What it all means

Remember filmstrips?  The sound of the "ding" was the signal to turn the strip.  We've come along way.  I agree that we need to employ technology to keep up with our students.  I know they more about these tools than I do and I need to master wikis and blogs, podcasting, and more.  But we also need to teach our students how to manage all barrage of information.   They need to learn social network etiquette.    These students do no live in an era where they can assume that information found on the web is correct.  They need to research and confirm the facts.  It is our job to show them how.

I did enjoy the epilogue and English teacher Tom McHale.  He did seem to get a tremendous amout done before his students arrived.  He opened his personal weblob, scanned the New York Times headlines, used his Diigo toolbar, bookmarked a few things, read some summaries of students work and left some positive feedback.  I could go on.   But, what happens if the power goes out?  With all these wonderful tools and technology, I still hope he has a backup plan.

Social Networks

Facebook is as ubiquitous as the telephone.  Actually corded phones are starting to dissappear.   Facebook and texting are the venues where plans are made, rsvp and so on.   Most students  today have facebook accounts.  According to an article in the Boston Globe 51%  of teens log on to a social network site at least once a day.  My guess is that is more.  This is a tech savvy, wired generation.  Still, I'm not ready to use Facebook in the classroom.   The reasons are endless.  I agree that some great discussions could take place, but today that are too many cons to take a chance with the pros.

The more I read about Ning it seems as though there are a lot of down sides.   It seems that a wiki can allow for discussion as well as posting visual and oral presentations.

Podcasting, Video & Screencasting and Live Streaming

The secret of learning a foreign language is practice.  That is exactly what you can do with a podcast.  I can record my own voice or I can assign a podcast from iTunes.  Johnny Spanish is pretty good.  Most of our students have iPods, iPods have microphones.   Foreign language teachers can assign a podcast and follow up questions that must be answered in the target language.  This allows the student to practice the language outside of the classroom.  ¡Que maravilloso! Y después un grado para la tarea transmitid oralmente.
Kids love to see themselves on the big screen.  As I've stated before I'm not comfortable showing students faces.  That said I've used many youtube videos which were projects for Spanish class.

 The students really enjoy them and relate to the students on the screen.  Once again, great for high school, no so for grades 5 and 6. 

In the case of screencasting I did watch John Udell's   screencasting.  It actually cleared wikis up for me.  But I was in over my head when it came to live streaming. 

Fun with Flicker

When I started this chapter my first response was "Oh no.. no way am I going to post pictures on the web". Parents, administrators, the students themselves and the steady stream of permission slips would make it difficult. As I kept reading I realized the cultural possibilities because of Flickr are endless. Their Creative Commons copyright liscenses allows the students access to an endless library of pictures. An example would be a picture project for the Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico. Not only could the students choose pictures from the Flickr library, the could also annotate the pictures.

Students can also take virtual tours of other countries and annotate the pictures in Spanish.  The possibilities are endless.  Have them make a visual representation of subject pronouns, direct object pronouns.  It is interesting and the kids would love the finished projects.  My response now is "I am going to use this a lot".

The Social Web

Check you blog, update your wiki, don't forget to check e-mail and let's add Twitter.  Sound like a busy night.  I can understand how blogging and wikis can be implemented in the classroom. I'm not so sure about Twitter.   I also have to ask, do we really want cell phones in our classroom?  At 146 characters per tweet I'm not convinced that I'm going to get a lot of bang for my buck.  But I am afraid that it might blow up.  Who of us has not seen a video of a teacher losing control on youtube?  Twitter.  Maybe at the college level, but not in a middle school.

However,  I am a fan of social bookmarking services.   It''s a place to collect your favorite sites.  If your computer crashes you still can acess your favorites from another site.  I can see having my students set up a diigo for Spanish colleting cultural sites as well as vocabulary and grammar.  As for me, I'm already hooked on Shelfari.  Just check it out and you'll see why.

RSS - Killer App

Think of the internet as an amazing mall, it has everything and it is all in stock.  RSS is your personal shopper and it delivers the goods to your doorstep.  Once you've set up your drop off site or mailbox, your aggregator (feed collector/personal shopper) drops off all of the new information it has collected for your perusal.    Rather than spend my time searching for information, the RSS has done it for me. 

I did just that.  I'm about to start a cultural lesson on Spain and bullfighting.  This sport has been an integral part of Spanish culture and has just been banned in Barcelona.  I set up my RSS and rather than search for information on this cultural upset, my feed has done the work for me.   I can see how students would love the idea of their computer doing some of their research for them.  On a personal note I really enjoyed the word of the day link.   I don't want to be milquetoast when it comes to technology!

There was another point of interest that really hit me in the chapter.  We have to teach or at least introduce our student to skills they will be using when they enter the workforce.  I can easily see how knowlege and use of RSS can be  important skill to have.

Wikis Easy Colaboration.

Back in the dark ages you went to the library and went straight for the encyclopedia Brittanica.  Why? Because you trusted that big, dusty book.  You had confidence that any fact that was printed  was accurate.  It takes a leap of faith to completely trust Wikipedia.  That said, the fact that it is updated in real time is amazing.  We can look up facts as they happen.  But what happens when someone get something wrong?  However the fact is that when we want to look something up quick, we will wiki.

We are 21st century teachers.  In the classroom we are tapping into our students strength when we use a wiki.  They are very comfortable with technology.  Through the wiki they can take part in cultural exchanges like seeing the statue of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza in Madrid.  They can also engage in discussion with each other through edits,  and subpages.   All students can add information onto the page.  Of course they are on the honor system.  Remember what one student posts, another can take away.

Weblogs - Get Started!

The title says it all.  You just have to jump in and start blogging.   Of course this is after the vail of mystery has been lifted.  Start small, but start.  I liked the idea of posting a question and asking the student to make a certain number of responses.  As a foreign language teacher this is a great way to have the students exposed and use the language outside of the class room.  This is also an excellent assessment, the quality of the writing in Spanish.   A quick note to Foreign language teachers Destino España is a great site for culture.  Post a question, have them watch and answer in the target language.

As always safety is number one.   I am always just a little worried when I send the students off into cyberspace.  We need to include the parents and Bud Hunt's letter to parents is a good model to follow.
So just take the plunge and start blogging.