Global connections in the classroom

Global Connections in the Classroom

About Bob Heinrich

Learn to Change, Change to Learn

http://www.diigo.com/

http://Del.icio.us

• Online social bookmarking destination where users can save bookmarked sites on a personal Bookmarking Website

What you can do with del.icio.us:

• Save and access your bookmarks from any computer

• Share your bookmarks and access other people’s bookmarks

• Search del.icio.us to find other people who are interested in the same topic and check out their research

Diigo

• Bookmark website• Index them with tags• Annotate web pages with highlights,

comments, and sticky notes

http://www.epals.com/

http://www.globalschoolnet.org/

• Help teachers find collaborative learning partners and appropriate projects

http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Software.html

Blogging – What is it?• A blog (short for weblog) is a web-based journal that is

typically updated frequently and open for anyone to read. • Entries are created in journal style and usually displayed in

reverse chronological order• Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting services or

they can be run using blog software

How could a Blog benefit your course?

• Personal Introductions• Study guides and online learning and teaching (OLT) sites

for each course unit. • A download facility where students can access PowerPoint

lecture slides, WWW links, solutions to problems, past examination papers

• Students make contributions based on the subject matter they students are studying

• Dissemination of Important Classroom Information beyond the Classroom

Blogs in Education

• Easily Updatable Content• RSS Feed (Bloglines)• Podcasting• Vodcasting• Screencasting• Homework• Announcements

• Tools– No Downloads– Easy to Update– Easy to Navigate– Easy Linking– Simple Design

Wiki

• Similar to a blog; however, ownership of the wiki is distributed to numerous individuals who collectively add and edit web-accessible content.

Podcasting – What is it?

How is Podcasting Relevant to Education?

• Multimedia• 99% free• Can be listened to on many platforms:• desktop, laptop, handhelds, MP3• players, cell phones• Mobile• Low cost to broadcast = cheap• publishing platform and more content

Opportunities for authentic student products

• Sound-seeing tours• Broadcast student audio plays• Interviews with content experts• Ongoing student produced “radio” talk shows about

content learned

Podcasts are a new web resource to support life long learning. The WHAT, WHEN, and WHERE under your control.

Imagine if …

The process

• Find a podcast of interest, add it to your subscription list in iTunes on your CPU.

• Each time you launch iTunes or plug in your iPod, the most recent episodes will download into your personal library.

• Listen at your convenience from your CPU or portable MP3 player.

Actually, it is not just audio

• Audio• Audio with images• Video• Photos• PDFs

PhotosVideo Audio &

Slides

How to Listen• Students can access content directly from

where the links to the files are posted on the web

• Podcast Software (clients) let you subscribe to and manage podcasts.– http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/

Podcast_Software.html

Common Misconceptions

• A podcast can only be listened to on an iPod• A podcast can only be listed to through iTunes• You need a MAC to create a Podcast

RSS

• One of the great things about listening to podcasts is that you can subscribe to what’s called an RSS feed. Once you’re subscribed, your podcatcher will check the feed regularly for new episodes. When a new episode is posted, the podcatcher will automatically download the audio file for you to listen to.

• An RSS feed is nothing more than a specially formatted text file. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.

• You don’t need to worry about understanding RSS or writing out the feed file by hand. There are ways to create it automatically.

Creating Podcasts

• Preproduction - audience, research, script, music and sounds, practice

• Recording - microphone, audio software• Postproduction - editing• Publishing

Preproduction

• Purpose of the show• Identify your audience• Live or mixed?• Format

– Journal - more conversational– Audio essay or commentary– Discussion– Sound seeing tours– Other - music, plays, interviews, reviews

Preproduction

• Brainstorm or outline episode content• Create timeline or storyboard• Write script

0 Min 10 Min

Segments

Transition Music

Theme Music Theme Music

Preproduction

• Research topic• Gather audio resources - music, stingers,

sound effects, etc• Finalize script• Rehearse• Locate quiet area for recording

Recording

“Quiet on the set!”

• Record voice audio from script• Options for recording

– Internal or external microphone– Headset with microphone– Portable recording devices– Cell phone - Gcast– Skypecasting

Postproduction

• Editing• Import music and sound effects• Add effects and normalize• Fine tune audio files• Export as MP3

Publishing

• Upload file to server• Create RSS feed file

Or• Use Edublogs or Podbean to host your

podcast

Audacity• Download and Install Audacity Software

– http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download• Download and Install the LAME MP3 Encoder

– http://lame.buanzo.com.ar• Ensure that your Recording and Playback Devices

are Configured• Start Audacity• Record a Podcast• Export Podcast to an MP3 File

Uploading your Podcast to the Internet

• Create an account at Podbean.com• Upload Podcast files to Podbean.com

• Skype is a free and easy way for teachers to open up their classroom and their students to a world way beyond their campus.

• With Skype, students can learn from other students, connect with other cultures, and expand their knowledge in amazing ways.

• Teachers and parents can also benefit from Skype in the classroom

• http://education.skype.com/

Getting up and Running with Skype

• Hardware/software required:– downloaded skype software,– higher bandwidth connection– web camera– desktop microphone and earphones, or headset– Interactive white board for display or a white wall,

and data projector if videoconferencing with a class.

• A webpage that you can edit, is easy to use and is perfect for collaborative learning.

Wiki in the Classroom• Use Wiki’s as a tool to enhance

learning.• Don’t use in isolation.• Make it relevant to what is being taught

in class.• They are a great motivator.• Easy to monitor.• Allows for creativity and innovation.• Encourages participation.• Promotes communication between

students.• A new, interesting way to learn.

Personal Learning Network

• Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging site that enables users to send short, concise messages to each other

• It is a means of disseminating information quickly to a large amount of people; it allows people to express their thoughts and have their opinions heard quickly– Follow Hashtags

Twitter in Plain English

How can Twitter be used to improve my students’ education?

• David Perry, an assistant professor of Emerging Media and Communications at the University of Texas at Dallas calls Twitter a “classroom communication tool”

• He required his students to sign up for Twitter and send a few messages with the site each week. The students were required to subscribe to his Twitter feed, and he updated his students several times a day on useful web sites, or announcements throughout the day

• He felt that the use of Twitter by the class helped to improve classroom discussions

Source: “Twitter In The Classroom”http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/01/twitter-in-the-classroom.html

David Perry’s Benefits of Using Twitter in the Classroom

• Twitter is a way to record thoughts and ideas that you search – it’s a history• Twitter connects you to a larger world outside of the classroom and even the country

• Students can follow people who do what they want to do or who they admire and get a sense for their job and life

• Twitter can improve writing and punctuation

Step 1: In your web browser address bar, type in http://twitter.com

Step 2: Since you are a new user, you will need to create a’new account. Click the button on the screen labeled “Sign up now”

The following screen will appear. It will ask you to type in your full name, the username you would like to use, the password you would like to use, and your e-mail address.

As you enter your information, you will know if the namesyou have chosen are available or not. You may need to try out different usernames until you find a unique one.

After you accept the terms of service and submit your information, you will be asked to type in a couple of random words in order to confirm your information. This is done to ensure that the user is not creating a computer-generated account in order to send spam messages to other Twitter users.

The next page makes some suggestions on how to find other Twitter users to “follow”. You can choose catagories such as Art & Design,Entertainment, Fashion, Music, News, Politics, Sports, and many more!

Once youfind some interestingtweets, youcan “follow”the personwho posted it. When you“follow”someone, whatever they “tweet”will appearon yourpersonal Twitter page!

One way of finding people to “follow” is to search for thenames of friends or people that you personally know. You can click the blue button labeled “Find friends” to help you in this process!

When searchingfor a friendto follow,make sure tocheck thatperson’sprofile andpicture to besure it’s theright person!

On the left side of the next page, you will see a search box that allows you to type in the name of someone you might not personally know, but is someone you would like to follow. That person might be a fellow teacher at another school, a public figure such as a politician or a celebrity, or otherwise. You could also search for a Twitter account used by a company, a television station, or an organization.

Once again, before you follow someone, check out theprofile and picture of that person to make sure it’s the person you want!

President Obama’s real Twitter account

A satirical Twitteraccount spotlighting

President Obama

To go to the Twitter page for your account, click the bluebutton labeled “Next Step…You’re Done!” The page foryour Twitter account will load, and if you’ve “followed”anyone, the most recent updates from them will appearin the left column In theorder they were sent,the mostrecent updates appearing atthe top. as long as you are signedin, you willbe continuallyupdated!

Before you start “tweeting”, you might want to update your profile so others can find you easily. At the top right of the screen you will see a number of different links, including the link for your “Profile”. Click on this link to upload a picture for your avatar, your location, the address for your website (if you have one), and a short biography (up to 160 characters).

Click on the link labeled “Settings” to make changes to details in your account, including:

•Your username• Your password• the language in which you want to “tweet”• time zone• tweet location• tweet privacy

On the “Settings” page, you can upload a picture of yourchoice for your personal avatar. You should upload a personal picture so that you can be easily identified when other Twitter users are looking to “follow” you.

The “Design” link allows you to choose the background that will appear behind your Twitter feed. You can choose from the designs that are supplied, or you can load your own background image, or you can change the colors in the designs. If you are feeling especially creative, you can use the “Themelon” feature on the right side of the page to choose from thousands of designs and color palettes.

Once you are ready to begin “tweeting”, click the “Home” link at the top right of the page. You will come back to the main screen for your account. At the top of the screen on the left will be where you type in your updates.

Since Twitter is amicro-blogging site, you will only be allowed to enter short, concise updates. In these updates,you can say whatever you want, as long as the message doesn’t exceed 140 characters. This includes spaces between words!

After you tweet, it will appear at the top of your Twitter feed!

When tweeting, there will be times when you want to make your followers aware of different websites or links that you find interesting. You are able to copy and

paste the URL for a website or a website link in your Twitter update box, as well as a short description of what the link is about.

After you post your tweet, the URL link that you included becomes a hyperlink that others can click on to go that website!

There will be times when the URL address for a link you want to update others on isso long that it cuts into the available number of characters in your Twitter update box. If you run out of characters, your update will only include up to the 140th character. In order to shorten the length of a weblink and still send along a usuable URL address,you can use URL shortening websites such as http://bit.ly or http://tinyurl.com These sites allow you to copy and paste a website URL into its box and create a shorter URL that you can copy and paste back into your Twitter update box.

URL shortening websites such as http://bit.ly and http://tinyurl.comconvert long URL addresses into shorter URL addresses

That you can copy and paste back into Twitter. This will Help reduce the number of characters in your “Tweet”!

When copied andpasted into your tweet, you can clickon the shortened URL that leads to the link you wantothers to view.

This shortened URL link is onlytemporary. You won’tbe able to type thisURL into an addressbar at any time, or itwon’t work.

It is very importantto keep up with theTwitter usernamesof the people you

want to send updatesto. Every TwitterUsername begins

with an “@” symbolFollowed by the

Twitter username.For example, when Iwant to send a tweet

to Conan O’Brien,I include the Twitter

address “@ConanOBrien” inmy message…or else

it won’t be sent to him!

Your latest tweet willappear in two placeson your Twitter page:

•Directly underneath the “What’s Happening?”

box

•At the top of your Twitter feed…at least

until tweets from the people you follow

are posted

You can choose to replyto a tweet that someone has sent you, or you can choose to repeat a tweet to call attention to it.

Navigate to find the tweetin question, and you willsee that you will have the option to either “reply” or “re-tweet” that message. Replying to the tweet will allow you to send a tweet back to the person who originally sent the message. “Re-tweeting” allows you to repeat the message and send it to additional Twitter users.

When you replyto a tweet, the Twitter address of the person who you are replying toautomatically appears in the message box.

Then you can respond to themessage that willbe directly relayedback to the otherTweeter!

When you “re-tweet” a message fromanother Twitteruser, it will re-post thattweet so that your followerscan be madeaware of it.

You are also ableto add your owncomment to a re-tweetedpost.

On Twitter, youwill often see tweets that containnumber signs (#)followed by one ormore words highlighted in blue.

These are called“tags”, and are used to help yousearch for tweetswith a commontheme. Click on the tag, and youwill see a list of search resultsof tweets containing thosetags.

Along the right side of your Twitterhome page you will see the top 10 tags that are “trending”, or the top searches on Twitter at the moment. These searches often reflect current events in society, politics, or in pop culture.

How Twitter can be used in different subject areas

LANGUAGE ARTS• Have students post tweets of their reactions to the developments in the stories they read• Have students summarize stories in “tweet” form• Choose a genre (fairy tale, mystery, adventure); post the beginning of a story; have students take turns continuing the story by “tweeting” their additions• Have students practice their skills using synonyms or antonyms; one Tweeter posts a word and students take turns posting words that are similar or different in meaning

Source: “How to Use Twitter in the Classroom”, http://www.docstoc.com/docs/5649046/How-To-Use-Twitter-in-the-Classroom


MATH• Teachers can “Tweet” short word problems and petition students to reply with the correct answers—1st correct tweet wins a prize!• Students can “tweet” their own original word problems to the class and see if anyone can solve it• Teachers prompt students to “tweet” the steps in solving different types of math problems in concise words• Students can “follow” professionals in the mathematics education field and ask questions about their profession, etc.


SOCIAL STUDIES• Use Twitter to gather information from their followers about their location• Have students search Twitter for tags with terms such as “poverty”, “disaster”, and “war” to keep up with tweets of current events• Have students summarize important events in “Tweet” form• Create a new Twitter account dedicated to a particular social topic and have it keep track of students’ collective tweets



SCIENCE• Have students gather information from their followers about the current temperature from where they are; analyze information and create a graph with results• Have students summarize different scientific processes in “tweet” form• Have students follow a scientist of interest and have them write a summary of that person’s professional activities over the course of a week• Teachers “tweet” an unbalanced chemical equation; students reply with their tweets of the balanced chemical equation



FOREIGN LANGUAGE• Convert the language that you view the tweets in to your respective language (Spanish, French, etc.) and ask students to translate what is being “tweeted” by others• Have students tweet sentences in your respective language and have them reply to the tweets in that language

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

• Have students tweet their daily progress in an exercise regimen; for example, # of laps run, # of reps lifted, etc.

For more information please address all correspondence to:

Robert R. HeinrichDirector of Academic ComputingThe Richard Stockton College of NJ

609-626-6039Email: [email protected]