Screen Recording

I love the idea of using screen recording for teaching the research project. Students always have a hard time looking for the information for citations. Screen recording would help with this in a number of ways:
1) Accessing Purdue OWL research pages,
2) Reviewing MLA and APA format,
3) Accessing school research databases,
4) Examining different articles within the databases to find things like author, title, and date of publication, and
5) Creating PowerPoint slideshows for research presentations.

Students are becoming more visual learners. This technology will be a good way to hook them and to assist those who need repeated instructions.

Flickr

One of the ideas for using Flickr I shared in the class discussion blog was using it to post photos of some of the sites I saw in England for my English Lit. class. I took numerous pictures of the Globe Theatre and Stratford-Upon-Avon. They give a bit of context to Shakespeare's world. What would it be like to stand with the rest of the groundlings to see a Shakespeare play? What does his gravesite look like? Other places where I took photos included Canterbury, Oxford, Bath, and the Lake District. Students might get a real feel for why many of the early Romantics were inspired by nature if they could see some of what those poets saw. These visuals could be compelling tools for the classroom.

YouTube Videos

Here's a partial list of YouTube videos that I think could be useful in class:
Introduction to Renaissance, Great Chain of Being, and Scansion -- A short humorous introduction that previews many of the elements discussed in the Renaissance unit.

Hamlet: To Be or Not To Be - Richard Burton and Ethan Hawke. I think it would be productive to have students compare and contrast two performances of the same lines. The Richard Burton scene is from a 1964 play; the Ethan Hawke scene, the 2000 movie.

Shakespeare: A Small Rewrite -- A hilarious sketch from Comedy Relief in which Hugh Laurie as Shakespeare endures requests of a rewrite of Hamlet from his producer played by Rowan Atkinson. This is one of those treat videos that students will really appreciate after studying the play.

Podcasting

Right now, I see podcasting as mainly a teaching tool, another access point for students to receive information. This could include such things as lectures and project instructions. I think I would want these to be redundancies, though, rather than primary tools because some students may lack appropriate access to the podcast technology. On my wiki, I downloaded a podcast that could serve as the first part of my mini-lecture on the opening unit in English Literature. I could also see using podcasts to break down steps in projects like the research paper. In relation to the brevity of the wiki podcast, I think I would want to continue to limit my podcasts to no more than 10 minutes because 1) students' attention spans aren't very long and 2) shorter podcasts are easier to produce.

I can also see using podcasts for outside resources. The Education Podcast Network, for example, has links to series devoted to dramatic readings from and lectures on Shakespeare and to creative writing tips. I can see these resources being helpful to students. Maybe some sites would include interviews with famous authors, professors, or other experts.

The one area of podcast utility that I'm not completely sold on yet is having students podcast. It would seem to me that almost any projects involving student podcasts would have to be creative group projects like putting together a dramatic reading as a radio play. I suppose, depending on the class, that some students might be capable enough to podcast their own interviews with experts.

In any case, I'm sure that the use of podcasts in the classroom will continue to grow.

Other language arts podcasting resources:
Literature Podcast Directory
Writing Podcast Directory
Books of Our Time

General podcasting resources:
Apple Education Podcasting
Podcasting in Education - University of Minnesota
Podcasting in Education - Shaun Else

Blocking Blogs

My school blocks both blogs and social networking sites in addition to online forums. If these restrictions put on teachers and students in regard to electronic publication and access were for the safety of all concerned, I can't argue with the goal, but I think this kind of blanket policy is inhibiting teacher innovation and student engagement. The issue for administrators, I think, is the proverbial can of worms that would be opened by more liberal uses of the Internet even if a case could be made for specific sites. Let's say that every teacher decided he or she wanted to create a blog. The numbers could quickly become unmanageable, and the required scrutiny, extraordinary. So I believe that the view of some administrators is that a zero-tolerance policy provides the most security. As an administrator, I'm not sure I'd trust that sites like facebook or even Blogger would be used in an appropriate manner, and even if they were, I'm certain there would be concerns voiced from some corner. I'm under no illusion that there is an easy answer for administrators in regard to Internet access, but there must be a way to allow students and teachers to embrace new technologies more fully.

Internet Safety

Internet safety and security is a huge issue at my school. We live in such litigious times that everyone must be extremely careful about what can be published on any school-related websites. Of course, student safety is the primary concern, but more and more, teachers must be cognizant of their own vulnerabilities with regard to the material they publish or link to. I'm glad I'm not the administrator who has to dream up all the worst-case scenarios involved in teachers' creating Internet material that could leave the school open to any number of various lawsuits or leave teachers open to threats or invasions of privacy. I generally feel that more freedom is better, but I'd be foolish to discount the many predators out there and even more foolish if I didn't think that the school has the grave duty to protect itself, its staff, and its students. I'm glad that so far I haven't had any safety issues in this regard.

The First Post Is the Greatest

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot