Web 2.0 Tool: Glogster

Hello fellow Bloggers, today I want to introduce you all to a great resource for modern day teachers called Glogster. Glogster is a resource that is very similar to Blogger but is much more creative and allows easier access to using multimedia resources. Glogster has a lot of templates that resembles different digital Bulletin boards. This resource allows teachers and students to make creative interactive bulletin board post. Teachers can use this resource to creatively present assignments and other educational content. Students can use this resource to present history reports. This resource is really easy to use and easy to post pictures, videos, text boxes, audio clips, etc. There are many templates that can be used to create these post. You can also create online classrooms and share your Glog on the Glogster database. The only major drawback of this resource is that it cost money after the 7 day free trial. The price is about $40 for elementary users and $95 for secondary education. Take a look at this 5 minute video tutorial showing the basics of Glogster.

A cool feature on Glogster is the 'Grab' tool. This tool allows users to post videos, audio, and images straight from the mic and webcam on your computer. This is done by clicking on the camera  icon in  the upper left hand corner of the template. This will open the tool box below and allow the user to create a video, audio clip, and or image that can be used in your Glog template. Once again, Glogster is a great tool for students and teachers to create multimedia assignments and share them with teachers and students all over The Cloud.

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Practice Tutorial on PhotoPeach

Podcasting in Education

This blog post is dedicated to podcasting in education. Podcasting is an up and coming resource that is gaining popularity in a 21st century classroom. Podcasting allows the teacher and/or student to record themselves in short clips that can be listened to at the listeners convenience. Teachers can use podcast to record lectures for students that missed class and or to help students that need some more assistance with an educational topic. Teachers can use podcast to create a more interactive classroom climate.

Two unique podcasting tools are AudioBoom and iTunes. AudioBoom is a great tool for creating simple podcast and editing them slightly. iTunes is a great tool for finding podcasts that have already been made that can also be subscribed to. Two unique features of AudioBoom are: one, it allows you to create sound clips up to ten minutes in length that can easily be edited. Another unique thing about AudioBoom is the Embedding feature. After you create a sound clip, you are able to take the embedding code provided by Audacity and put it into a document that has HTML capability. This creates a sound clip along with a player to play that sound clip. The other tool I mentioned, that I am sure many of you have heard of, is iTunes. iTunes is a great source to locate and listen to podcasts. On this source you are able to subscribe to podcasts to receive podcasts when they are released. Two unique features of iTunes are; One, you are able to save, not only sound podcasts, but also video podcasts known as Vodcasts. Not all iTunes podcasters provide these videos, but the ones that do are readily available. Second, iTunes allows the user to download the podcast directly to the hard drive of their computer. This allows you to use podcast in your documents, PowerPoint's, and other resources. These are two great podcasting tools that are free for you to use.

At the bottom of this blog post you probably noticed that there is a sound clip from AudioBoom. This is about an educational podcast I found on iTunes. How did this get here? The first thing I did was I listened to a podcast on iTunes about Winston Churchill's involvement in the early stages of WWII. I found this podcast under the "what's hot" category. This particular podcast was titled The History of World War II. If I would not have found this podcast under the "what's hot" category, I would have searched "WWII" in the search bar. After I listened to the podcast I logged into AudioBoom and recorded my minute and a half clip. I did this by clicking on the red record button in the upper right hand corner of the webpage. I then saved the file and created the brief description you see beside the audio clip. Then I took and published my audio clip and clicked on it to bring it up in a new window. From here I clicked the "embed" button, copied the code, switched this blog doc to HTML and pasted the code where I wanted the audio clip to be located, in this case, at the bottom of this blog. This goes to show that anyone can locate and create podcasts fairly easily.

In the clip below, you will hear me give a very brief summary of the podcast I listened to, along with two things I learned from listening to that podcast.

listen to ‘itunes summary’ on audioBoom

Introduction to Blogging

Hello, my name is Danny Dempsey. I am a junior at Northern Kentucky University, a double major in Middle Grades Education with a focus in History and English and Special Education (K-12). My hobbies include sports; baseball especially, music; I am a big fan of nineties music, and doing philanthropy events. I am youngest of four in my family. I have two sisters and a brother. At NKU, I am very involved. I am in a fraternity, Alpha Tau Omega where I am currently the chaplain. I am a member of Norse Leadership society, an organization devoted to instilling leadership in college students. I chose education as a major because I like working with kids more than adults. Teaching is one of the most stressful but rewarding occupations you can pursue. For me, the entire education field is exciting and I look forward to continuing my journey into the teaching world.

Blogging in the modern classroom is great new resource for so many reasons. Blogging allows students the opportunity to communicate with students, parents, and teachers through one living and active way. Students learn media literacy, how to work with students in a digital and interactive way, they learn technology skills which are essential in the world today. As a teacher all of these things are great to bring to the classroom. These are things new teachers must begin to incorporate into their classroom if they want their students to be successful later on in life. There are countless positive reasons for students to create a blog in the classroom. The main benefit for student blogging that I see personally is; students are able to write and receive feedback from not only the teacher, but other people all over the world that the teacher has invited to comment and participate on the blog. This networking is a great tool and a great way to instill learning in a non-traditional way. Another major benefit of blog posting is the use of multimedia. Students are able to upload videos, pictures, and websites of themselves learning which can be viewed by people all over. A great example of a blog like this comes from Ms. Cassidy's online blog. This blog is great example of students showing off their learning in a creative way using modern technology. Ms. Cassidy does an outstanding job of helping her students use and understand technology in her classroom.

Photo "Duke Ellington DNG 357" by Flickr user US Department 

of education / Creative Commons Licensed

Aside from blogging, there are a number of creative websites that help students learn through technology. A great example of a website like this is spelling city. This resource is applicable to students K-12, but especially to elementary aged students. Using this resource you can not only generate practice for spelling test in a number of creative ways, but also practice vocabulary. This site has list programmed in a way where the student, parent or teacher can input their own vocabulary words and definitions. This resource will be great for teachers that are striving to get students to retain information for an upcoming test. This interactive technology will help to keep the student engaged throughout the activities as well. This resource is extremely user friendly and is very accessible for parents and students.