PODCASTS

Podcast Pickle is a great site to find podcasts and then use them in the classroom. In the nursing field treatments are constantly changing so it is very important to stay current on the literature. Having a news show for nursing is a great way to do this. I found a podcast show called The Nursing Show. from searching on Podcast Pickle. You can listen right on the podcast pickle website or you can go to the blog and listen there. This could be used in the classroom by finding a feed on the topic of interest such as Pediatric Cough and Cold Medications and Episode 53 and having students listen from home. The students could then turn in a paper with their comments/ summary or a short discussion could occur in the classroom. These feeds are a great way to incorporate information that is already out there and can save the teacher some time as well!

Flickr in the Classroom

Flickr has millions of photographs from places all around the world. This site could be used as a project for global cooperation to increase the students understanding of other cultures and the settings in which they live. Students could be assigned to search a specific country or group of people and find a picture that really tells them something about a different culture or area. They could then be instructed to interpret the picture and describe the impression they get of the culture or area from it. Students could then describe what it might mean for those people's lives and how aspects of them might be different from what they are used to in their own culture.

GLOBAL COOPERATION WEBSITES

Two global cooperation websites, The Global Schoolhouse and Epals are both places where teachers and learners can collabroate with people all around the world. Global Schoolhouse offers content, programs, tools and resources that can be used in the classroom, as well as ideas for school projects. It has interactive web games for students to learn geography and offers scholarships for web based projects that middle and high school students create about the importance of international affairs and diplomacy. Epals is a simlar website that offers information with a focus around international collaboration. It also has a blog called SchoolBlog where anyone from around the world can post. It also has a special classroom search tool where you can find a classroom and learn what projects teachers from all over are doing.

Example of use in the classroom
Both websites would be a great way for students to learn from interacting on the web with people from other countries. On Epals students could be instructed to follow along already created learning sesssions that have text, videos or even blogs. Students could write a summary or an opionion of the content that was presented or could post their comments right to the blog. Students would be using interactive web tools and be learning about other cultures and traditions which will promote a better understaning of global communites.

Videos In the Classroom

There are many websites that offer videos that may have valuable content for the classroom. For example the videos on my blog titled Lung Sounds and Adolescent Identity were found on two different websites YouTube and Google Video. Both videos I added can be very useful for lectures in Nursing. Videos can be a fun way to grab the students attention and can save you a lot of time preparing a powerpoint slide show that may already exist! The Adolescent Identity video is a stream of quotes that 11th graders wrote when they were asked to answer the question "who am I?" The statements the students made could really provoke some thought and open up a discussion on Identity. The other video which is more of a tutorial on lung sounds is a great way to help the students learn how the lungs actually sound and to help student's ears recognize later what they may hear on a real person. There are so many opportunities to bring videos into the classroom and can help make lessons more meaningful and creative!

TWEETS

After following tweeters on Twitter for the past couple weeks, although without much participation I was able to see what kind of interaction occurs on this website. I found that I think it is very important to follow people who you have the same interests as because many of the posts are very specific to a particular profession or interest. I also thought the streams were a bit confusing because you are seeing every tweet someone posts while they may not be posting a general message to everyone but may be posting a specific responce to someone you do not follow. Overall, I thought it was interesting and would be a great source to seek information from other professionals as well as a fun way to read about the interesting lives or ideas of others.

Twitter in the Classroom

A great blog post Potential uses of twitter in teacher education courses discusses an up and coming website that has potential for educational use. It describes Twitter as “a microblogging platform that allows users to publish brief text updates of up to 140 characters onto the web-based twitter network (aka the "twitterverse").” You can enter these mini updates as often as you like and you can receive “feeds” from the people you choose to follow. Others can add you to their feed and receive the updates you publish. It is like a group chat room with more opportunity to choose who you want to hear from or respond to. It has many opportunities for the classroom.

From the blog above the author states “Our class discussions are often (always?) limited by our time together in a common physical space, it could be used to continue the conversation on a more informal, synchronous basis as thoughts occur.” Students could create a specific account for their classroom tweeting and could then follow all the students/teachers in their class. Specific times could be scheduled where class members could go on to seek out information from other students or teachers, to post comments or further class discussion that seem to end to early.

The article 25+ Incredibly Useful Twitter Tools and Firefox Plugins describes another application of twitter TweetDeck which “Aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces. Tweet Deck enables users to split their main feed (All Tweets) into topic or group specific columns allowing a broader overview of tweets.” This can facilitate the creation of a group of classroom tweeters on the students page so the updates from them are easier to access.

BLOGLINES COOL FEED

From the blog I Learn Technology: An edublog about integrating technology into the classroom at http://ilearntechnology.com/ there was an exciting post you can view by following this link http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=770. The post is about a website called Vista Zoo at http://www.vistazoo.com/ where you can create your own virtual tour by uploading pictures, video, audio and more. You can then insert your vistazoo into any website, such as you tube. It can be a fun way for students to learn about geography or cultures. They could create their very own vista zoo as a project for geography, an art project using pictures/videos from places they have been or anyone can just use it for fun!

Connectivism Theory: Analogy Assignment

I think a learner is like a hard drive. It is a place where information can be stored and retrieved, added or deleted. It is a small portion of the larger computer, although size is small to the relative whole the amount of information that can be stored there is immense. Information is retrieved at an extremely fast speed related to how organized the information or files are, like how the neurons in our brain fire rapidly to bring forth memories and knowledge. If the files are not organized it may take some searching to retrieve the information and will be brought forth at a slower rate just like if the connections in our brain are not strong or concepts were not related, the knowledge will not reach our working memory as quickly and sometimes not at all.
Connectivism Theory relates to this analogy of the learner and George Siemens (2005) lists some key principles of this theory that I think relate well.

"Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning"
In placing information in a hard drive the user must create organization and folders that will relate to one another and be easy to find when needed. It is this process that will help to facilitate the further implementation of new information to the drive. Through the neuronal connections in our brain and the connections to information in the outside world we continue to gain knowledge but without work applied to maintaining these connections they die off.

"While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision."
In a hard drive the more information that is added the harder it may be to retrieve the older information or the slower the retrieval. This is related to the user as well because the user
may have better memories of where they stored newer information. Although a search engine is very useful with the hard drive the user still must remember the key words to search for. As new information enters and new connections are made in human brains, old information may be left behind or ideas and concepts a persons holds may be changed/replaced by the newer more up to date knowledge. Every day new information enters out minds and just as stated will affect our thoughts, perceptions, moods and decisions.

http://www.itdl.org/journal/Jan05/article01.htm
Siemens, G. (2005, January). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, Retrieved January 25, 2008.

"Learning and the act of knowledge creation is a function of a network where it is the aggregation of activities of many individuals that generate meaningful knowledge."
This is an important concept in connectivism because while this may not be directly related to the individual learner it shows that through the connection of a diverse array of experiences and knowledge coming from all different places, a greater knowledge will be created that will be readily available to all. The individual while imparting the knowledge will continuously gain knowledge from others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTgWt4Uzr54&feature=PlayList&p=3E43054A8703F57A&index=2 Retrieve January 25, 2009.

Social Networking

One way to get up to date on current trends in education is social networking on the internet. You can search for networks that appeal to your interest or field online at a free social networking service http://www.ning.com/ I explored the website and found http://innovativesample.ning.com/ to be a network that could serve very useful on my journey to teaching higher education. It is titled “Weekly Innovations: Share, Grow, Innovate” and states it is a “one stop shop for higher education news, collaboration and innovation.”

On the site you will find members with similar interests or careers that post links to websites, videos, news or groups with one common theme…higher education. You can even start a group discussion which would be very useful (especially to me, as a novice to the career) to be able to talk with seasoned professionals. Other ways I think this site would be especially useful is through all the links to resources or other educational blogs, news reports on higher education throughout the U.S. and through videos posted by members that serve as educational resources for other teachers or that spark discussion.

I am excited to begin my social networking and learn a thing or two about higher education!

Using Blogs in the Classroom

As educators we may be behind the times when it comes to the fast paced movement of the internet and all its' tools, especially when our students have grown up on it. Whether is be elementary, middle school, high school or college blogs can create a different spin on education.

Blogs can be used in the classroom for any genre and for just about any age group. Will Richardson's book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Webtools for the Classroom describes that blogs can be used to promote critical and analytical thinking, be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive and associational thinking, combines solitary reflection and social interaction and increases access and exposure to quality information.

There are many ways that blogs can be used in the classroom and for your own personal teaching and learning. After looking at a few resources the three ways I think blogging could be most helpful to my own teaching and learning are described below.

1. Creating your very own journal blog
Many teachers have already created their own blogs on the internet, reflecting on their own classroom experiences. They have used them as a way to explore their own teaching, help others who may have similar classroom problems or ideas and as a way to get help from others who can post their own opinions. They can learn about others' teaching styles and stay up to date on current classroom practices. It becomes an interactive news feed between educators and becomes their very own tool for education themselves. You can read about one teachers approach to education in England and give feedback from the U.S. It is a fast, easy way to learn about education globally!

Here are a few examples of teacher blogs:
http://web20intheclassroom.blogspot.com/
http://sarahpuglisi.blogspot.com/ 1st Grade teacher creating meaning, inventing, looking for creativity, and other nonsense.
http://www.dawnsbrain.com/ The adventures of a high school art and drama teacher.


2. Have your students create their own weblog
Students love to have interaction and by having students create their own blogs they can add one more tool to their already vast knowledge of the internet and computers. It can be a place for them to communicate with other students and you. They can also express their own opinions and get feedback from the teacher and students. By having their very own blog they can be as creative as they want, take pride in something they created and showcase their best work. It can give them a chance to work on their writing skills and can be a place to comlpete assignments. It can even be a place for you as the teacher to get feedback from your students on activities done in class!

Here are a few examples of student blogs:
http://christinaswork.learnerblogs.org/
http://milly2.learnerblogs.org/
http://patrick3.learnerblogs.org/


3. Have a classroom blog
This would be a great way to involve all the students in an interactive and digital way. I think it would work best if you had a smaller group of students. Group projects could be facilitated this way, even completely done online. Students could share ideas and give feedback. This is an easy way for the class to communicate to one another outside the classroom. Students having trouble could post questions and get help from either the students or the teacher. It can also just be a fun way to showcase the students work and keep the parents up to date on what is taking place in the classroom!

Here are a few examples of classroom blogs:
http://mrlembke.blogspot.com/
http://mrsperrysblog.blogspot.com/
http://mtnbrookseniors.blogspot.com/

Resources:
http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers
http://weblogg-ed.com/
Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed. p. 20, 38-40). California: Corwin Press.