Blogs, Wikis and Podcast Workshop Outline

30 Boxes – http://www.30boxes.com
Create an on-line calendar and to do list. You can tag your to do list and also share calendars. Try out the sample calendar.

del.icio.us - http://del.icio.us.
Access your bookmarks from any computer. Organize, tag and share your bookmarks.

GuruLib – http://www.gurulib.com An awesome way to keep an on-line book list. Go to this site and check out the sample bookshelf.

Flickr.com - on-line photo sharing site.

BubbleShare – http://www.bubbleshare.com A great way to share your digital photos on-line in a slideshow presentation.

Pandora.com – http://pandora.com Listen to your favorite music, generated by the music Genome project. Try Springsteen or Sinatra for starters.

http://wikispaces.com - Free wikispaces for educators. You are reading a wikispace. Click on the take a tour link. Wiki’s are a quick and easy way to create web pages that can be accessed and edited by multiple users. See some ways I’m using wikis in Room 613 :
Parent conference sign-up form – http://613signup.wikispaces.com
Student generated study guide - http://studentguide1.wikispaces.com
Curriculum links - http://hwpsocialstudies.wikispaces.com

Digg – http://digg.com Read, submit and vote on today’s most popular news stories.

YouTube – http://youtube.com - Video uploads from around the world.

Diigo.com – http://www.diigo.com – another social bookmarking site. This one is similar to del.icio.us but also allows you to highlight and bookmark specific passages from your favorite sites.

Pageflakes - http://www.pageflakes.com Click on "make a new site" for a sample of how this works. Pageflake allows you to add constantly changing content to your own site. By aggregating RSS feeds, pageflakes allows you to read the latest material coming from your favorite sites. Anytime something new is posted to the selected sites it will appear in your Pageflakes aggregator. Note – I use this to keep track of posts from multiple student blogs.

GMail - http://gmail.google.com - Google’s free webmail service. Almost unlimited storage capacity and great search capabilities.

Google SketchUp - http://sketchup.google.com A free download. Lots of fun. Allows you to draw in three dimensions.

Blog Providers:
http://edublogs.org Free wordpress blogs for educators
http://learnerblogs.org Free wordpress blogs for students
http://blogger.com Free blogs from Google

Examples of classroom blogs;
This year’s Room 613 Student Blogs page – http://hetherington0607.learnerblogs.org
Last year’s Room 613 Student Blogs page - http://hetherington.learnerblogs.org

Detailed instructions for setting up a classroom blog similar to last years blog (a group blog.)

Today I presented two sessions of "Blogging and Web 2.0" to groups of colleagues as part of our professional development "Technology Day." Here is the outline used for both presentations, which were very well received.

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• Presented the local version of "Did You Know", a fabulous slide presentation on future trends originally produced by Karl Fisch of Arapahoe High School in Littleton, CO. Thank  you David Warlick and Stephen Downes for spreading the word about Karl’s slide show. The rapid worldwide proliferation and adaptation of "Did You Know" as an educational staff "must see" exemplifies the "exponential" development of communication and social networks. Word spread throughout the school today after the first showing and I’ve been requested to present the slide show at our next faculty meeting.  One excited colleague remarked afterward; "Now I see where the technology is taking us. I see where we are heading."

Benefits of Student Blogging

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• 2005-06 Blogs 

Room 613 Talk - http://room613talk05.edublogs.org.  – Edublogs site – Teacher and Student posts by teacher. We used this space from August 2005 to January 2006

Room 613 Student Blogs – http://hetherington.learnerblogs.org  – Room 613 goes more student centered. All posts and comments still fully moderated by the teacher, but written and submitted by my 75 – sixth grade students.

Rules for Blogging – guidelines for students – Lots of latitude here. It’s a wide highway, just stay   between the guard rails.

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Some of the best posts from Room 613 Student Blogs. This is but a small sample of some outstanding student work.

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SS Assignments 

Three Gorges Dam  

Turkish letter to friend in America on death of Kemal Ataturk

History of India (various subjects including M.Gandhi) 

Newsbreak 

What did I learn from this… a student’s perspective from Eric 

A comment for the students from one of our parents 

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At least 50% of our posts were voluntary, here are some examples of students writing, learning and teaching in a a variety of topic areas.

Play reviews for The Giver (field trip to East Hartford H.S.) 

Poetry 

Science 

Sara’s work - some very creative posts from our most prolific writer
 

My Trip to the L.O.B. - The students summarize their trip to the legislative office building in Hartford where they presented blogging and podcasting.

Comments to our student posts from around the world:

http://hetherington.learnerblogs.org/2006/01/24/australia-2/#comment-1809

We stand corrected from India 

Sixth grader AnnB’s essay evokes tears of pride from a reader halfway around the world. 

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How to make a student group blog like Room 613 Student Blogs using learnerblogs – see specific instructions on this page.

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• Personal Blogs in Education for Professional Development

MHetherington.net - http://mhetherington.net/blogs 

See sidebar on this page for recommended educational bloggers

How to start – make a blog for yourself and see how it all works. Also, read some of the blogs shown in the sidebar to get a feel for how people create blog posts, topics, and reflections.

Edublogs – free WordPress (like this site and Room 613) blogs for educators. http://edublogs.org – easy to set-up – 5 mins max. Instructions are at the site for beginners and veteran bloggers.

Learnerblogs – free WordPress blogs (from the author of edublogs) for use by students http://learnerblogs.org – easy to set-up and can be fully moderated by the teacher

Blogger – free, also easy to set-up – http://www.blogger.com  Next blog button can be an issue if using with students

Optional Assignment – make an edublog blog for yourself and publish your first post by answering the following – How can blogs be used  in education?   Post a link back to this page – http://mhetherington.net/blogs and I will also link to yours. Good Luck.

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Some other topics in Web 2.0

Flickr  – store, tag and share your photo’s on-line

Wikipedia – on-line open source encyclopedia

Del.icio.us – save and tag your favorite websites on-line

Bloglines – A web-based personal news aggregator. This is where your can follow the latest post from your favorite sites and blogs.

Podcasting – an example – The Room 613 Panther Podcast