Week 9-#20

I like TeacherTube, and not just because it allows me to watch videos in class.

For each lecture segment of any given lesson, you could have one student who's classroom job is to video (they would fight for this one) and you post your lessons online.  Even if you didn't have an extra camera, but you had a smartboard, you could create a video for students that would provide reinforcement, or the initial lesson if they were absent.  Additionally, students could create videos for each other.  As we know, teaching is pretty high up the taxonomy, so any time I can switch roles with them at the podium, I take advantage.

On a different note, part of me wants to be a teachertube star.  Much like video killed the radio star, now Youtube has done a number on the videostar.  I have fantasized in the past of using silly videos to teach with, but also motorvate.  If you didn't miss a class, you'd unlock this video.  If you improved your grade this much, a different one.  For some reason, I am drawn to parody videos, perhaps it was too much wierd Al growing up.  I'd like to have one that parodies 'thug life' with 'teach life' to the tune of Wanksta, 50 cent, er, 50 percent.  Or one called 'Mr. Sunday Night Special' that is set to the Lynyrd Skynyrd Mr. Saturday Night Special.  My version would be all about plagiarism, and I could eventually cut and burn plagiarized papers (skeet shoot? dynamite? I am not big on plagiarism.)

For the time being, I look to TeacherTube as a resource in the classroom, but it could be so much more, in and out of the classroom.

Week 8-#19

I could see LibraryThing as a useful application in the classroom. If students had their own attached to their own blogs, they could put in the books we had read. Also, in the case of literature circles, they would have their individual choices. Additionally, they could put in other books they like to create a classroom community of readers, and extend to an online community of readers. I think this site would be less likely to assist in academic dishonesty. For example, many Yahoo Q & A seem like they come from an essay question.

Week 8-#18

I currently use sitebuilder to present my information, which is the agricultural equivalent of a single-bladed, mule-drawn plow. I am a little bit embarrassed that this is what I use, but that will change shortly. I don't put anything on there now that we are moving to a new platform. Even when we have Zangle, I anticipate their will be many uses for Zoho writer. Here are some reasons I like it better than sitebuilder.

#1 I can upload documents on sitebuilder, but there is no guarantee that students will have the software necessary to open them. This isn't a problem on a document site. Additionally,

#2 They can edit texts I post. For example, I can post an online graphic organizer for a five paragraph essay. They can work with it and upload it for me to review.

#3 They can post documents for each other, perhaps for additional knowledge, perhaps for editing purposes.

#4 When they post, they familiarize themselves with a standard word processing application, that they can use anywhere, anytime. It helps the students to become tech literate.

#5 There are many more text options than sitebuilder, including being able to format and use some images in the uploaded document.

It would be really sweet if I had all my documents for my students uploaded. I had thought about Google before, and now Zoho is an option. That seems more like a summer project . . . (or more likely, a here on out project).

Week 7-#17

I have a tired old lesson that I think would work well in a wiki.

The Armory Show of 1913 is a hallmark of the beginning of the Modern period in literature.  This show, complete with cubism, surrealism and dadaism, set us on our red-blooded American ears.  The reviews of the art work are a lesson in and of themselves.  

My Armory Show unit combines literature, art and critical theory, to create a literary paper.  The learner finds a piece of art that appeals to them.  Then, they find a piece of literature we have read that has some similarities in content and form.  Then, they choose one of four modernist thinkers to assist their critical perspective.  As you can imagine, this unit is received with mixed reviews.  

I think opening it up digitally might be just what the doctor ordered.  As exciting as literary criticism is for a 15 year-old, they might be interested in adding some artistic aspect to an online wiki, with pictures if nothing else.  There was an artistic component, as the student made a piece of art (poetry, story, painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.) that was informed by the other three components.  This could be photographed or posted online, depending on the medium.

Week 7-#16

I really like the concept of using wikis in classrooms.  Ideally, I'd like to have one like Westwood's http://westwood.wikispaces.com/, but I understand that is the effort of a whole school.  One very encouraging aspect of their wiki is the halls of fame.  They have one that is featured in a Thomas Friedman article, which I will come back to later.

The three reasons I like wikis are: Interest level, Product-based outcomes, and Collaborative learning.

As much as we say this generation is immersed in technology, it has yet to become ordinary.  They love it, and what's not to love.  Compare a color filled computer screen, which they can perfect to their liking to demonstrate their learning, to a lined sheet of notebook paper.  I can't even stand it, with that confetti left over from where it was ripped out.   Even a boring site is tidier than a boring paper.  And what about handwriting?  Even though I like my script, mine is the most illegible of all.  Come to think of it, I am surprised I use paper at all!

Do you remember attending school, sometimes thinking, 'this is pure busy work'?  As an educator have you ever been implicitly aware that you were assigning busy work?  With a bit of shame I know I have (hey, this grade book isn't filling itself).  As my assessments have progressed, I've sought items that direct the learners to an eventual product.  Whatever we are learning, it should eventually build to something meaningful.  The wikis demand this. The students will be just a click away from being viewed by there peers.  This tends to make them  work harder.  If I have students take poster notes, at least they put something down, and some of them wouldn't if they were the only ones to see it.  Beyond that, it connects their learning toward a meaningful end.

Collaborative learning is really the way.  I have never been the knowledgeable authority.  When students come to me looking for black and white, I only offer shades of gray.  I envy my sister the math teacher, a2 + b2 = c2.  A student asked me "do you capitalize summer?"  They really wanted a yes or no answer, but they got, "you don't capitalize this spring, but you do capitalize the Summer of '69."  They probably won't write the word for another decade.  What can I do?  I can't dispense rules for why kernel and Colonel are pronounced  the same.  Or as the late great George Carlin put it "we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway."  The study of the English language has been a collaboration since it's beginnings.  Back to the point of wikis, the learner is the authority, and vice versa.  "Which one is right, I sent them a text, or I texted them?"  "I don't know, what do you think?"  "I think I texted them sounds dumb." "But do people use it?" "Yes, but I don't."

On a last note, there are a number of different sources of how to handle negative influences on open collaborative projects.  Certainly the students of Westwood featured in a Thomas Friedman novel wouldn't do anything to undermine the learning process, but some of my solution students might. I haven't worked with them enough to know how bad it could be, but the possibility exists.  Really, when I think about it, it is no different that anatomizing Walt Whitman in my textbooks.  Indeed, clean up is a little easier!

Week 6-#15

Let a tear roll slowly down Dewey's cheek. Let the stern faced stereotypical librarian dress in black. Let us bow our heads as the casket passes. Let us mourn the passing of the vacant temple.

Access is liberation is the polar statement of my teaching philosophy, with its counterpoint; denial is oppression. Only free men could seek a 'liberal' education--an education that wasn't directly tied to the service they provided. Knowledge was (and is) a commodity unto itself. Gutenberg (among others) proliferated knowledge, yet it was still in control of those in power. It wasn't until the 19th century that public libraries started to crop up. This is essential to the concept of a literate and informed democracy.

Still, the books cost money, and the source of the money was tied to whichever political faction held the reigns. Digital transfer has liberated the individual in a way that has never been experienced before. They say that at 20 million books in the Library of Congress, and at 1 MB a book, one can now house the books in the library of Congress with under $2000. Woah!

Furthermore, we are not stopping. This is an article from almost three years ago.

"Renugopalakrishnan says the new protein-based DVD will have advantages over current optical storage devices (such as the Blue-ray). It will be able to store at least 20 times more than the Blue-ray and eventually even up to 50,000 gigabytes (about 50 terabytes) of information, he says. Membrane proteins These membrane proteins are being used to generate the first protein-based information storage system to store terabytes of information The star at the centre of the high-capacity DVD is a light-activated protein found in the membrane of a salt marsh microbe Halobacterium salinarum. The protein, called bacteriorhodopsin (bR), captures and stores sunlight to convert it to chemical energy."

http://www.getusb.info/50-terabyte-flash-drive-made-of-bug-protein/

That's two and a half libraries of congress in a single DVD. If it were more than books, it would be approximately 60 of these discs.

We have the capacity to store more information than we will be able to consume in our lifetimes. I hope print libraries survive, if nothing else, but for the charm. However, much more important, is the necessity of access to information that our democracy demands. How we ensure this in the future is the key to the shape of the libraries of the future. At the same time, it isn't about text 1.0, it's about interacting. So instead of libraries being sources of information, they need to be centers where information can be utilized at an advanced level. There are many people who won't recognize the necessity of ensuring technology for everyone. Everyone needs access to technology to participate in today's democracy. Libraries will have to fill this role.

Week 6-#14

I noticed that performing different searches yielded different results.  I got more hits searching the blogs than the tags, which seems natural.  This emphasizes the need to know how to search properly.  Anymore, it's not just knowing what you are looking for, it's knowing how to search for it that is the question.

I think tagging will be more useful the more that students use them.  As it progresses, i think it will be like using an index is now.  Some students use it almost on instinct.  Others think an index is a finger (no, kids, not that finger).  To be useful, I would have to incorporate activities to teach the students that don't use them, (can you say treasure hunt).  I would have to create a classroom community that used them often, so often that not using them would seem unnatural.  

I certainly think there are topical possibilities (the election), and a virtually inexhaustible resource of op-ed pieces.  But what about my content?  With blogs being opened up daily, shouldn't some one have (I still can't cut and paste . . .) literary criticism for kids?  In quotes, it yields nothing.  There certainly are applications for my content area.  However, there aren't applications for all aspects of my content area.

"well, why don't YOU start the literary criticism for kids blog?"

Hey, I just barely got my taxes done--three cheers for turbo tax, tech and the internet!