Blog #9: Blogs & RSS

Introduction

Setting: An office in a rural community, August 2009.

ME: Maybe we should start a blog.

CO-WORKER: Yeah, but who reads them? And who's going to write it? We're already so busy. What are we going to write about?

ME: I don't even know anyone that reads blogs, do you?

CO-WORKER: No.

ME: So what's the point in writing one? I guess I could find the time to write one or we could share the writing, but why put in all that effort if no one is going to read it?

Reflections on the process of learning about blogging & RSS

Oh silly, silly August me. Before taking this class, I thought RSS stood for the initials of my high school. Little did I know that the acronym stood for something much more powerful. And I thought I didn't read any blogs. And that no one would read my/our blog. And that if no one read the blog, there was no point in writing one. And that I didn't have enough 'to say' to create regular content for a blog.

My pile of wrongs was very high indeed. Having used RSS feeds and Blogger for three months now, I have seen the error of my ways and experienced a profound shift in how I interact with online content and offline experiences. First, I realized I was already reading blogs I just hadn't understood them to be blogs; I thought they were websites my more tech-savvy friends and classmates used to share their travel experiences, school assignments, and creative writing. Apparently, I shouldn't have been so quick to place these friends on a pedestal. As Richardson writes, "a Weblog is an easily created, easily updateable Website that allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to the Internet from any Internet connection . . . comprised of reflections and conversations that in many cases are updated every day" (Richardson, 17). Looking at my bookmarks, I realized that some favourite news sites were blogs, as were my brain-break sites such as GoFugYourself.

But was blogging really easy? Yes. Considering there are an estimated 120,000 blogs created every day and over 346,000,000 people around the world who read blogs, blogging is an easy tool to incorporate into your personal and professional lives. My only caveat to creating a new blog would be to give yourself plenty of time. Last semester, the day before a massive paper was due, I thought I would set up a blog and post my assignment online so readers could jump between sections and not have to read a linear chunk of text. Bad idea. As you can see here, I got overwhelmed by the new tool, floundered, and abandoned the online paper submission. With the deadline looming, my time was better spent proofreading and editing than messing around with an entirely new website program.

After the stress on WordPress last semester, I decided to give Blogger a try. Also, I noticed that most of my classmates were using Blogger for this course and realized that if I needed a helping hand, there would be more friendly support available for Blogger issues than WordPress ones. Although I liked the look of the WordPress templates, the functional, easy-to-use Blogger seems like you can just put your tires to the road and roll.

Before creating your first post, I recommend spending some time getting to know the back end of Blogger, aka the Dashboard, and thinking about account settings. Will your blog be public and searchable, or reclusively avoiding search engines? Can anyone post a comment at any time, or do you want to be notified and pre-approve comments? I did not notice anyone in our class trying to make a few bucks by allowing advertisements on their blogs, but if you expect high traffic numbers on your blog it might be a way to make some extra income - to buy library books, of course.

Doing the fancy stuff on Blogger wasn't too onerous and I enjoyed spending time sifting through available templates, refining the design of the page, playing with widgets, and inserting multimedia into the text. This fiddly stuff aside, the most interesting part of blogging was the overall shift in how I wrote. In September, I was reading online and making notes on paper. Once I figured out how to save drafts on Blogger, I found myself making notes right in each post. I created posts for the rest of the semester and then every time I found relevant information, I would log in and add content to the drafts. Being a person who uses three or more computers in a day and walks to work, this online writing allowed me to research and write independently from paper, location, or packing around media storage devices.

My notes on RSS feeds from earlier in the semester use words like "guilt pile" and "stress" but I've come to agree with Doug Johnson when he writes that aggregators are "the true unsung hero of Web 2.0." RSS feeds are like newspaper or magazine subscriptions which you can subscribe to for free. Every time there is a new 'issue,' or post, it is automatically sent to your inbox. So instead of checking into your favourite websites on a regular basis to see if there's been anything new posted, you save time by having the freshest material sent to you automatically.

Having all this information sent to your email account would clog up your inbox, so most people use aggregators to collect these subscriptions. I set up an account for Google Reader to manage my subscriptions for this class, and also used my Outlook program at work to manage employment counselling related subscriptions. The features in Google Reader are outstanding - especially how your unread items count down as you scroll through them - and I still feel like we're just getting acquainted.

My initial sentiments were based around numbers and being overwhelmed by the amount of information landing in my Reader inbox. A week off, not reading any feeds, could result in hundreds of new unread items. "This is not surfing the web," I thought, "this is drowning." I found that I would read the blogs with the fewest new posts, or the ones I knew would be short and sweet. This led to me avoiding the longer posts which kept on piling up. What I had to learn at this point was the value of skimming and scanning, or as Lauren Barack suggests, “treat RSS content like a newspaper, not email” (Barack, 2008). After all, I don't walk into a library and feel compelled to read every single book on the shelf, or open a newspaper and read every single column. And for those times when new items were piled sky high, I learned to let the guilt go and declare bankruptcy by marking all content as read, setting my Reader inbox back to zero (Big thanks to Donna Friesen for citing Shirley Kennedy's 2008 article in our first discussion group which recommended this coping strategy).

Once I realized I was in charge of my Reader account, I began to appreciate how I could quickly skim through both personal and professional information, following only those paths which twigged my interest. For posts that I liked and wanted to remember, I could "Add Star" and know that I would be able to find my favourites again later. This feature was great to use in combination with "Add tags" which allows users to tag items, creating their own filing system for posts. To the right is a shot of some of my tags:

Other times, I would run across an article that a friend or family member was interested in. I appreciated being able to directly email them the relevant article from my gmail account with a personalized note. And for those articles that I thought should be shared with the whole world, the "Share" button was like my own little billboard on the information superhighway.

One of the few dimensions I did not like about reading articles in the aggregator was that I missed the personalized 'feel' of each site where the articles came from. To save time, I had been reading classmates' blogs in Reader until I realized that I wasn't being exposed to any of the cool tools they were experimenting with or widgets they were adding. Also, I noticed that reading only one person's articles left me feeling like I was getting information out of context - kind of like getting the New York Times and only reading one columnist. To combat this, I signed up for RSS feeds from the main page of websites, as well as the individual ones I was interested in.

Discussion of blogging & RSS for my own personal learning

On a personal level, I will be maintaining my subscriptions to the following content, as well as keeping my eyes and ears open for others I may want to add.

CBC British Columbia   It sounds nuts, but sometimes I forget about the news. I don't have a TV in my home, and rely on internet news sites for current events. But when life gets busy and my head is down, major world events can elude my radar. Maintaining this subscription reminds me that there is news happening and I may want to check it out in more detail.

Community Skills Centre Job Board   This subscription relates to the web work I do as an Employment Counsellor. I research the local labour market and post jobs to this job board. Maintaining this feed lets me know when something goes wrong. Two weeks ago, our website was attacked by malware (malicious software) and the first indication I had that something was wrong was when the feeds stopped showing up in my Reader.

Community Skills Centre Job Board, Science & Technology   Similar to the main job board, this feed lets me keep tabs on how many of our feed subscribers are tech savvy and using the RSS feed feature. To grab this information, I click on "Trends" on the Home page of Google Reader, and "Most Obscure" under "Subscription Trends." The Trends page is also helpful in helping me assess which blogs I've been reading and which I've been hazing out on as it conveniently graphs how many items I read each day, what percentage of posts I actually read, and how often posts are being delivered.

Easy Street Records   This independent record store in Seattle keeps me updated on the alternative music scene, new music releases, and giveaways. One of my husband's favourites, the content often informs our vacation planning around band tour dates and vinyl record purchases. If I did not have this feed, I would not be keeping tabs on new music.

Free Technology for Teachers   Although this subscription could be included in the next section, I am keeping it under Personal Learning because I find the posts to be interesting no matter what I am currently teaching or not teaching. The posts address a wide range of grade and ability levels. My only wish for this site is that it incorporated more international content as the American context shines through. That said, it is a great resource for teachers teaching ESL overseas needing accessible material for cultural holidays and understandings in American society.

HAUTE*NATURE   Again, this is another site that crosses between personal and professional. It has changed my thinking because I used to believe that to find cool stuff, I had to search for it. Now, cool stuff, "ecologically based creative ideas, art & green products for your children, home and lifestyle . . . blending high style with sustainability," is delivered to me almost daily. My high school woodwork teaching husband uses this site to gather ideas for student projects and teach the potential of reclaimed wood.

The Steampunk Home   Completely self-gratuitous, I just like the pictures from this blog. Sometimes the images inspire my crafting.

TL-DL Blog   Being an online student means not having the same connection to campus and characters that one might when physically attending classes. The TL-DL blog helps to keep me in touch with the happenings in the University of Alberta's Teacher Librarian by Distance Learning program. Although not updated regularly, when information needs to get out, this is one resource that works for me as I always forget to check my U of A email account.

My own blog   All right, all right, I subscribe to my own blog. At first I was kind of shy about this until I was validated by this article by Sue Waters (again, thanks to Donna Friesen for sharing this link in our third discussion group). Waters recommends subscribing to your own feed so "you'll see your posts how they are seen by your subscribers. This allows you to troubleshoot issues with font sizes, image size/alignment and removal of content." This helps my personal learning by showing me where I need to make changes and how my blog 'comes across' to others.

RSS Library   Maybe because much of what I do personally rubs off into my teaching, this is another blog subscription that transcends the boundary between personal and professional. The author of this blog is a former TL-DL classmate and the current librarian in my former high school. I use this feed to keep tabs on what's happening in Rossland, what the librarian perceives the students' needs and interests are, and how she uses the blog to support her library program. And she's just a great person that I want to show my support for.

When this course is over, I will definitely be keeping my Reader account alive for personal uses, as well as to keep current on professional development. But there is more to the blogging world than just reading. The process of blogging over the last three months has shifted my thinking from "something I have to write" to "I could use this in my blog post!" My writing has improved because I am constantly set at hunter-gatherer mode, reading for much more than just comprehension or general knowledge.

The act of writing a blog post is an interesting paradox of writing for no one, and writing for potentially everyone. The hyper-awareness of audience forces you to be acutely conscious of making your writing both accountable and readable. For myself, I am aware that parents, students, friends, family, and potential employers may be stumbling across this site - a much larger audience than those participating in this course alone. Blog readers are able to make comments, tweet my blog, bookmark and link to it in their own postings. All this opportunity to participate opens the doors to audience and discussion even wider.

Having installed Google Analytics onto my blog, I have been able to track the global traffic to my posts. At this time, I've had visitors from four Canadian provinces, three American states, Norway, and the United Kingdom. This data has changed my understanding of writing being a solitary act to one that is participatory. Writing a blog makes you a contributor to the larger dialogue, another voice in the choir where every voice is unique.

Discussion of blogging & RSS in terms of teaching and learning

The wide variety of uses for blogging and RSS in education are mind boggling. While Professional Development and student engagement are the top two reasons for incorporating these tools into teaching practice, some other potential uses I can think of include:

• Board, union, district, and school-based newsletters. Currently in our district, the Board and union newsletters and meeting minutes are emailed to every staff member and posted on the related website. If these two groups moved to a blog format, the flow of information could become more of a two-way street. Paper copies of school newsletters can often go awry on the path between school and home. For those parents who have blog aggregators, RSS feeds of blogged school newsletters creates an archived, accessible version of information that gets delivered promptly and intact. 
• District ProD opportunities. A blog of available ProD opportunities divided into applicable categories such as elementary, secondary, math, language arts, and so on, would be an improved way to disseminate the information of what ProD is available. Currently, I receive random emails and see a hodge-podge of dated posters on school bulletin boards. A district ProD blog would organize and archive the opportunities, also allowing for up-to-the-minute venue changes and cancellations. Often, many teachers have the same question about a ProD event and they have to call or email the district ProD coordinator. The commenting function on blogs allows for one person to ask the question and many people to receive the answer, eliminating the need for the district coordinator to respond repeatedly to the same question or send out yet another bulk email.
• Creating community. Whether for a whole school, classroom, or library, blogs are one way to build community and common culture. 

Some reasons for teachers to write blogs

     Blogs can be used to reflect on teaching practice. Writing a teaching blog helps teachers to think more deeply about their daily experiences and learning activities. In addition, teachers can receive feedback, support, and suggestions from their peers on best practices, gems of advice, and new technologies in the comments section.

     A teacher writing a blog models for students how to write blogs. The teacher can use their blog as a sample for inspiring student works. The ability of the teacher to write a blog post also informs how successful the teacher will be in scaffolding the students' learning in creating their own blogs and posts.

     The classroom blog can not only build community inside the classroom, but also build community outside the classroom. Teachers across the globe can partner their sites, and students would be able to compare and contrast their educational experiences. Or, closer to home, the classroom blog serves as another link for parents to stay connected to what their children do at school.

     As well, a teacher's blog can serve as a springboard to structure assignments. Teachers can place all the required reading and suggested links in one central location, minimizing the amount of time students take to type long URLs into their address bars or Google suggested sites.

Teachers reading blogs
     If teachers have their students create blogs, then it stands to reason that the teachers would be reading these blogs. However, the greatest advantage of teachers reading blogs is for Professional Development. There are thousands of educational blogs which can help teachers support and expand their teaching practice. Some of the ones I followed this semester which changed, challenged, or guided my thinking included posts on:

David Warlick's 2 Cents Worth posed some challenging questions as to how students learn computers, and if this was even a class worth teaching anymore. Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog was a veritable fountain of bits and pieces of current happenings in the educational world. The rotating contributors to Copyblogger provided much writing advice and tips for promoting your online content, ones that made me stop and think how I could try them out in my blog and everyday writing. Joyce Valenza's Neverending Search always amazed me: if she can figure out how to cram every day full of so much reading and writing and experimenting and conferencing, not to mention teaching, then I could most certainly find the time to follow her prolific efforts. Valenza was reliably a source for new tech tools and challenging questions around the role of school libraries. Stephen Abram functioned as a personal aggregator on his blog, collecting odds and ends from around the internet and compiling them in his musings.

Students writing blogs

     For all the reasons I experienced as a personal learner using blogs, students would also benefit from. Having a tool that shifts the learner from passive audience to active participant is a powerful one indeed. Kris Kelly connects this shift to Bloom's taxonomy: "One of the major attractions for teachers to use blogging is that its focus is not necessarily on the content of the blog but more on the process of constructing and evaluating knowledge helping us reach the sometimes illusive upper level - analyzing, evaluating, and creating - of Bloom's Taxonomy.

     Not only are students shifting from passive to active engagement, they are contributing to the global dialogue and able to discuss their learning in a larger arena than just their classroom. With the help of resources such as CyberSmart, students can remain safe on the internet while bringing their work to a higher level of accountability. Teachers are developing rubrics for blogging that structure for the success of the learner in the new format.

     "The sequential, chronological characteristics of the blog format suggest how it can be useful in capturing such things as the development of a narrative, the design and implementation of a project, the progress of research, emerging processes, the aggregation of links or references, and observations or reflections that develop over time" (Davies and Merchant, 31).

Students reading blogs

     Students reading blogs helps students to improve their overall literacy and their digital literacy. Students are able to practices valuable skills such as skimming and scanning, dealing with information overload, and establishing reliable sources of information. On a personal level for students, they can read blogs associated with their personal interests. In a small town, this experience can be very validating and reduce feelings of isolation by allowing learners to connect with people who share their interests. In addition, reading blogs positions students to become lifelong learners by establishing their own personal learning network.

     Pageflakes and RSS are two ways students can read blogs. While Pageflakes, the individualized start page, supports lateral and non-linear thinking, too much content can be visually overwhelming and cluttered while taking a long time to load.

Students using RSS feeds to conduct research
     One of the most brilliant uses of RSS feeds is as a personal research assistant. After refining search terms, students can subscribe to a feed of all new results incorporating their keywords and parameters. The RSS research feed provides a constant, updated stream of incoming information, again allowing learners to practice their information management and media evaluation skills. Today's students navigate the information age, where all kinds of information comes to them and they must become information literate. Reading RSS feeds in tools such as Google Reader supports students learning these valuable literacy skills.

Summary (in response to the Introduction)

But who reads them?
I read them. You read them. You're reading one right now. People all over the world read them. People who think, share, care, and are searching are reading them. Maybe not everyone is reading them, but 77% of internet users are reading them.

Who's going to write it (and how)?
I'll write it, you'll write it, we'll take turns writing it, or we'll write it together. It's our blog, we make the rules. It's our blog, there are no rules. The "blog concept is about three things: Frequency, Brevity, and Personality" so let's try and write it regularly to keep our toes to the fire.

What are we going to write about?
What AREN'T we going to write about? You tell me.

Works Cited (not linked in text)

Barack, L. (2008, August). Beating Information Overload. School Library Journal, 54(8), 17. Retrieved September 28, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1524502001).

Kennedy, S.D.. (2008, November). Dealing With Information Overload: Bring It On. Information Today, 25(10), 17,19.

Blog #8:Twitter

Introduction

Twitter has been the first web 2.0 tool to make me feel like a crotchety old naysayer. Until I watched this clip from Dave Letterman with guest star Kevin Spacey . . .



. . . now that's what a crotchety Twitter naysayer looks like. I feel a little better about myself ;o) Although I haven't found an immediate use for Twitter in my personal life or teaching practise, I have explored the potential of the tool and learned about it enough to understand some of the possible implications for teaching, learning, networking, and marketing.

Reflections on the process of learning about Twitter

I signed up for Twitter at the beginning of the semester as it seemed like one of those tools that would organically grow and evolve over time, similar to my facebook page. Although I was completely unfamiliar with Twitter, I had been hearing about it a lot in the media. My friends and family didn't seem to be using Twitter, but maybe students were? With all the hype, it seemed like a web 2.0 tool that was expanding, worth investigating, and here to stay (well, at least for another year or two).

Account set up was easy, as was sending my first few tweets. Because I started using Twitter before learning about Delicious, I started out by using my Twitter account as a self-serving bookmark dumping ground. This habit was aided by the fact that long URLs were automatically translated into shorter ones by the bit.ly service and some of my favourite websites such as CBC News and YouTube provided AddThis buttons to facilitate easy tweeting. While Twitter was serving this purpose in my life, I posted quality links a couple of time a week. Once I embraced Delicious, my Twitter account lost direction.

I also spent September looking for people to follow. I immediately searched for and began to follow the 14 people recommended in our class notes. On September 7th, I changed my facebook status to "I have to follow 15 people on Twitter for a school assignment - suggestions please!" and of the 190+ people in my network, only two replied. Having had little luck with friends and family, I started looking for the Twitter badge on websites I already frequented. This strategy led me to follow The Tyee, The Onion, and Bust Magazine. Next, I tried searching for present and former classmates and professors, followed them, and had a look to see who those savvy people were following.

One frustration I stumbled across was when a friend would tell me their account name, I would carefully enter their name in the "Find People" Twitter search tool, and the results would return nothing. It seemed like the search tool was only effective for finding users with more than one or two tweets, followers, or people they were following. In other words, 'small' accounts were not returned in the search function. Booh!

I learned about Twellow, the Twitter yellow pages, from Mack Male's Elluminate session. This site not only helped me search for Twitter users by geographic location, it also confirmed what I had been suspecting: people around here just do not use Twitter. After searching for a wide variety of local cities, villages, districts, and regions, the search results returned less than one page of local users, only two of whom are local educators. This miniscule search return could also be explained by the users not setting their location in their profile, usually for privacy and safety reasons, or by the 'small' account symptom I mentioned above. Either way, Twitter at this point in time is not a tool for local networking or information sharing.

All signed up to follow people I was startled, then annoyed, by all the useless tweets showing up in my home page feed. Conversations that meant nothing to me, tweets about needing a muffin or going to bed, random links with no descriptors posted every couple of minutes - sometimes all of these things by the same user! A cacophony of noisy tweets, sounding something like this (only watch as much as you can handle, it doesn't get any better):



Perhaps because Twitter is so new and being used by many people to achieve different things, the netiquette has not yet thoroughly evolved around it. I believe Twitter would be much more effective if users had two accounts, one personal and one professional. I follow users on Twitter for professional development purposes, garnering teaching ideas and resources, not to know what they are watching on TV. On the other hand, I do enjoy the tweets from friends and family as I like to know what they are doing and how their life is going. What I found in my feed, however, is that these tweets from friends and family were drowned out by the general cacophony.

Apparently, other users must have been feeling a similar frustration as Twitter rolled out  a List feature in October that allows you to sort the people you follow into categories. Now that I have done this, my account feels more like a tool and less like a noisy burden.

Discussion of Twitter for my own personal learning

Twitter has been a good tool to explore in the last couple of months as it has reinforced the idea that just because a web 2.0 tool is free, somewhat popular, and easy to use, doesn't mean that it will fit into my life or respond to any vacant need. While I initially enjoyed the idea of mini shout-outs, it did not necessarily follow that anyone was listening. What was the point of posting content when the tweet was swallowed by the nether? The feeling was similar to a lonely person shouting at the skies not sure if anyone wanted to listen, like a solitary figure in Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The concept of a status update to share with friends and family was already being filled by my facebook account. How else could I use Twitter in my personal life? To keep up with celebrities, I checked out the list of top Twitterers at Twitterholic and stumbled onto the account of Yoko Ono. As a multimedia artist, she uses her Twitter account to not only send out updates about her band and many projects, but to tweet small poems and words of wisdom.

After figuring out what twooshes and hashtags were, I started thinking about how the limitation of 140 characters could actually give rise to a new kind of poetry, similar to the haiku. Out of curiosity I typed '#haiku' in the search bar of my home page and found hundreds of users were already using Twitter to post original haikus. Next time I need some random, poetic uplifting, I can quickly search for Twitter haikus. Twitter + haiku = Twaiku?

Having played with Twitter for two months, I brought the idea of an account to the marketing team at the non-profit agency I currently work at. They were receptive to the idea, especially seeing as how few local users there are at this point in time. The virtual anonymity combined with the cost (free!) and time commitment (very low!) were attractive enough that I got the green light to create and maintain our account. Still in progress is getting our full logo small enough to upload as the profile picture, having a badge on our main website, and stretching the background image to fill the entire page of the profile. To keep the account current and vibrant, we have resolved to tweet once every business day or two. This practise will have us well-positioned if and when Twitter takes off in the local area.  

The process of building this professional Twitter account was very different from my personal one. I was much more selective in choosing who our organization would follow and conscious of maintaining our reputation. Also, the account 'Notices' settings are different. On my personal account, I have all notices turned off while the professional one has 'New Follower' and 'Direct Text Emails' turned on so that we can keep close tabs on account activity.

Discussion of Twitter in terms of teaching and learning

Laura Walker, a Director of E-Learning at a UK school, has given the following "Nine great reasons why teachers should use Twitter":

   1. Together we're better

   2. Global or local: you choose

   3. Self-awareness and reflective practice

   4. Ideas workshop and sounding board

   5. Newsroom and innovation showcase

   6. Professional development and critical friends (see also Kenney, 2009)

   7. Quality-assured searching

   8. Communicate, communicate, communicate

   9. Getting with the times has never been so easy!

The most obvious use of Twitter for teachers is as a quick and dirty Professional Development (ProD) tool. By following only a handful of well-chosen edu-tweeters, teachers can access an evaluated stream of links, information, and discourse in bite-sized pieces. "Following other educators on Twitter creates a 'network at my fingertips' phenomenon where people ask questions and get answers, link to great blog posts or resources, or share ideas for projects" (Richardson, 86). Because tweets are limited to a 140 characters, even very busy people are able to contribute. My top choice for teacher-librarians would be Joyce Valenza as she is constantly evaluating and implementing web 2.0 tools, providing a variety of links and comments that point you in a new or great direction.

However, finding gems such as Valenza is challenging in an environment where 80% of users are primarily navel-gazing (Rutgers University study on Mashable). One place to start in seeking out other educators that share similar subjects and content areas is on the Twitter4Teachers wiki. Here, educators can post their Twitter username under their specific field and browse a list of educators working or interested in the same field to possibly follow.

I agree with Richardson when he writes that "Twitter is a bit too Wild West for most school situations" (Richardson, 87). This hasn't prevented some teachers from embracing Twitter and finding creative uses in their classrooms and beyond. In the following video, biology teacher Paul Andersen discusses the basics of Twitter, as well as how he used Twitter to create a learning network for one of his classes (the good stuff starts around run time 3:30/9:51).



What's interesting in Andersen's discussion is that his students all seem to have cell phones and receive his class tweets as instant messages. In my rural area where cell phone coverage is often interrupted by mountain passes, many students do not have cell phones. Also, even if they did have cell phones, parents would be outraged that the teacher expected them to receive instant messages, a service that costs money.

It seems that in order to be effective, Twitter requires the teachers and students to have constant internet access. On his eLearning blog, David Hopkins encourages educators to enhance their classroom experience by "letting your students online with laptops and other devices when they're in your classroom. Use a hashtag and ask your students to use it on each tweet; this means you can easily collate tweets together at the end of the alloted task/activity/time." This reminded me of Michael Wesch's video, "A Vision of Students Today" in which students reported that they facebook through most of their classes and they bring their laptop to class but they aren't working on class stuff.  

"With scant research on the efficacy of social-networking tools such as Twitter, and few clear insights into the best (and worst) uses for them, there is little agreement among researchers and educators about how or whether Twitter-like technologies could or should be used in schools" (Manzo, 2009).

Summary

I gave Twitter a fair shot over two months and did not feel that I was getting much value back for time invested. In the future, if more local people and students start to use Twitter, then the site might become useful on a personal level. For now, I am aware of the site, have read massive amounts of writing and literature about Twitter, and am comfortable with using my account  for a variety of purposes. Maybe, as Marcia Conner suggests, I will grow to love Twitter over a more extended period of time since people "across the globe; - people smarter and busier than you - use Twitter" (2009). And they must be onto something good, right?

Works Cited (not linked in text)

Conner, M.. (2009, August). Twitter 101: Are you tweeting? T + D, 63(8), 24-25, 27. Retrieved November 22, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1833987711).

Kenney, Brian. (2009, November). With a little help from our friends. School Library Journal, 55(11), 9. Retrieved November 22, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1891472341).

Manzo, K.K.. (2009, October). Twitter lessons in 140 characters or less. Education Week, 29(8), 1, 14. Retrieved November 22, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1891350041).

Blog #7: Social networking

Introduction

Hi kids! Here's a picture of a hammer. You probably have one in your house. You can do good things with it like build houses and communities, or you can do bad stuff like hurt people - including yourself! But you know what? I don't know how to really use a hammer, I don't have one, and to tell you the truth, I'm a little bit scared of them. So I'm not going to teach you about using hammers at all.

What's that? Your parents aren't teaching you to use a hammer either? And you're using it all the time anyway? Well, that's not my business, I'm just your teacher.

Reflections on the process of learning about social networking

As I am already a regular user of facebook for social purposes, I wanted to not only stretch my learning this week about social networks in general, but help others to discover social networking and examine the use of facebook very closely from a professional educator's perspective. To accomplish all this, I completed three things:

1.) Taught an adult education class called Introduction to Facebook at the local community college.
2.) Co-led a ProD session for local high school teachers on Teenage Technology.
3.) Examined the user settings and literature on using facebook as an educator.

Intro to Facebook
In October, I signed up to teach a night class for adults interested in learning about facebook. I had noticed that my parents' generation was wanting to use facebook to connect with their kids and grandkids, but they were reluctant to dive in and learn independently. Seeing as I had social networking on the brain and been using facebook for over two years, the opportunity seemed like a good fit. Every student in the class was a grandparent who wanted to see pictures of their grandkids, chat with their friends and family, and connect with old classmates. The largest chunk of time in the class was spent on privacy and account settings. At first the students seemed put out by this time allocation as they just wanted to dive in and use the tool. Then I shared with them the experience of Andrew Feldmar who had been recently interviewed on CBC's Spark podcast.

A well-established Vancouver psychologist, Feldmar was routinely crossing the Canada/US border when the border guard decided to Google his name. The search returned a result for an academic article Feldmar had written about his LSD drug use in the 1970s. From that moment on, Feldmar was banned from entering the US for the rest of his life, unable to visit his children or attend conferences. No charges, no trial, barred.

The students suddenly understood how important their digital footprint could be. We live in a community that is a 15 minute drive to the border, and people regularly cross to pick up mail, get gas, or go shopping. The idea of not being able to cross the border based on something they wrote or posted online was shocking, but a lesson that hit home. I used the overhead NEC projector to go through every single page and every single tab in the Account, Privacy, and Application Settings, promising them they would only have to do this once and then they could play.

This was also a good opportunity for me to go through my settings to make sure my profile was as professional, secure and inaccessible as it could be. My facebook profile cannot be found in public searches, users must be friends with me directly to see any of my content, and my friend list does not show up when my name is searched in the facebook search bar. As much as I love my friends, sometimes I don't think their profile pictures are ones I want students or employers associating with me in any way.

Teenage Technology
My husband is also an educator, and we regularly discuss what we're reading, technology, teaching, and classroom resources. This semester, after I was going off about Nings for teaching, he set up one for his woodworking program. He was impressed that it only took him a couple of hours and he could add a variety of multimedia. Before he shared it with any students, I decided to test out his account settings and signed up as "The Bad Kid," experimenting with what I could join, post, and do without his approval. He was pretty quick to figure out his Network Privacy settings and kick me off after that ; )

Seeing as I was such a help for his Ning (ha!), my husband asked me to co-present on Teenage Technology for an upcoming ProD day. He gave a brief lecture, held a discussion, then divided the teachers into small groups doing a carousel of activities. My station was facebook. I created four "fake" accounts so that the teachers could use the social network without having to go through the process of setting up an account. We explored the processes of friending, sending messages through the mailbox, writing on walls, looking at other people's profiles and pictures, and using the chat or instant messaging function.

For the most part, the teachers were overwhelmed. "There's too much going on!" they cried as their chat screen blipped and their Inbox filled up while they cruised profiles, "I can't keep up with all this." This led to some great discussions on how the student keep up with it all, why teachers would want to use facebook at all, and the permanence of the digital footprint existing even after the account is deleted or the user is deceased.

Using facebook as an educator
The BC College of Teachers (BCCT) warns against the "risks" of using facebook. "Breaking down the walls between a teacher's personal and professional life can undermine a teacher's authority and create a significant danger zone for both teacher and student. An educator's ability to maintain boundaries within the professional relationship ensures a safe connection based on the student's needs. A safe relationship is threatened when the boundaries become blurred or ambiguous" (page 13).

The BC Teacher's Federation takes a somewhat more open-minded view: "However, 'Don't do it' doesn't do it. Too many teachers are finding educationally productive uses of the social networking tools to ignore or abandon them. Finding a balance is key. Many of the exemplar stories from the NEA [National Education Association] involve 'offensive' and 'unacceptable' photos and information on MySpace pages. Most really do fit the 'what were you thinking' category" (Canadian Jurisprudence).

Having examined my account settings and reviewing what my union and professional body had to say about facebook, I most identified with what Stephen Abram had to say on the matter in his article "Multimedia and Internet @ Schools." Social networking sites "are only as safe as the user has the awareness and skills to make good judgements."

Discussion of social networking for my own personal learning

I joined Joyce Valenza's Teacher Librarian Ning in September. And then I did very little. It wasn't because I didn't have time, or wasn't interested, or there wasn't great information being discussed and shared by amazing Teacher Librarian people, it was the sharp little stab of pain in my heart that stopped me. I have been trying to get hired on with my local school district for four years, but due to declining enrollment they have not been hiring staff without seniority at the elementary level for what feels like a very long time. Working as a Teacher On Call found me underemployed, so I made the difficult decision to step away from teaching (my love!), start my Master of Education, and accept full time work with a regular paycheque.

Checking into the Teacher Librarian Ning was like being the puppy in a pet store. I had my nosed pressed up against the glass, but couldn't touch or smell anything. Look at all those people doing great library things! Pick me! Take me home! I love teaching kids! I love literacy! I'll walk myself every day! But they already had all the puppies they needed and the Teacher Librarian Ning became a reminder of my frustrated state.

Taking these MEd classes, I am already collecting strategies, information, and resources for the day when I can step back into a classroom or library. So the Teacher Librarian Ning wasn't filling a need in my preparation or practise. Then I read a blog post by Will Richardson about personalizing the professional development learning of teachers, and realized what was missing for me in pursuing the Teacher Librarian Ning: the passion. It was hard to muster up passion for something when my first reaction was sadness and longing (whimper, whimper, tail wag). I was also reminded of the works of bell hooks (Florence, 1998) and Adrienne Rich (1977) which challenge students to take responsibility and claim their own education.

This was a great process to go through because it made me realize how students may experience compulsory sign-ups. Although an assignment might require them to participate in a specific site, they may not demonstrate their best self on that site as that is not where their passion is. So what then, was I passionate about? I like bacon, but somehow I didn't see myself experiencing too much personal learning on Enjoy Bacon: the social network for people who enjoy bacon. Except for maybe learning there's such a thing as a bacon briefcase.

Then I remembered the social network called Library Thing I had joined back in October. Now here was a social network I wanted to participate in - one for people who love to read books! At first, I had created my account and added a few books. I found the process time consuming, and didn't really explore the site. As a result, the advantages of LibraryThing were not readily apparent. I have always kept track of the books I read each year so that I can refer back to the list to remember interesting authors and estimate how much reading I get done in any given year. LibraryThing allows me to keep track of this online. Great. What else?

It wasn't until I forced myself to sit down in November and really dig into the site that the benefits became apparent. Although I added books to 'my library,' I hadn't figured out how to sort, rate, or comment on them. Once I realized I could do this by clicking on the 'edit book' icon in my list, things got interesting. I sorted my books into categories such as non-fiction, currently reading, children's, young adult, read but unowned, your library, wishlist, and favourites. Some of these categories were supplied by LibraryThing, and some I added to suit my own needs.

The 'read but unowned' category helps me remember books I've borrowed from friends or taken out of the library. So if I find the book lying around my house in a month or two, I better figure out who it belongs to and return it. The 'wishlist' can be emailed as a link to family members who are wondering what to stuff in my stocking this season. Instead of writing down book recommendations on a scrap of paper that gets smooshed in my bag or pocket, the 'to read' category helps me keep track of books that friends and colleagues have recommended. Next time I'm wandering the library and can't remember the book that I wanted to take out, I can quickly check my profile on LibraryThing. And for when I do finally land that teaching job, the 'children's' and 'young adult' categories will help me quickly get my hands on quality books that I can incorporate into my practise.

Now that I had entered a chunk of books, LibraryThing started to get more accurate in its recommendations of books I might like, similar to Amazon's "Customers Who Bought This Book Also Bought" feature. In the section of my home page called 'Members with your books' I could link to other users' libraries with similar collections. For example, sweezel and I had the most number of books in common. Like the dinner guest who heads straight for the books on the shelf to get an idea of one's host, I was able to browse sweezel's collections to get an idea of the person and gain some quality book suggestions. At the bottom of sweezel's profile page is a post by an author asking the member to review his new novel based on a similar book being favourited. How cool is that?

I love my iPod because I can tell that it was designed by people who LOVE music. Now, I also love LibraryThing because I feel that it was designed by people who LOVE books. Some features that I am still exploring include:

• tagging - I feel tagged out right now and didn't use this feature
• connecting with other members 
• uploading books to my library straight from twitter
• the Statistics and Memes page which houses my library stats on the right, and links to a wealth of tools on the left 

Although I found the site somewhat slow to load each book into my library, the overall usefulness for book lovers is outstanding and well worth the time commitment. This is definitely a site which I can envision using with the baby that is still inside my belly. We can keep track of books we have read together, write our own reviews, and get ideas for other books s/he might like.

For public libraries and organizations, there are limits on the practicality of LibraryThing. Even with the feature that allows you to mass upload book titles from files or webpages containing the ISBNs, the process is time consuming. In addition, patrons and clients may not be familiar with LibraryThing and would have to be shown how to take advantage of the service - an additional time commitment. For school libraries, this learning process has value. However, the other factor involved is, of course, money. LibraryThing is "free to 200 books, $10 for a yearly membership, $25 for a lifetime membership" with an additional maximum ceiling of 10,000 books per collection (LibraryThing). Once my personal collection hits 200 books, I will probably weigh the benefits of an annual membership vs. a lifetime. As a Teacher Librarian, I would probably be content with the idea that the school collection is already accessible online and not feel I had to upload the collection, but encourage students to create personal accounts to help foster their love of reading.

Discussion of social networking in terms of teaching and learning

As a primary level teacher, I would never hand my students a class set of hammers. I don't know what we'd do with them or use them for, and I'd be worried for their personal safety. My woodshop-teaching husband, on the other hand, enjoys teaching teenagers to use not only hammers but band saws, jointers, planers, and all manner of things they could cut their fingers off with. What's the difference between us? Experience, knowledge, and skills for safely operating woodworking tools.

Social networks are also tools. The collective knowledge of wikipedia defines a tool as "an entity used to interface between two or more domains that facilitates more effective action of one domain upon the other." So if, as a teacher, I don't know how to use social networks for teaching and learning, then they cease to function as a tool as they cannot possibly generate effective action.

The reality is that students are using social networking sites. "If one wants to be successful in reaching students, one must begin one's teaching where the student actually is, not where one thinks the student ought to be" (Razna, 2009). If the students are on social networks, maybe someone should be teaching them how to safely use the tool? If our overarching goal as educators is to have graduates with:

• the knowledge and skills required to be socially responsible citizens who act in caring and principled ways, respecting the diversity of all people and the rights of others to hold different  ideas and beliefs 
• the knowledge and understanding they need to participate in democracy as Canadian and global citizens, acting in accordance with the laws, rights and responsibilities of a democracy 
• the attitudes, knowledge and positive habits they need to be healthy individuals, responsible for their physical and emotional well-being 
• the attitudes and competencies they need to be community contributors who take the initiative  to improve their own and others’ quality of life (Ministry of Education, page 2)

then shouldn't we be teaching them how to be digital citizens as well?

Pros of using social networking for teaching and learning

• provides an opportunity for teaching about online safety and digital footprints
• "these sites can be used for a whole school to help facilitate social interaction and create bonds among students" (Blanding, 2009)
• encourages even reluctant readers to engage in constant reading, writing, and the higher order thinking skills advocated in Bloom's taxonomy
• basic sites are free and fast to set up
• students and teachers can connect with other people who share their passions and interests
• security settings can be altered to create controlled networks
• social networks are an alternative avenue for students to communicate with their teachers and peers, especially for those too shy or quiet to speak up in class
• creates the 24/7 classroom where the door is never closed
• strengthens rapport between users
• adult participation in social networking sites lets youth know that someone IS home, someone IS watching, and it's not a parent/teacher-free zone where they can do and say whatever they want
• easily facilitates groupwork and collaboration
• de-centres the teacher as the sage on the stage and paints all members as contributors and learners

Cons

• online safety. "Many adolescents who use these sites include names, addresses, and provocative pictures of themselves, behaviour that can only increase their chances of getting into trouble. In addition, students need to know that any content they create online will become a part of their Web portfolio. They need to ask themselves, 'What if someone finds this piece five or ten years from now?'" (Richardson, 13).
• networks take time to create, maintain and moderate
• some networking sites are blocked by school districts. To get his Ning up and running, my husband had to put his case to the school's administration and then get the tech department to unblock the site.
• data mining: students' information is a commodity which can be bought and sold to companies even after a profile is deleted
• blurs the teacher/student boundary and the public/private life of the teacher

On this last point, I would argue that the public/private divide is an urban notion. In very small towns and rural communities, the teachers' and students' lives are more intertwined - with less possibility for personal privacy than is afforded in an urban environment. If teachers from small, rural areas were strictly drawing lines between their personal and professional lives, they would be going from school to home without interacting or participating at all in their broader community, and be lesser teachers for it.

The teachers I have observed who have the greatest connection with students are the ones who ask about their soccer game, how their Mom is making out in her new job, or take a personal interest in the student as a human being. In addition, these teachers are not afraid to let the students know that they are also human beings, one who has a family (pictures on the desk), interests outside of school, and cranky days.

Summary

Social networking sites are not inherently evil. They are tools which can be exercised by teachers who have the experience, knowledge, and skills to put them into safe practise with their students. As Doug Johnson writes on his blog (2008), "Schools DO need to teach safety and privacy with all social networking tools. If we don't, who will?"

References (not linked in text)

Blanding, M.. (2009). Thanks for the Add. Now Help Me With My Homework. Ed.magazine, Winter. Retrieved from http://www.gse.harvard.edu/blog/news_features_releases/2009/01/thanks-for-the-add-now-help-me-with-my-homework.html

Florence, N.. (1998). Bell Hooks' engaged pedagogy: A transgressive eduction for critical consciousness. New York: Greenwood.

Johnson, D.. (2008). http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/10/7/facebook-an-educational-resource.html

Razna. (2009, October 7). Message posted to Thanks for the Add. Now Help Me With My Homework. Ed.magazine, Winter. Retrieved from http://www.gse.harvard.edu/blog/news_features_releases/2009/01/thanks-for-the-add-now-help-me-with-my-homework.html

Rich, A.. (1977). Claiming an education. Speech delivered at the convocation of Douglass College.  Retrieved from http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:kOChPrmwYiYJ:www.u.arizona.edu/~jacovijl/Rich-Claiming%2520an%2520Education.doc+claiming+an+education+by+adrienne+rich&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=safari

Blog #6: Multimedia & Mashups

Introduction

Prior to this week, my understanding of mashups was limited to music and the combining and layering of two songs into one. My iPod is no stranger to musical mashups, where DJs commonly pit one artist 'against' another, such as in the famous version of DJ Dangermouse mixing the Beatles with Jay-Z. The resulting video on YouTube not only plays the audio mashup, but also contains a visual mashup. (WARNING: lyrics contain a few f-bombs, make sure the kiddies are out of earshot).



This song retains the elements of both original artists, and yet takes on a life of its own to become an entirely new entity. Now, when I listen to either original song version, it seems weak and lacking. For DJ Dangermouse to create such a clever masterpiece there had to be an inherent understanding of both compositions, an outstanding mastery of recording equipment, and a creative analysis of rhythm and pitch. Bringing the opportunity for such a high level of thinking and performance into the classroom has many potential uses for educators and students.

Reflections on the process of learning about multimedia and mashups

Just for fun, I started my learning with 13 Fantastic and Fun Image Generators as recommended by Barb Dybwad on the Mashable website. These were fun to play with, but didn't have a lot of depth. I found them to be similar to the 'free time' photocopied activities kept on the back shelf of my classroom - great for fast finishers, independent learners, and extra practise, but not really providing a venue for authentic collaboration or sharing with global audiences. The image generators are easy to use and the creations could be saved and uploaded to a classroom blog or wiki. However, these tools linger in the land of fun and the applications for teaching and learning seemed limited.

To bring some humour to the current H1N1 situation I made a fake warning label for the staff kitchen at my office. There was an email circulating on the benefits of using neti nasal pots for nasal irrigation, and I couldn't let the opportunity for such great comedic material slip me by. I posted the warning label over the kitchen sink and was amazed that it took my co-workers several days to notice the 8 1/2 by 11 poster! Good thing there wasn't a real danger.

I also used the De-Motivational Posters tool to create some ironic posters for co-workers. These were enjoyed by my colleagues, although we had a little too much fun with them and the results were not something we wanted to display on our walls to the public ; )  To create these posters, I pulled images from our server, Facebook, and a Flickr account and then right clicked on the generated image to save to a chosen location. Easy to use, fun to create, these tools were a good activity but limited in their applications for learning.

Feeling confident after using the image generators, I decided to dive into using Animoto and Voicethread. While I explored and read about both tools, I was able to spend more time creating with Animoto. This might be because I was so fascinated by exploring Voicethread and the huge variety of ways it can be used both in and out of the classroom that I wanted to continue exploring rather than creating! As a result, this blog focuses more on Animoto than VoiceThread.

"Animoto is a magically-easy way to grab attention, produce professional-looking public relations products, archive an event, visually showcase our best, and create new visual contexts" (Valenza, 2008).  I had no idea what Animoto was, so I started by watching the 60 second video on the home page, following this week's trailfire, and watching a sample video. The sample video looked rather flashy and hyper, and I doubted I would be making anything similar for my first time out.

The sign up process was straightforward and any concerns I had about somehow ending up paying for service were quickly put to rest. It was very easy to determine which features were for paying users and which were included in the free package as a pop up window informed me that certain options such as image speed were not included in my freeloading package. At $3 for a full length movie, I was a little tempted to splash out and see what features and tools were included, but then I reminded myself that I would not be dishing out $3 per classroom student anytime soon.

My background knowledge of Animoto was pretty limited: I hadn't read about it in the mass media and I didn't know anyone personally who was using it. For these reasons, I actually took the time to read through the terms of service and privacy policy. I was happy to discover that users retain "any and all rights you hold with respect to Image Content and Musical Content."

Creating a video really was as easy as the site claimed, and in three steps my Animoto was being sent to my email account. On the first watch-through I noticed that the images were choreographed in sync with the music. I assumed that this was possible because I selected music from Animoto's library, a service which allows them to more finely synchronize the images and sounds. To test out my theory, I made a second clip (NYC - see below) with a song uploaded from my computer. The images in this second video change every four beats, on the third beat of each bar, and in time to the music. Animoto claims that this ability is due to "their own patent-pending Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology and high-end motion design." Whatever it is, it's pretty cool.

Watching the introductory video for Animoto was so helpful to my clueless state that I decided to take the same strategy for Voicethread. The explanatory video quickly brought me up to speed. I was most impressed with the five different ways users have to comment on a thread: by telephone, webcam, microphone, text, or file upload. Depending very much on the individual thread, I can see myself wanting to use a variety of these commenting approaches. However, I am most intrigued by the phone-in option as it eliminates the need to muck around with microphones and cameras, but still lends the personal touch of your voice to the commenting. 

After the video, I started browsing through some of the shared VoiceThreads. And that's it. I fell in love. There was so much to see, to hear, to think about! There were so many educators using VoiceThread in positive ways for teaching and learning I was boggled. Instead of creating my own VoiceThread this week, I spent blocks of time gathering ideas for potential uses of VoiceThread on both a personal and professional level. I think my awe prevented me from coming up with an immediate use for the application, especially seeing as how I am not in a teaching situation at the moment, and so I continued to browse. And browse. And browse! 

Discussion of multimedia and mashups for my own personal learning

I made this first video with Animoto as an experiment, but also as a possible digital addition to thank you cards. Every year, the non-profit organization I work for organizes our community's celebration of BC Rivers Day. In the past they have held awareness raising events with music and entertainment, but have recently switched formats to a hands-on river cleanup. 2008 saw about 15 people, mostly our staff, picking up garbage along our riverbank. 2009, we were overwhelmed by the community response and had over 120 volunteers with some businesses even making unsolicited donations! We are currently sending out our many thank you cards, and would like to maintain momentum for next year. With this in mind, I created my first Animoto with pictures from the album I created for us on Flickr. Animoto is a great marketing tool for non-profits short on time and/or budgets - with just the free version, or the sponsored pro accounts.

My second Animoto video, I wanted to experiment with song choices and images from my computer rather than Animoto's musical library and photos from a Flickr account. Again, the process was easy-peasy. Because the chorus of the song echos the theme of the images, I wondered how I would be able to work with the music file to make the best use of the media pairing. Happily, I found the slider in the music section which allows users to start songs mid-stream. I played with this feature until I was sure the lyrics matched the pictures. But here, you be the judge:



Post-posting note: When I went to Publish this post, things were displayed all wonky! I had originally tried to embed the Animoto video straight into the blog, but it didn't seem to work. Instead, I exported the videos to YouTube and imbedded from there. So it was with great surprise that when I posted and viewed my blog, two "ghost" videos, the ones I originally tried to embed from Animoto, were suddenly showing up! Not only that, but my YouTube videos were larger than my blog column and were blocking some of my widgets.  None of this had shown up in the blog Preview : (


To fix all this, I had to either edit the html for my template or every single video - a scary, scary decision at 11:00pm on a school night. After some whimpering, I chose editing the videos instead of the template and went back to Animoto to look at the code generated by their embedding tool. Then, I searched my blog html for the corresponding bits and deleted them. This fixed the ghost Animoto videos. Yay! I threw some mid-air punches to celebrate. 

The YouTube videos were a little easier to alter as I understood the "height" and "width" tags. I first checked the YouTube embedding codes to make sure that I had selected the smallest version of video available. I had. Then, for each video, I subtracted 100 from each of the heights and widths: the original was 500 X 315, so I changed them all to be 400 X 215. This produced a kind of squashed-up video size, but one that fit my template and I could live with. The learning continues . . .

Other personal uses I've been pondering since creating these two clips are for personalized greeting cards and invitations. I've spent hours searching for the perfect e-card for friends and family members. Either the message was too sappy or the music was annoying. No more! With Animoto and other media mashup sites, loved ones in far flung places will be receiving very personalized, fun, and meaningful e-cards.

I have also thought about posting a picture of my pregnant self on VoiceThread for the future first-time aunts who live on either end of the continent and haven't been able to keep in touch with the comedy of my rapidly expanding stomach. I would like to be able to hear their reactions the first time they view the photo, and VoiceThread would be the best way to accomplish this. Text commenting, such as in email or on facebook, doesn't have the same emotional impact of hearing the excitement in a loved one's voice. I am still considering this option, however, as I haven't quite worked out how I feel about posting pictures of myself looking most like a beluga whale.

Discussion of multimedia and mashups in terms of teaching and learning

The number of uses of multimedia and mashups for teaching and learning are almost limitless. They provide "ample opportunities for developing students' online critical thinking and communication skills," as well as fuel discussions around ownership of creative material and Creative Commons (McPherson, 2008).

The fun potential in image generators could bring a laugh to many a staff room, and the excitement of Animoto could liven up school assemblies. VoiceThread, with its capability for posting and sharing in a variety of media, is the best multimedia tool I examined this week to impact teaching and learning. Bob Sprankle (2009) has compiled the following list of ways educators can use VoiceThread:

Curriculum Possibilities:

• Book talks

• Class discussions

• Assessment

• Digital storytelling

• Journal keeping

• Asynchronous lectures (listened to before or after “face-to-face” lessons)

• Step-by-step math tutorials

• Content review

• Lab reports in science

Home-School Connections:

• Newsletters

• Family trees or “reunions” (where students collect stories from their extended families)

• Tutorials—to help parents support their child with homework

• Yearbooks (Each student could have a page and the entire VoiceThread could be downloaded at the end of the year and burned to DVD.)

• Field trips (Because you can upload audio, you can take photos and make recordings during the trip and share them with the community later on the VoiceThread. Parents can come along for the ride!)

• Tours of the school

Professional Development:

• Tutorials

• Professional development presentations

• Committee work

VoiceThread has been largely embraced by educators for digital storytelling, but as the list above demonstrates, its applications are profound. While not as expansive, Animoto should not be ignored as it engages users in a slightly different way. In the "Tips for this section" for the Imagery portion of making an Animoto clip, the platform states: "Animoto users often tell us they think differently about how they take images when they want to make an Animoto video. Instead of capturing individual moments, they try to capture a whole experience though a series of images. Instead of thinking like a photographer, they're thinking like a director. They think about the story they want to share, and they use images to tell that story." For students, this application enables the "visual, aural, and textual learner to quickly create and communicate complex new and powerful stories and messages of a multimodal nature" (McPherson, 2008), and creates active observation and participation in their life experiences.

Pros of multimedia use for teaching and learning

• easy to use and mostly free
• much better than a bulletin board where "the only audience is people within the school who are limited to viewing the work; they can't interact with it in any way. In a VoiceThread . . . Visitors can leave comments, give feedback, and ask questions" (Sprankle, 2009).
• Voicethread has an advantage over PowerPoint as Voicethread has the power of "transforming presentations into conversations that invite deeper reflection and critical thinking" (Sprankle, 2009).
• fun!

Cons of multimedia use for teaching and learning

• these tools are web-based applications: "a modem or slow wireless internet connection will grind Animoto to a halt. The applications' heavy reliance on Adobe's band-width-hungry Flash Player makes using anything other than a reliable high speed Internet access an understated exercise in frustration" (McPherson, 2008). 
• Animoto "does not provide users with tools for fine-tuning the presentation" (McPherson, 2008).

Summary

Multimedia and mashup sites are fun to observe and fun to create in. Teachers and students can use the tools in all subjects and at all grade levels, provided they have adequate computer and internet access. While each application has some sort of limitation, they all provide learners the opportunity to increase their digital literacy skills, engage in thoughtful reflection and analysis, and be creative in their demonstration of learning. Multimedia speaks to the different learning modalities and is easier to use now than ever before.

Works Cited

McPherson,K.. (2008). mashing literacy. Teacher Librarian, 35(5), 73-75. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1502965521).

Sprankle, B.. (2009, October). VoiceThread. School Talk, 15(1), 4-6. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1884218111).

Valenza, J.. (2008). Announcing: Animoto for Education. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1560024356.html