Welcome to your ISSL Digital Learning Workshop PBwiki!

Welcome to your ISSL Digital Learning Workshop PBwiki! ! RSS Blogs Social Bookmarking Photo Sharing Podcasting

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RSS

The simple translation

Really Simple Syndication

This is a great way to plan course work for students. Link them to inforamtion for the class. The great part is to have them current (information is real world time updated). Save time and point them in the direction you want them to go. Information is distributed after you have collected the information for your class in your RSS.

Blogs

Are articles arranged in chronological order and include multi-media possibilities. Two major search engines for blogs are Xanga and Technorati.

Blogs can occur in video, sketchs, photos, art, journals; they can include news, travel, fashion, etc. They can be internal or external (public.)

Here is a great website! Simple video explanation of Wikis and RSS,,,SC

http://www.commoncraft.com/

Social Bookmarking

Although I am not an expert, I am happy to inform you about what I learned about Social Bookmarking (SB). SB is a tool that provides a way for groups of people to share website resources. Some examples of websites are del.icio.us, Simpy and Furl. The main benefit of this resource is that people tend to understand the content of sites, so the website sources listed tend to be more reliable than an automated system. Also it ranks perceived utility, meaning that users can view how many people have bookmarked a particular website.

The downsides to SB are the following:

-no standard set of keywords

-no standard for structure of tags (misspellings can occur)

-there is no mechanism for users to indicate subgroups

-spammers cause developers to constantely adjust their security system

Photo Sharing

Photo sharing is an opportunity to share photos in the form of individual photos or a slide show. This can be done privately or publicly. There are several photo sites (BubbleShare and Flickr are just two examples) where you can do this. With a few clicks, you can upload your photos and generate private or public links to view. Albums can be added to blogs. Photos can be emailed to others, even sent to social networks such as MySpace or Facebook. Amazing!

Podcasting

A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. So, essentially, a podcast is a mini radio program that you create with a recording device and then make available to the public.

Download or subscribe to several podcasts

ABC News Podcasts

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Podcasting/

Mr. Jaffe's 6th Grade class

http://www.cbsd.org/millcreek/jaffe/podcast/2006/march/index.html

Suggest how teachers and/or students might use podcasts in the classroom.

Record a test review session and then post that online for students to reference.

Record conversations/vocabulary/exercises done in a foreign language class. Have the kids create their own podcasts where the practice pronunciation of foreign language.

Record exercises done in class that kids then have to listen to as HW. Ideas might be recording the ABC song or counting.

Have kids create a podcast weekly of what they did in class.

Have kids use podcasts to create projects about __________.

Use podcasts as a way to communicate information to parents. They can easily access this via teacher websites or wikis.

Record speeches and presentations for students to 1) listen to 2) critique 3) evaluate 4) listen to discussions that different sections had about the same subject. (Socratic Seminars)

Give a verbal listening quiz that kids take at home. Record questions, phrases in other languages, etc. and then the kids have to write down/translate answers.

Ask kids to subscribe to podcasts about subjects you teach, then use those podcasts as ways to look at current events, new info, etc.

Do a podcast listing important information, “need to knows” and new technology that teachers might find useful, then send that podcast out to faculty.

Create a podcast for prospective parents/faculty/students. You could do a walking tour of the school, describe the philosophy of the school, or have current students record “what its like here” stories.

Record lectures that kids can then download and check their notes against the information. (fill in info they missed.... helps improve note-taking skills)

Cater to kids who might need more of a challenge... to facilitate self-paced learning or for helping repetition of slower learners

Connect your podcasts to an RSS feed.

I love the NPR and Bill Moyers Podcasts. Check out "Is God Green?" http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/ SCC