An Experience with Multimedia

Excellence & Imagination: all the joy of junior high in one small package

This is an amazing classroom site. Clarence Fisher has surely worked hard to prep his students for thinking critically! I love the design of this class site. It’s very simple, organized, and pleasing to the eye graphically and spatially. The tabs at the top give you plenty of information as a viewer and I’m sure it is even more hands-on and user-friendly for the students. Mr. Fisher does a great job of encouraging and congratulating his students through his feedback on the main page. The links on the side bar have many options. I enjoyed looking through student blogs and class projects – I got lost in the links taking me to podcasts, wikis, and the class Flickr site. The podcast was a great example of students diving into technology. Finally, one of the most resourceful links was to Fisher’s professional blog, which is jam-packed with learning opportunities. Students, no doubt, are engaging in relevant learning within this school blog.


AP Calculus AB (2006/2007): An interactive log for students and parents in my Pre-Cal 20S class. This ongoing dialogue is as rich as YOU make it. Visit often and post your comments freely.
http://apcalc06.blogspot.com/

This school blog was full of great ideas for teaching pedagogy. The downfall was that it seemed a little difficult to navigate. It lacked the typical “About” tab and other tabs that would link readers to more information about the creator and site. Granted, the purpose was for students and not necessarily to educate viewers like myself. With that being said, the homepage was very inviting and you can tell right away that both teacher and students have respect for one another and for the site. A neat feature in this blog is “Answer Tips.” At the top of this blog there are directions that say, “Double click on any word in this blog that is not a link and you might learn something…” and guess what? I did!! So cool! I also was impressed that the teacher posted links for the class to read about themselves and that as a whole they were being linked to and followed for their content production. Even thought I had some troubles figuring out the layout and determining the site’s overall meaning, the sidebar contained great links for students (by students and teacher).

I had no idea that a site that houses images could be used in such versatile ways both personally and educationally. I love the idea that I can create digital stories, presentations, discussion pieces, learning maps, etc. (so too can my students). And this is yet another tool that has that “interconnection” option with the ability to tag, organize, share, create albums, subscribe to feeds, and blog.

I plan to start using Flickr soon. I have artwork I created in the past and uploading it would be a good way to introduce myself to the application. I will return and update my post as I have more relevant learning to record.

In terms of my work as a teacher-librarian - I think an in-service for teachers would be my first priority. But first, I will need to do more research and gather a portfolio of examples to share with them. This will make my professional development blog so that I have a place to organize my findings and begin preparing the in-service.

This is perhaps where I've learned the most in the first few weeks of Multimedia.

We are currently working hard in my district to create a pathway of relevance for students in the work they are completing for us at school. When I think about the traditional classroom, it is not much different than what still remains in many of our schools. Even though I have been attempting to introduce students to the interconnectedness of the Internet, I have not come close. Why? One example, I created a Twitter account over a year ago… for what? I don’t know – seemed like the cool thing to do and didn’t log in again until I received some emails recently that a few of my friends and two strangers were following me!?!? Following me (?), I thought. Yikes! I recently revisited my Twitter account and started making meaning out of its purpose: https://twitter.com/teresaalesch. But have only posted one time. The same can be said for many of the other accounts I have created in the past year or two (I created a Delicious account but didn’t know how to use it so haven’t been back, and I’ve set up a few different Wikis but since they wouldn’t do what I told them to I broke off our love/hate relationships)… how can I help my students if I cannot help myself? Good question!

I could really identify “learning in isolation” as it relates to my usage of social web tools but even more so as it relates to our students. They write a paper or complete an assignment, turn it in, and get it back…over and over and over again (I am guilty of this more than I want to admit). Very rarely is there a connection to the whole class or a collaborative effort with peers. I do try to do this, but since I have been reading this book, it’s dawned on me that I’ve only scratched the surface. Last year, however, I created a Ning account for my English 9 class: http://knightenglish.ning.com/. I think it’s a great start, but wow, do I have a ways to go?

Before I can introduce these tools to my colleagues, I really need to understand them myself. This is definitely going to take some time, patience, and dedication on my part... dedication that extends beyond the assignments given in my Multimedia class.

RSS -is to- Real Simple Syndication ...AS...
KISS -is to- Keep It Simple Silly

…until now – I’ve been a little mystified by RSS feeds. I even have a few; I just didn’t quite “get it.”

In simple terms, I’ve learned that the content comes to me – I don’t have to go out and search for it or check on a regular basis to see if something I’m interested in has been updated.

Richardson mentions that he has created a “Personal Learning Curriculum” through his RSS set up. I love the sound of this. I am most definitely a student for life. I believe this is going to be the resourceful tool that Richardson promises. And what’s more is that learning to skim and scan through these feeds for relevant information is a skill, a skill that our students should begin learning right away.

I am looking forward to organizing some feeds I can share with my colleagues. Furthermore, I would like to clean up my mailbox by unsubscribing from the tons of professional and news related emails and picking up RSS feeds instead. How exciting!?!? So that's what that link is for in my mailbox settings!

Wikis. I've personally struggled with the concept of Wikis...not so much Wikipedia or its relatives, but with creating a Wiki myself. I've made it out to be a challenging and complex process. As a matter of fact, I really chuckled at the term, "Whackipedia" as I was feeling pretty whacked out trying to create a Wiki of my own. I think the number one reason is because I'm a design-oriented person and you don't have a great deal of layout freedom if you aren't versed in HTML coding/practices. BUT, after reading this chapter, I am sold regardless of my insecurities. I didn't realize the opportunities for students when involving them in this collaborative process.

In terms of Wikipedia, many teachers do stiffen at the thought of their students using it for research. I am excited to have gained some ammunition to the table and I think I could help my colleagues to respect what the Wikipedia really entails.

WIKIBOOKS!?!?!!?! Where have you been? I spend hours looking for online books that will supplement my English course work or that I can recommend to colleagues to support their curriculum. I spent just a few moments browsing this site - and I'm SOLD: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Basic_Writing/Invention. This is a basic English/Grammar book and has about anything a teacher would want to send students out for more information.

As with everything I'm picking up in my readings and throughout class, I need to organize my learning and set it up to be presented to my colleagues via in-service or even more informal ways that are less threatening. I've set up a professional development blog where I will add my in-service ideas/plans as I learn about the Web 2.0 tools myself. I am excited to be more of a resource to my peers in the years to come!