Reflection Piece on Blog Talk Radio

Being aware of doing a live stream assignment was exciting and nerve provoking at the same time.  This caused me to come out of my comfort zone and enter in an unknown area.  There were several websites that were available for me to choose.  However, I narrow it down to two Ustream and Blog talk radio.

          UStream was the first live stream I chose.  The set up was very easy to follow. I did not need to learn any new hardware. But, I needed to be familiar with using sites online.  When I decided to sign up Ustream took me to their profile page and I was asked for a username, a password and my email address. I also had the opportunity to choose a category.  This is the area where the website wanted to know my interest.  I was extremely surprise to see other categories such as news, campaign 2012, pets & animals, entertainment, sports, music, education, technology, gaming, spirituality and much more; within those categories were also subcategories such as in technology there was graphic design.  In addition, when I typed in my email address the site pulled up my contacts and allowed me to choose the people I wanted to be a part of my live stream.  Then I went to manage my channel.  This is where I can personalize my site such as add a design, a picture, my events, videos, chat room, channel information, off air content, and advanced settings. 

Unfortunately, there are two concerns I had about this site.  Ustream has a huge amount of ads that are on the web page.  This is a distraction and when I went to delete the ads Ustream suggest upgrading your package if I want the ads to be gone and that would cost money. The decision that caused me not to use this site for my project was my test.  I tested out the filming and saw how the camera caught my every move.  I saw where I looking down and not facing the camera.  That made me extremely uncomfortable.  My viewers would constantly see me looking down reading the chat messages instead of looking at the camera.  In addition, I needed interaction with my viewers without worrying about how I was looking on camera.  After viewing one of my peer’s projects I decided the best site for my needs would be blog radio talk. 

          I felt blog radio talk gave me the best of both worlds.  It is still an online live stream site and I was able to communicate with my audience and that was powerful.  Blog radio was fairly easy to operate.  I love how this site has a tutorial.  I viewed getting started three times.  I wanted to be sure I had everything in place before the actually show.  Once you logged in, the site is going to ask you for your profile, a picture and your social networks you want to advertise your show.  After setting up your profile then you must schedule your show. 

I pulled down the menu with my picture attached and clicked on schedule show.  There you would find a page that reads BTR (before the recording).  I wrote the title, and a fascinating description of my show that would attract viewers.  I had to add tag words to help viewers find the show. I selected a category, chose that everyone can hear the show, added 30 minutes for the entire broadcast, and chose a date.  Warning, for the free basic plan I could only have the times between 12am to 6pm. The premium users have primetime 7pm to 11pm. 

After planning my event I clicked on studio and this is where I could add music and get my host number, pin and my guest phone number to call in.  The studio is set up as a control board.  I can edit my description of the show and I can promote it by using the social networks that I am a member to such as, Facebook, Twitter and blog talk radio.  Also, towards the left hand side of the screen this is where I see my callers’ number, the mute icon and the microphone for the caller to join in on the show.  The night before my first show I wanted to have a test run.  However, the site did not allow me to pull up my studio.  This caused a panic for me but the next day the web site went back to normal.

          The day of the broadcast I went through several emotions.  I felt excited, nervous, anxious and concerned.  I wanted this project to be a success.  The callers I chose initially were colleagues, parents, and family. Unfortunately my colleagues could not join my radio show but the parents and family members did. One highlight of the show is when I spoke to a student.  I needed to hear his point of view on the topic and was glad to hear that young man’s comments.  When I finished the live broadcast I felt elated. In order for me to listen to my recording I had to go to schedule my event and click on archive.  I have to chuckle at myself because when I played it back I realized I stumbled on some words and I had to do big time improvising when I could not reach a caller. I am a strong believer practice makes perfect.

          I can see me using this site with my students especially my students of special needs.  Many of them struggle with writing and this site is another form of differentiate instructions.  Instead of them writing a persuasive essay they could present this to me in the form of a talk show.  I am quite sure they will have fun! 

Again, thank you to all of my guest who participated on my show! 

Listen to internet radio with yharper on Blog Talk Radio

Harper's Talk Show

This Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 12:00 noon I will be having a live talk show on Blogtalkradio.  My topic is coming from an assignment that I recently discussed among my peers.  Should teachers and students become friends on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or GooglePlus.  This time I want  parents, students, and teachers to respond to this question.  I am excited about how they are going to address this issue.  For the most part this website has three packages; free for Basic users, Premium, Plus and Pro.  Unfortunately the Basic user can only have 5 callers. You are more than welcome to listen in!

Integrating Social Network

I chose to do a social studies lesson on the States in North America.  Many of my students who live in New Jersey have not traveled outside of their township.  I wanted them to get to know facts about the historical states, geography, and the culture of different states. 

 Subject: Social Studies

Grade: 5^th

Goal: To utilize a social network web 2.0 tool for the purpose of research and collaborating with their peers and teacher

Objectives:

All students will utilize historical thinking and research skills to maximize their understanding of history and geography 6.1

Students will create a Edmodo group and share their information

Students will explore and research the different states of their choice and write descriptions, highlight important information and create a list in Edmodo

Students will describe the geography of the state and give historical facts and write their findings

Students will create a travel brochure using publisher

Students will write a one paragraph reflection blog

Technology:

www.edmodo.com

SmartBoard

USB 2.0 Flash Drive

Computer

Microsoft Publisher

Blog

Description:
There are 20 students in the class. Five students are gifted and 7 are special needs.
There will be 4 groups of 5 students.  Each group will chose a team leader and that team leader will collaborate with his or her team.  The team will discuss who will have the different tasks.

Teacher will explain each student must contribute to the project and will create graphic organizers on www.bubbl.us.com

Students will create a social group in Edmodo

Students will do research on historical places within the state and make sure to create a list of your research and add to your library

Choose one area where they would like to tour and do a geography research of that state

The next student will take that information and find tours they can attend and visit the museums

Student will find a place to have fun day and type up the brochure

Student will find a hotel, a place to eat and present the cost for the weekend

Teacher will show students an example of a brochure

Once students are finish with their brochure they will write a one paragraph reflection on their project

Evaluation:

Students will be evaluated on their brochure and reflection blog by a rubric

Researching and Evaluating Web 2.0 Tools

Searching for web 2.0 tools became over whelming.  I felt like I was in a candy store and became uncertain about which candy I can choose that would entice my taste buds.  There seemed to be a vast amount of sites that does different task.  The human filters I used were Google, Kathy Schrocks guide for educators and students and Discovery Education Web 2.0 Tools.  Using Google may have a huge amount of information but I was still able to narrow my search. I took Kathy Schrocks’ course on Web 2.0 and I knew I was going to receive quality information.  Lastly, I looked at Discovery Education Web 2.0 tools.  They did not present many tools but I knew the site had valuable information.   My main goal was to search for sites that educators, students and parents can view and use.  I am pleased about the sites that attracted my attention. I chose PB Works, JayCut and Prezi.

PB Works 28/32

PB Works is a wiki. The website has 3 cost options. Basic is free, classroom is $99 per year and campus is $799 per year.  What enticed me about this website, it minded me of our school base website but this site has more options.  Using PB Works gives me the feel of independence and it allows my classroom to feel like a community within itself.  I love the fact I can use this site for class resources such as publish class notes, power point lectures, schedules and give examples of students’ work.  Also, my students can collaborate when doing group projects, students can present student portfolios and best of all parents would be informed about homework, upcoming exams and events.  Furthermore, I explored the site and read where it is highly recommended by administers, teachers, colleges and business associates.  I opened up a page where a 5^th grade teacher, Mr. Boyer used Glogster and posted it on his page.  I created a test page just to see how easy it is to use without using a tutorial.  It is fairly easy but practice makes perfect and using their tutorials would help out a lot.  PB Works often has webinars about using their site.  The next section is August 2, 2011 7pm Eastern time and 4pm Pacific time.  In addition, I feel safe when using this site.

          PB Works has a “secure socket layer technology that protects your information using both server authentication and data encryption, ensuring that your data is safe, secure and available only to authorized users”.  I love this information because as an educator we must make sure sites meets the CIPA.

JayCut 26/32

JayCut excited me because I love creating digital stories.  I recently completed the Digital Story course and had fun with my projects.  It was a lot of work but educational.  JayCut is an upscale editing and movie maker website. It reminds me of movie maker but its features are somewhat different. You work in the timeline mode.  Whereas, in movie maker you have an option; you can use story board or timeline to work in. I upload one of my digital movies that have a wmv file and it automatically converted the file. In addition, I upload some pictures to create a movie and the process of laying out my pictures and adding transitions on the timeline was not the same as I thought it would be in Movie Maker.  I came to the conclusion; I must review the tutorials and practice in order to see the high end of this site.  I like the idea I can share my videos with my class, the parents and my friends.  Also, the site is strict about users uploading pornography or obscenity.  However, this site does “contain links to other websites and they strongly feel they are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third party websites”.

         

Prezi 28/32

Lastly, I chose Prezi.  I enjoy working on Prezi’s site.  Prezi is fun and upscale.  You work on a large blank prezi canvas in which you can change the color. It has a transformation zebra that allows you to do great things with your typed words and it has a bubble menu that permits you to add video, audio, pictures, frames, boarders, colors and a path that helps you to organize the sequence of your presentation.  Their tutorial is excellent and easy to understand.  The only problem I had and a host of other users is importing audio on your prezi. I followed the manual to the letter and it gave me audio but not how I wanted to appear on my page. However, the website’s security surprised me.  It stated, “This site is for adults to use”.  In addition, “The service may contain links to other independent third party websites (Linked Sites).  These link sites are provided solely as a convenience to our visitors.  Such linked sites are not under Prezi’s control, and Prezi is not responsible or doesn’t necessarily endorse the content or practices of such linked sites, including any information or materials contained on such linked sites”.  I did not get a chance to ask the website is there anyway educators can change the filtering. But that question is going to be on my list of things to do.  It would be a shame that students under 18 cannot use this site.

          On the other hand, I did have the opportunity to email 2 websites.  One was about one of their security features and that site is Flickr and the other site was Prezi.  I was concern about their audio feature.   However, Prezi did not respond to my concerns but Flickr did.   I was previously informed that Flickr has many objectionable materials on its site. I do like Flickr because it gives educators and students the option to choose pictures from creative commons.  I sent an email to the developers explaining how students need a site like this but I also gave my concern about the pictures not being student friendly, what can be done to avoid my school district from blocking this site completely.   Flickr wrote back and said, “To avoid such issues, we suggest that you enable the SafeSearch of your account. SafeSearch is a feature that allows you to control what turns up in your searches on Flickr, and it's on for everyone by default. For more information, please visit our FAQ page at:

http://www.flickr.com/help/filters/#249      

http://www.diigo.com/list/yharper/web-20-tools

Building a Media Library EDIM 514 - CC

 I chose to use images under the Creative Common Licensing. Many teachers give projects that require students to incorporate pictures.  Most educators teach their students not to plagiarize when copying other authors’ work.  However, we do forget to carry that same concept when it comes to downloading, and copying photos from the internet.  Most people think it’s only one picture and they are not going to sell it.  Having this mind set can cause problems.  The five images I chose under the Creative Common licensing were Flickr, Google Images, Animal Photos, Free Large Photos and Dreamstime.

          Flickr and Google Images are the well known sites many teachers and students have used for projects. Flickr is stricter than Google Images.  I find their pictures to be very limited in the liking but it meets the need.  Animal Photos are great for teachers and students to use for science.  The pictures are clear and colorful.  There was no price tag for using the images but users must read the details.  In addition, Free Large Photos are excellent for teachers and students who are doing a social studies project.  The pictures are clear and free.  However, there is a fee for business use.  Lastly, Dreamstime has free sign up but some of their images have price tags if you want high quality resolutions frames. From experience having high RF is needed when creating a movie maker project.

http://www.diigo.com/list/yharper/creative-common-images


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Creative Commons Licensing

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Creating a creative common license for my blog was very new to me.  I have heard of this website but never knew how to go about licensing my work.  After reading the different creative common licenses, I found this process difficult for me to choose.  As an educator I must be honest with myself.  I’ve learned how to recycle, borrow, share and ironically still be territorial in the classroom. Having these thoughts in mind I chose Attribution-Non Commercial No Derivative License.  This is the most restrictive of the licensing that are listed. 

          I love to share my work and ideas and many teachers have the same thoughts.  Having my colleagues see the value of my work makes me feel proud and would cause me to create more.  However, I still want to keep a part of my originality for my own.  I don’t want anyone to remix, tweak or build upon my work.  I believe certain ideas or work should be honored and untouched.   Also, I have problems with people loving your ideas, changing them to fit their likings but don’t want to give credit to the original owner and keeping the same licensing.   I want to make sure my licensing does not have any room for this to happen.

          As for my students I would encourage them to critically think about choosing a license that best fit their needs or ideas.  I would be very honest and avoid choosing for them.  I do not want to give them the wrong advice because there can be a time when something can go drastically wrong. I would explain the different licensing such as, the licenses, Attribution-Share Alike, Attribution-No Dervis, Attribution-Non Commercial, Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike, and Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivs and the power each one have.  Also, I would inform them to keep in mind; they are going to have mixed emotions on how they want their project or ideas to be shared.  At times they may not mind if their ideas are modified.  However, there is going to be that one project that they would want to protect and not allow anyone to remix, tweak, build upon or use for commercial use.   Lastly, my students are going to be aware of people taking their work but don’t want to give credit to the owner.  With all of this knowledge I would advise them to choose wisely. 

EDIM 514 Welcome

Hello Everyone!

My name is Yvonne Harper.  I am married with two children; a daughter 22, a son 18 and a 2 year old female black Labrador. My son just graduated from high school and will be attending Rider University this September and my daughter is transferring to Kean University.   I am a non-traditional student.  I received my Bachelor of Science Degree in Special Education 8 years ago and now I am pursuing my Master in Instructional Media. 

          I started this journey of graduated school March 14, 2011.  I was very nervous about attending graduated school online.  My last online course I took was disappointing.  The course was extremely accelerated. I took a 3 week course and I  felt it was only busy work and not work that gave me meaning. When I spoke to Wilkes’ advisor of the program she was very encouraging and supportive and that broke the ice.  After completing my first week I was satisfied that I made the right choice in choosing Wilkes University.  The work load is a lot but comfortable.  I feel like I am learning instead of just completing a vast amount of busy work.  I will recommend this program to my colleagues or anyone who may be interested in a graduated program in technology.

As stated earlier, I am a Special Education teacher.  I started my career in Middle School and work there for 4 years.  In 2007, our district went full time inclusion.  That year my assignment changed.  My principal and vice principal wanted me to teach the lower level grades.  I was needed in the lower grades because I have training in the Wilson Reading Program.  This program is geared to students who cannot read, have a difficult time decoding words or struggle with comprehension skills.   This year I taught Pre-K to 5^th grade literacy and math.