An update on Podcasting and Blogs!

Podcasting:
One of my best friends is an SBTS in Virginia Beach. For Christmas several years ago she gave me the book, Podcasting for Dummies. To understand our friendship you need to know that we both have a love for life but also a love for teaching, so when we visit we spend half of our time planning lessons together. I know …..we are total nerds – but she is the one who awakened me to my love for technology integration. Anyway, while I appreciated this gift and fully intended to put it to good use the issues of time and coverage have kept it ‘on the shelf’ for the last few years. However, after last week’s lesson of creating the Podcast (Loved working with you Juliana!) I took the book off the shelf and am now reading it in addition to the Richardson book. I LOVE Podcasting. I think this is a great tool to incorporate in the sequence of teaching and learning. How cool would it be to incorporate a Podcast during the 5th grade unit on Sound so the students could see sound waves in action????!!!! I also think that being able to layer the sound effects lends itself to such creative genius. The only drawback is that student could spend all their time exploring these possibilities so there needs to be some time guidelines here – just like when exploring all the music possibilities in Photo Story. Anyway, I really look forward to implanting this tool further!!
Blogging:
Now that I am really paying attention to Blogs I am really taking notice of them everywhere! Last night one of my daughter’s best friends posted on Face Book that she had updated her blog – who knew!!! She was a fashion major in school and is headed to NYC so her Blog is Seeks in the City…..Check it out!!!
On another note…..I felt totally kicked in the gut this week when receiving some news via a Blog. If you read my first Blog entry it told you that my only experience to date had been with friends using Blogs to update friends and family on medical conditions. When getting update notices via email on this Blog - for a dear friend’s 5 year old niece with leukemia – I had learned one thing. When the email notification came that there was a subject that the either read:
· Urgent update …. Or
· New Update….
I learned that when the subject line read: Urgent Update something had happened, and also realized that when the subject line said New Update that there was no cause for alarm.
Well, earlier this week I got an update with the subject line that stated “New Update”. Here is what it said.
Allison passed away this morning
During the lung biopsy, Allie started bleeding and went into cardiac arrest. They were unable to revive her. More details to follow on a memorial service/funeral.
I think this type of Blog should have come with a disclaimer to take a “deep breath” before reading. I felt totally kicked in the gut.

Throughts on Wikis

I am realizing more and more how powerful Wikis are. My first experience with them was two years ago when most of our sign-up sheets for things would be posted to the school's Wiki on Blackboard. As a school we now manage PLC meetings and collect and share committee information using Wikis. So, I have seen how efficient this tool is when collaborating and communicating from a distance. Experiencing it from the designer end this semester with our advocacy project and our ITSopedia entries has made me even more of a believer. I think as we educate kids for a global society this is going to be a huge part of their lives and it makes sense we incorporate it sooner rather than later in the sequence of teaching and learning. I will say, however, that I am not as quick to get on the bandwagon for Wikipedia. With all we learned in 1st semester about the Halo Effect, I just can't get on board with something that seems to make the dissemination of incorrect information so easy.

Getting My BLog Face On!

I have been thinking all day about what to write as my blog entry for this week and then I finally realized why this doesn't feel organic to me. I am NOT a center of the universe kind of person!!! I don't feel the need to 'have the floor' in a conversation and prefer listening than talking. So, writing just so that people can hear what I have to say seems a bit narcissistic to me.

Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to Blogs as I have experienced their value as stated above and have enjoyed how entertaining all yours have been. Not to mention that my new favorite movie is Julie and Julia. But I think for me, I will need a particular focus - other than me - in order to "get my blog face on"!

My experience with blogs

The only blogs I have really read have been to follow medical updates. The first was a friend in Va. Beach who was very ill and in the ICU and not able to receive visitors. Her son kept everyone informed via a blog. Then a few months later my Principal's infant daughter had open heart surgery and she used it to inform everyone as to her daughter's progress. Both created their own blog on this very site, but recently I have been following a blog of a friend's niece who is 5 and receiving treatment for leukemia. Her blog, I noticed, is sponsored by the children's hospital. I found all of these to be an extremely informative and efficient way to keep many people 'in the loop' as treatment/illness/recover progresses. Not to mention that it saved them having to repeat this information on many occasions and provides a way to document the experience. I even loved how they posted pictures and made the experience so real to everyone.





When I returned to school this year our principal had started a Principal's blog using Word Press which she updates regularly and posts on the school's website. Check it out. I love the look and feel of this and think it is so crisp and clean looking. I love how she adds the photos to help encode her message. About a month ago I sat with my SBTS and created my own, also using WordPress, but I haven't made any posts yet. I am working toward using this as a communication tool to update parents of what our AA lessons have been that week. Stay tuned.