Like Two Peas in a Podcast

About an hour ago, I set out to write this GREAT blog about podcasting, so I grabbed my trusty dog (although he didn't seem to be terribly happy with that), hunkered down under my heated blanket, came up with a fairly catchy title, and for about 45 minutes sat and stared at the computer screen.  The entire time I sat here, I just kept thinking "What the heck amd I going to write about podcasting that those who are interested don't already know, or those who aren't interested would even care about"?

As usual, I did my research - started out with Wikipedia because, as I've already established, that's pretty much where we all start - and found out the reason podcasts are called podcasts was because of the iPod (go figure).  I also learned that the very first time the phrase "podcasting" was used was in The Guardian newspaper back in 2004.  Now, I could spend the next 15 minutes, or so, writing about the podcasts' history, but by that time I would not only have bored myself to sleep but also anyone who stumbled across my blog.  Not exactly what I was going for.  My intention is not to bore but to get you excited and passionate about the prospect of podcasting; passionate enough that if you are an educator and you are not using podcasting in your classroom, after reading this you will not only seriously think about podcasting but maybe even decide to run out and give it a try in your classroom.

The problem is though, how do I make someone passionate about something they feel they have no use for, or they feel may be too complicated to use?  To me, that's the great thing about being a teacher.  Teacher's are always willing to try something new (right?!?), especially if it means that it is going to get their students excited, and podcasting could very well be that one thing that tips the scales in the right direction.  It could be the one thing that takes a mediocre project and turns it into something spectacular.  For instance, let's say, you are a high school student and you are being asked to do a report on the Civil War.  It's a group project and you've been told under no circumstances are you allowed to turn in, yet another, PowerPoint presentation.  What do you do?  Easy.  You get your group together, brainstorm a bit, figure out how you want your project to come across (interview, reinactment, etc.), write a script, practice a few times, grab a laptop with a built in microphone (or find a couple you can plug in), download a free recording/editing program (such as audacity), record your project, edit it, add a few sound affects for ambience and a little background music (from the public domain, of course), play it back to make sure you have it exactly as you want it and wham, bam, boom, you have yourself one heck of a history project.  At the end of the project, you have a bunch of happy teeanagers who are proud of the job they've done and a teacher who isn't being given the same old, same old.

If that doesn't excite you, then how about this.  You teach at a middle school,where you have students who are interested in broadcasting.  You have the means to make morning announcements, but no budget to set up a "radio station".  What's the next best thing?  Podcasting.  Take that same group of students, have them write up their script, record the announcements, add a little "evening news" type music and sound affects and you have yourselft a great way to deliver the announcements in the morning to the entire school.  Again, what do you have?  A bunch of students who are proud of their achievements, a different medium to present their "project", a tool that is available to pretty much everyone, and a way to get their message across without being boring.

As an educator, it is our job to teach, but it is also our job to keep things fresh for our students and make them want to learn.  Anyone can stand in a classroom and lecture for 45 to 70 minutes, but adding the element of "fun" to a project is only going to bring out the passion in your students and ignite the passion in you as an educator.  Plus, you never know, you may very well have the next Walter Cronkite or Barbara Walters in your midst, and without giving podcasting a try you may never know.  You could be that one educator standing between that student and the chance of a lifetime.  How would you like to live with that guilt for all eternity? I know I wouldn't.  So if you haven't, give podcasting a try.  You, and your students, will be glad you did!

Wiki Wiki Wiki Wha?

Wanna take a guess what this week's blog is supposed to be about?  Go ahead, give it a second,  I'll wait.

Yep, you got it.  It's WIKI's.  So what is a wiki you may ask?  Or you may not, but since it's an assigment, I'll explain anyway. 

wi·ki  (/ˈwikē/)  Noun
A Web site developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add and edit content.

 

There is the quick definition of what a wiki is.  Are you impressed yet?  No?  Well let me see if I can't change that for you.

 

Obviously we all know the most popular wiki in the world is wikipedia.  By a show of hands, how many of you out there turn to wikipedia first when you want to know what something is?  Come on, don't be shy.  We know we all do it.  Why?  Because it's easy.  Years ago, if we wanted to know something we'd trudge to the basement or where ever our Encyclopedia Brittanica's were stashed, and look it up that way.  Now we have wikipedia.  Sure there are lots of other sources on the Internet, but wikipedia seems to be the most concise source available.  That begs the questions, especially as educators (or parents, or students), is it accurate?  Who knows.  It's as accurate as the community who is writing it.  Was everything we ever read in the Encyclopedia Brittanca accurate?  Again, who knows.  Most people assumed (just like they do with wikipedia) that it wouldn't be in print if it weren't accurate but just because something has taken written form does not always mean it's so.  If that were the case then, according to the Enquirer, half of the world's population would either be, or would have been abducted by, aliens.

 

Does that mean that wiki's like wikipedia are BAD and we should never use them as sources of information; that they are all automatically wrong?  No, but as educators, parents and/or students we need to be vigilant and remember not to take everything we read at face value.  Today, especially, there are so many sources of information available and we should take advantage of all of them.

 

So, if you and a bunch of your friends have something you want to contribute and have information you want to share, get out there and create yourself a wiki.  They are much easier to work with that creating a full blown-out web site, plus there are enough free wiki sites available that it takes nothing to get one started.  Just remember, the information you provide is only as good as the knowledge you know, but don't feel badly if someone comes along and disputes it.  As fast as the world changes, the knowledge you have today may only be as good as yesterday's news.

 

One final thought.  Do you know where the term wiki comes from?  It was coined by its creator, Ward Cunningham.  Cunningham developed the first wiki software in 1995 and named it the WikiWikiWeb because of a shuttle he took at the Honolulu International Airport.  The shuttle was called the Wiki shuttle.  Wiki was a reduplication of the word Wiki Wiki which, in Hawaiian, means fast.  Because the idea behind the WikiWikiWeb was to make pages quickly editable by its users, Ward initally thought about calling it the QuickWeb, but changed his mind and the WikiWikiWeb was born.  Thanks Wikipedia for starting me on my journey to find this information, and thanks Ward Cunningham and your Wiki Page for confirming (and for giving us such a great tool).

 

So in honor of Ward Cunningham and Hawaii, I'm going to go grab me a wiki wiki pina colada and spend the rest of my weekend working on my Wiki.  Anyone want to join me?

It's a Blog World After All

For those who don’t know, I am in graduate school.  It has taken me a long time to get here, but in a few short weeks (providing I don’t blow my exit interview) I will have earned my Master’s in Education.  For the past 5 semesters I have been learning all about how to effectively use technology in the classroom.   Not just physical technology, but “mental” technology as well.  Anyone can introduce the use of computers, or projectors, or Smartboards, but it’s HOW you use them that counts, not just that you have them to use.

This semester we are studying Web 2.0, which is just a fancy schmancy way to use the web to communicate and collaborate with others.  Web 2.0 has made using the Internet much more interactive and some educators have found ways to adopt the use of Web 2.0 to break down the 4 walls of their classroom and bring the world closer to their students and their students closer to the world.

Our assignment, this semester, was to start a blog.  I have never been a fan of blogging because blogging has always felt like a me, me, me, kind of proposition but, since this is our assignment, I am taking it on with as much fervor as I possibly can.  Am I going to write a bunch of useless information about myself?  Nope, that’s just not my style.  Anyone who wants to know anything about me only has to ask, but to openly blurt stuff out about myself, no can do.  But what I can do is throw a bit of myself into the assignments we are given, and hopefully we’ll all learn something along the way…  And so, here goes.

This week, we were asked to write blog about blogs.  I don’t know who, out there, has ever tried to write a blog, but a blog about blogs?  I can tell you for the better part of the last few days I have been completely blog blocked.  After spending the day watching one Lifetime movie after another, it finally hit me.  I was not going to solve my blocked blog issue watching sappy movies.  It was time to put down the remote and do a little research.  So like Pooh, I went to my thoughtful spot (my bed under my heated blanket) and did a Google search to find out why it was that people wrote blogs in the first place.

According to Brian Gardner, there are 7 reasons why people blog:

1.      To Teach – according to Mr. Gardner, if you happen to be an expert in a specific subject matter then the best way to let people know how talented you are is to write a blog about what you know. 

2.      To Direct Traffic to Your Website – If you have a website that you want people to visit, perhaps one of the best ways to get people to visit your website would be to blog about it.

3.      To Help Others – Blogs can be used as Internet support groups. 

4.      To Change the World – Sometimes blogs are started in order to raise awareness about specific issues are causes in our country and around the world.

5.      To Stay Connected – Blogs can be used as digital newsletters; a place where family and friends can get together and share information about what is happening in their lives, post pictures, personal news, accomplishments, etc.

6.      To Make Money – Some people start blogging to make a little extra cash, although it takes a lot of hard work and effort to make money blogging.

7.      To Have Fun – This is the most interesting one, I think.  People start blogging just for the sake of blogging.  They have a passionate interest in certain subject matters and they want to be able to share that passion with the rest of the world.  They have fun blogging about a topic and they are looking for ways to stay connected.

8.      Because it is a Grad Assignment – I feel the need to add just one more to Mr. Gardner’s list and that is people blog because it is part of an assignment they received from their Grad Professor.

Clearly, there are a lot of reasons why people blog but I think there needs to be one more reason added to the list.

 9. People blog because they want to know that they are being seen by other people and they are anxious to get a comment so they can feel some sort of validation.  They want to know that there are people out there, like them, feeling what they are feeling.  But mostly, they just want people to know they are…

So for all you bloggers out there, I say more power to you.  Keep teaching, and supporting, and trying to save the world.  If you're trying to make money, you might want to get a day job (or 2) but I wish you all the luck with that endeavor.  Mostly, know that we see you (and now hopefully you see me too), and we validate what you stand for.

A Cliche' By Any Other Name, May Be One I Just Don't Understand

So here it is, 11:51 at night, on a Friday and I'm lying in bed with my trusty computer and my faithful dog, or is it my faithful computer and my trusty dog?  No matter, really, because we are all three here.  My husband has abandonded us for the solitude of the living room and ESPN (as he prepares for the Super Bowl in two days).  "No time like the present" I suppose.  As I lie here, typing my first ever blog and pondering the point of it all, I'm wrapped up in listening to the peaceful sounds of my canine companion snoring softly, stretched out across my feet.  As he snores away, my mind begins to wander a bit and images of my husband pop into my head; images of him lying next to me snoring, only his aren't quite so soft and peaceful.  I describe his snoring, much like my mother described my fathers.  When he gets started his snoring "could wake the dead".

It's funny how the mind works sometimes.  No sooner did I hear my mother's words echo in my head, I then heard my Grandmother, "Grandpa snores to beat the band", she would always say.  I'm not sure what that meant, but it always sounded funny and we'd all get a good laugh out of it.

Growing up, our family was never at a loss to describe certain things and events in our lives.  Thinking back on those phrases now, we certainly were a colorful lot.  I think there aren't many people out there who haven't heard the old "What were you, born in a barn?" which of course means nothing more than "Shut the front door", but how about "I am not air conditioning the entire State of Texas", which also means "Shut the front door".   How about these standards: "Jiminy Christmas" or "For Pete's Sake".  In today's lingo those both would mean "Are you kidding me?"  Admittedly, I'm still trying to figure out who Pete is, or why anyone would reference the cricket from Pinocchio, but "to each his own".

As I got older I always wanted to stay out "Til the cows came home", but when you don't have cows then how the heck are you supposed to know when you are supposed to go home?  Alas, no cows meant parental curfew.  If I broke parental curfew then I was in trouble "until Hell wouldn't have it" and the only way I could be obvsolved of my punishment was if "Hell froze over".  You will never know how happy I was the day I found out that Hell was in Michigan and the first time I heard they had snow, I was right there to tell my parents I was no longer in trouble because Hell had actually frozen over.  That's about the time I learned the phrase "Over my dead body".

So "God willing, and the creek don't rise", I just about made it through my first blogging experience.  I have been writing for a little more than an hour, so now it is Saturday morning, and, based on my Grandfather's wise words of wisdom, it will remain "Saturday, all day, unless it rains".  Although my precious pup is still sound asleep at my feet, I am calling it a night, because I am "feeling like I've been ridden hard and put away wet".  So "Here's looking at you kid" and "I'll catch you on the flip side".