A year or so ago Michelle blogged about alternatives to gcast. One of the websites that she mentioned was yodio.com/. Since then, I have had the opportunity to work with the site a little bit. It is an easy, quick, and free way to create slideshows that include not only your pictures, but your voice. It combines podcasting and digital photography.

I have had teachers make a yodio of their autistic students that was used to provide information about that student to staff members. Another teacher is using yodio to showcase her student’s alliteration book. After each child creates their image and sentence, they are recording themselves reading their page. Yet another teacher has used yodio as a way for students to narrate how to solve a math problem. This example is available below:

Teachers can use yodio as a way to track student’s ability to read a piece of text – another fluency check. It can be a great way to showcase a students development not only for yourself, but for students and parents.

A note: if you add your phone number from school and that number doesn’t show up on a caller I.D., then it won’t automatically tie into your account. There is a way to add a password when you use that number so that you can access that podcast on your account.

For ease of use, this is a great way for students to begin creating personalized products.

It has been many, many months since I have last posted, but I decided that I really wanted to post at least one thing over break. I decided to focus on dvolver.com/.

This site allows anyone to create a three scene movie with up to two characters in each scene. Students can choose the setting, the background, the characters (and their dialog), the music, their title, and the title theme. It is a great way to allow students to begin working with these concepts in a more sophisticated way. I have had my students create movies explaining an important historical event, a process, and a “how to” video. They were able to select their topics based upon those three criteria. You could have students create a video on virtually anything. Some ideas would include: how to solve a math problem, a biography of a historical figure (or themselves), how to care for an animal or pet, how to play a game, and why something is important.

Since my students weren’t setting up an account, they had to create their video in one class sitting. I therefore created a graphic organizer where they selected their scene, background, character, and music selections ahead of time. I also have a place for them to write out their dialog. I found that if I just had them try to create it on the fly, they really struggled with not only finishing it within the class period, but also creating a quality product.

Just a small warning before you have your students create their own movies – preview the entire process first. There are several scenes and characters that would not be appropriate for students to use. I do not include those options in the graphic organizer that I created. When I am previewing the site with them, I show them all of the characters and scenes, but quickly point out those that are not O.K. for them to use. I have had no problems with them using inappropriate characters or scenes.

The great thing about dvlover is that you can embed the movies. I have my students embed theirs on their personal page on the class wiki. Click here to view some examples of my students’ movies.

Since I teach in a K-8 school, I can have my students create movies that can be used to instruct younger students or to extend their knowledge. I try hard to have a purpose beyond just completing the assignment for them to consider.

Below is a Jing screencast that I created to explain how to create a dvolver.com/ movie.

Dvolver

This screencast explains how to embed your dvolver movie onto a wikispaces page.

Embedding Dvolver

This is the graphic organizer that I created for my class: dvolver storyboard-1

I have found dvolver to be a great way for my students to create a visual representation of their knowledge.

In December, a colleague of mine, Kevin Byers, told me about a site that he was using with his students – Ning.com/. I was curious about the site and decided, after talking to him about it for a while, to try it with my students. Over winter break, I created my classroom Ning. I decided that I would keep the site closed so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it being open to everyone. My students had to access the site by invitation only through e-mail, so I decided that I would use their ePal accounts. After returning to school, I got permission from my principal and was ready to begin the process.

I first had to teach my students about social sites (which Ning is), how to communicate on them, how to navigate to the site, selecting an avatar, and the list goes on. My students loved it immediately. It was something that they were interested in doing not only every day at school, but also at home. After I had buy-in, I knew that I must keep the purpose of the site academically related.

We started by having discussions in the forum section about the books that they were reading. Invitations to join the site were extended to all of my students, but also to administrators and other teachers that were interested in posting information. This became a place where all of my students could communicate.

From there, I moved to embedding videos on the site. The first round of videos were based on what my students were studying in social studies class. For one group, a video on ancient Greece, for another, an archaeological dig, and for the last group, Chinese immigration. After watching the video, there was a question and they needed to respond to it. They could also respond to someone else’s comment. I found that this was an engaging way to bring content into my classroom so that I could support building background knowledge.

While gcast.com/ was free, I was able to embed podcasts that my students had given over various books so that others could listen to it.

Moving into next year, I plan on teaching my students about blogging (as there is a blog feature). I think that this can be a great way to lead into a more technical writing, especially if they begin quoting other sources (which I would like for them to do).

If you decide to start your own Ning (which means “peace” in Chinese, by the way), there are several things to keep in mind.

1. Decide if you want your site to be open or closed. As the creator of the site, you have network creator privileges and select the level of security that you want.

2. You can also decide what types of features that you want on the site (videos, blogs, groups, forums, music, events, etc).

3. You can decide the level of control over what information is posted. For some features, you can establish a requirement that the network creator must approve posts.

4. Each member of the Ning has their own page. As network creator, you can decide if they can change the colors on that page (this was something that I did allow).

5. Since my Ning was for academic purposes, I knew each student’s login information. This was not only a safeguard feature, but also one of practicality. I can’t tell you how many forgot their login information.

6. The content of the Ning is really up to you, the creator and to your members. The sky is the limit!

With the unfortunate new price that it costs to use Gcast.com, Jennifer and I have been searching the Internet for alternatives that are free to use. Luckily, we have found two that we like. For those of you unfamiliar with Gcast, it is an online podcast host that allows its users to call in by phone and record a podcast. The podcast is saved to the users account to be edited later if needed or published. Jennifer had been using Gcast with her students to record their book talks. She was going to expand her use of Gcast to her professional development co-teaching class so that the members of the class could record their co-planning session. In search of an alternative solution, we posted a tweet asking for suggestions of similar sites to Gcast. In return, we were referred to phonecasting.com and drop.io.

Here is what we have found to be and not to be useful…

Phonecasting.com seems to offer promise because it allows users to record and publish podcasts through various methods such as uploading your podcast from your computer or calling and recording a podcast from your phone. It is free to use and the number you call to record the podcast is toll free. The later was a huge feature that we considered essential for two reasons: 1) we cannot expect our students to call a long distance number from their home phone and they may not have a cell phone 2) teachers cannot call long distance from the school and to record a co-planning session would possibly use excess minutes on their cell phones. However, Jennifer and I were both unsuccessful at setting up a channel (the location where the podcasts would be stored or featured). Even after referencing the “how to” directions many times, we still could not figure out how to completely set up the account and channel. It was very frustrating and we can normally figure out these types of things (at least together). Needless to say, we will not be using phonecasting.com.

I liked Drop.io almost immediately. Drop.io is much like an online file folder for sharing files. It allows you to upload media, documents, podcasts, pretty much anything you can imagine. It even allowed me to upload a .m4v file that I created and then exported from iMovie. You can “drop” a file by uploading it directly to your drop.io folder, emailing it, or calling and recording a voicemail. Drop.io also provides a number to call if you wish to host a conference call. Drop.io was very easy to set up and use. When I performed a “test” call, I was surprised how quickly the .mp3 file appeared in the drop. The only set back that we foresaw was the long distance telephone number for the voicemail.

Yodio.com allows users to record, create, and share pictures, presentations, etc. Yodio users upload pictures or a presentation and add narration from their computer or by phone. The number users call to record their Yodio is toll free. However, the number the user calls from must be registered with the account being called. Yodio was also very easy to set up and use. One thing that we like about Yodio is the visual component it offers.

We would love to hear of any sites that you use for podcasting or how you use podcasting in your classroom.

This is the second and final part of Dr. Marzano’s speech. It is primarily about assessment.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Dr. Marzano spoke at the CUE (Computer Using Teachers) Conference in March 2009. This is the first part of his keynote. I believe that it shows very practical implications for schools and school districts around the country.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

A couple of weeks ago my cousin passed away, and I traveled to Georgia to be with my family for the funeral. My cousin’s death was published in the local and state news papers and online. I was previously aware of the interactive side of news (being able to comment on an article) but had never commented on any articles or been on the receiving end of those comments. People who new my cousin or our family left notes of sympathy, love, and encouragement after the obituary. I thought this was a wonderful use of the interactive web. However, there were also comments left from readers of the news story (separate from the obituary). Some of the comments and opinions left were uncensored as far as how they may impact and affect the family of the deceased. I saw this as the less attractive side of the interactive web. 

Since then, I have been pondering how to blog about my new experience with the interactive web and what I learned from it. First, I think the ability to comment on the news can be thought provoking and beneficial. The comments of sympathy, love, and encouragement were overwhelming and brought joy and warmth to our family. However, I don’t think that it is a place where the random reader should write whatever they want just because they can. Maybe this falls under web etiquette.  

So, why did I blog about this and what does it have to do with English language learners? I think that this is another form of authentic writing that can be used with our students. Standard 2 of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) standards for the 21st-Century Learner states that “Learners use skills, resources, and tools to draw conclusions, make informed decisions, apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge.” As members of a democratic society, it is essential that our students know how to think critically and make informed decisions. It is also important to teach them how to participate ethnically and productively (AASL standard 3). The interactive news websites can be a tool we use to facilitate the teaching of these skills.

Almost a month ago, I signed my classes up at http://www.epals.com.  It is a website that matches classrooms from around the world that are looking to work on similar projects together.  I had my students get parental permission and started e-mailing teachers in other countries that had students of a similar age.  I finally had a class respond over the weekend and my students e-mailed students in Italy today.  My students are incredibly excited and enthused about communicating with students from around the world.

Here is how it works.  After you get parent permission (the site wants it for students under the age of 13, I made all of my students get one), you create an account for each student.  There are several options on the types of accounts that you can create for them – those are explained at the site.  After you have created the accounts, you get to select the amount of monitoring that you would like to have over each account.  I selected the highest level of monitoring, which means that each e-mail has to be approved for delivery both incoming and outgoing.  My students grumbled a little bit about this, but when I explained why this was necessary, they understood.  It was also a selling point with parents.  Students can access their account anywhere they have access to the internet.  I have signed up for computer lab time, our ePals are e-mailing us from their homes.

Even after our first day e-mailing, I can see the types of conversations that we will have about letter writing, use of slang, how to write questions, spelling, and editing on the computer.  I am excited to have them start receiving responses.

Eventually, I want them to share the books that they are reading and the literature that their ePals are reading.  This might lead into a shared project – the sky’s the limit!

Slideboom.com is a place where you can host your PowerPoint presentations or search for presentation that have been uploaded by other users. The website is very easy to use and quickly uploads presentations. Slideboom is a great tool for sharing your presentations with other educators and students. Also, if you create a presentation at home or at school, just upload it to slideboom and you can access it from any location. I hope you find slideboom.com as easy to use and useful as we have. If you would like to look at the presentations we have uploaded, you can find them at slideboom.com/people/ellclassroom. Feel free and please download them and modify the presentations to meet the needs of your students.

I was surfing Amazon and it finally connected for me – my students could post book reviews online.  I decided to find a way for them to use this site to publish their writing.  As I looked further into the site, I discovered that they could post their reviews as “A Kid’s Review.”  This was perfect as I don’t want them to put up their names or locations.  They will log in under my name, type their reviews, and post it as a kids’ review.

Earlier in the year I showed my students amazon.com (most of them had never visited the site or heard of it) and how to search for books and read book reviews.  So that was where I started.  With a borrowed laptop and LCD projector, my students and I search the site, looking specifically at book reviews.  We pulled up reviews on books that they were reading.  They were shocked that people wrote reviews about books that they didn’t like and that people didn’t necessarily like the books that they loved.  They were also concerned that the authors would read the reviews and see that people didn’t necessarily love their book.  We made sure that we previewed some of the reviews before class so that we could specifically show them some examples where the reviewer had a lot of voice and was creative.  One of my students wanted to post a review about his favorite book right there, so we did.  He dictated what he wanted to say, read it over, edited it, and then we posted it.  It takes about 48 hours for a review to post, so I checked back a couple of days later, and there it was.  I showed it to him, but he said that he had already looked online and seen it.  

My next step was to have my students start breaking apart reviews and looking for the “must haves.”  I created a PowerPoint presentation to show students the various parts of a book review.

Pod area set up ready for class.

After going through the example, students worked in groups to highlight the major parts of their book review.

Students highlighting book reviews.

Groups working.

I discovered that it was difficult for them to tell the difference between opinions and plot.  I can tell that we are going to have to work on this as they begin writing their own reviews – which will be next week.

If you would like to see or use the PowerPoint, it is uploaded at:  http://www.slideboom.com/people/ellclassroom