepad.com/media_center/) I would have to click through 15 posts until I get to the September 2010 post about Accelerated Reading. If it had been posted on a Website, Accelerated Reading could have its own menu link.

My alma mater, Wheeler High School, has a great Website at www.wheelerlibrary.com that demonstrates my point. It has quick links to sources and school projects that I think would be difficult to include in a blog. Coral Gables High School’s Media Center Webpage at http://cghs.dadeschools.net/library/ and Cyprus High School’s Media Center Webpage at http://www.cyprusmediacenter.org/ are also good examples of a well done Websites. Now, I definitely think blogs should be a component of the media Website since blogs are interactive and allow for quick posting of information, but if the central office of a school district has developed an easy-to-use Web template that allows for quick editing of the Website content, then I think a Website is still the way to go.

For media centers that have the capabilities to maintain appealing, user-friendly non-static Web sites, I think the media specialists should ensure they can answer “yes” to the following questions when evaluating their Websites to ensure they are providing the best possible Website:

1) Is the layout and design of the Website attractive and appealing to all targeted users?

2) Will your students be able to navigate the Website easily?

3) Did you run a spell check on the content? Is it free of spelling/grammatical errors?

4) Is the material objective and void of bias?

5) Will the Website be reviewed regularly and updated as needed?

6) Does the Website have multimedia capabilities, such as the ability to host videos and podcasts? If you wanted to highlight student work on the site, will you have the ability to do so?

7) Is the content relevant to student interest and learning standards? In my opinion, good media program Websites would include:

a. Link to the OPAC

b. Links to sources such as databases, search engines and other reference tools

c. Links to educational Websites

d. Contact information for the media center staff

e. Hours of operation

f. The media program’s Policies and Procedures

g. A media center orientation (either PowerPoint to upload or a video)

h. Tutorials for applications commonly used by students

i. Links relevant to student projects

j. Book reviews and book talks (either print or via pod casts)

k. A blog with the latest media center news

l. A section dedicated to teachers

m. The media center calendar

n. Links to student work

What are your feelings about media Websites? Is it worth the time and effort to maintain a traditional Website, or are newer Web 2.0 tools more beneficial? Do you have a different opinion as to what constitutes a good Website?

My View of Wiki's

Shockingly, I had never heard of Wiki's before starting at UWG. I had to go to the new student orientation in August 2010 and had no idea what Dr. Bennett was talking about when she mentioned that UWG uses them. I immediately went home to investigate. I still didn't realize what a Wiki could be used for because I was just looking at one and not actually contributing. I had heard of Wikipedia but didn't know that there was anything else out there. I know differently now.

Within a week of first learning about Wiki's I had just started teaching and was trying to get familiar with the new reading series that was adopted by my county. Guess what? I found out that there is a great Wiki that is used for the new reading series. Each grade has a entire page of resources. I became very excited and tried to spread the word to other teachers.

In order to do this assignment I did a little bit of research on how Wiki's came about. I was again shocked when I saw that Ward Cunningham, Wiki creator, started developing and working on this in 1995. I feel like I must have been locked away in a closet or something. Now the wiki's that we know of today really didn't come about until the early 2000's so I shouldn't feel too bad. However, it does make me feel like a school building can sometimes be like an island. You are linked to others but at the same time what happens in your own building can sometimes be worlds apart from what everyone else is doing.

Posting on our class Wiki is the first time I've ever interacted with Wiki's. I think it's a great way to see other people's work. I also think that it works well when we are working in groups because it enables all group members to update and make changes to assignments. If we stick to email and discussion boards to create and work on assignments we group members tend to have many versions of a document before we are finished which can get confusing. I think that this would be a great way for students to post their work within classrooms or even on a grade level. Teachers/students could also post assignments or completed projects based on a particular unit of study or topic of interest. I think there is a lot of potential to use Wiki's in classrooms. It's also important to note that Wiki's are not blocked by Internet filters so it is an easy way to communicate work electronically.

I have a word of warning. Wiki's that are open to all to post and edit information can be altered or deleted either intentionally or unintentionally. Last week I went to our class Wiki to post my tech tip. I was hurry to do this because I was tired and wanted to go to bed. Somehow I ended up deleting the entire tech tips page. There was only white space. I was in a panic. I actually had to email Dr. Cooper to let him know I wiped out everyone's posted work. Luckily I sat and played around for awhile (after I got over my panic). I figured out that if I went into history and went back to the last post before mine I could "revert" back to that time. The last post before mine was at 5:08 p.m. and so I chose that and luckily the tech tips page became available again. I had to repost my work but that was not a problem. Just be careful before you click save. I think I accidentally highlighted everything, hit backspace and then hit save before I realized that it was all gone. Aside from that...enjoy!

Wikis

The only wiki I had heard of before I stared the Media program was Wikipedia. After I started the program and started researching the policy and procedure manual, I found that my school system's media department used a wiki for their county wide policy and procedure manual. The home page has the table of contents, and I have found a plethora of information there for both my policy and procedure manual and to answer my own questions about the county’s media department.

After reading the information in our course notes and textbook, I can see a lot of interesting uses for wikis in the media center. I liked the idea of using a wiki for a literature circle. After reading the assigned book, students can respond to questions listed on the wiki and comment on other students’ responses. It can also be used across several different schools in the county, or in the country, who are studying the same book at the same time. The mixture of comments from students living in different areas and having different perspectives could create a very dynamic and interesting discussion. A wiki could also be used for students to contribute book reviews on books selected by the media specialist. One drawback of using a wiki, in particular one for young students, is the lack of control over what is published on it. A media specialist would have to check the wiki often to ensure that its content is appropriate.

The readings mentioned ways a wiki could be used for staff members as well. One suggestion was to post lesson plans on a wiki, and have it open for everyone to contribute to. Since a wiki can host sounds, movies, pictures, and web links, it can be a great place to find multi-media information for lesson plans. The wiki for the Mzungu Boy lesson plan was a good example of what can be done with lesson plans on wikis. It included lots of information on the setting of the book (Africa), videos of the area, a link to information about the character’s village and even a link to a recipe for food mentioned in the book. Another suggestion was to post troubleshooting tips for technology or a Frequently Asked Questions page. Wikis with this sort of information would be best if they were locked so only certain people could change the content. This way, the information would remain accurate.

I reviewed both the wikis for Decatur High and Apalachee High. What a difference! The wiki for Decatur High was very basic and had a list of web links divided by subject. The wiki for Apalachee High took full advantage of the possibilities offered by a wiki. It had a screen shot of NoveList, links to resources like PINES and GALILEO, homework help, feeds from the New York Times, NPR and CBS News, and book cover pictures that were linked to Library Thing.

The readings mentioned a wiki that had been open for 6 years and not one person had contributed information. If one is going to create an open wiki where everyone can contribute, it will have to be advertised and its use encouraged.

Podcasting in Schools

I made my first podcast for this class. I was very nervous about how to do this. I had tried doing this for another class last semester but couldn't figure out how to do it on my Mac. You would think that apple.com would have a tutorial on how to do this but if so I couldn't find it. I played around until I finally figured out how to do it. I was actually amazed at how easy it ended up being. I now feel a lot more confident about doing this in the future.

I started to do a little research on podcasting in schools and have found that there is a wealth of information out there on using podcasting in schools. You do not need to have an iPod to view podcasts. You only need a computer and microphone. We have a lot of whiteboards in our school so this could be easily done in the classroom. Has this been done?? No. My school is not utilizing podcasting. I think one reason is that most of the teachers don't realize that podcasting is something they can do. Another is that the administrators have no idea that podcasting can be done.

I then started thinking about ways to use podcasts at school. The first thing that popped into my head was Black History Month. We are doing daily trivia questions over the intercom. We have music playing and clues are given. Students have to turn in their responses and at the end of the day a winner is announced. It would be so cool to put together a podcast with these clues. Not only could the students hear the questions but they could see the video or pictures to go along with it. I think kids would be so much more involved and interested. In fact, Exceptional Children's week is coming up and I think I'm going to have the special ed department put together a podcast each day. We usually talk about famous people that have disabilities. Teachers with whiteboards could view it. I'm not sure how to go about getting access to classrooms that don't have access. There are still a few weeks left to figure that out.

The last thing I realized is that podcasts could also be used to help bridge the gap between teachers and parents. Our PTA has their own website. If we made podcasts of important information it would be a quick way to get information out. We also have a large Hispanic population. Some of those parents don't read in Spanish so when we send letters home they don't always get that information. If we put up some podcasts in Spanish it would help get the information out to those parents as well.

Podcasting can definitely create changes in a school. I had not thought about this before. I think that initially it will be time consuming until we become familiar with doing it. I think it would then become almost second-nature.