Educational Podcasting!

I have viewed several podcasts over the years but had not truly concentrated on them until recently. While exploring the various podcasts available, I found that there were many different types and topics. My initial opinion of a podcast was a sort of video that discussed recent news. However, through my exploration, I found a lot of audio podcasts that discussed a wide range of topics and did so in a way that made listening to podcasts enjoyable and entertaining.

I found my favorite podcast so far on PodCastAwards.com. This site provided a variety of great podcasts. The one that I found most interesting and quite funny is called This American Life. The podcast I chose to concentrate on from this site is titled 511: The Seven Things You're Not Supposed to Talk About (aired on November 8, 2013). This podcast revolves around a set of rules for conversation as established by the producer's mother. These rules include notions such as never discussing sleep, dreams, diet, health, route, money, and more. Her reasoning is due to the fact that these topics are either boring or vulgar. The podcast is very funny due to the fact that the mother of the producer has a very strong opinion and the producer capitalizes on the obscurity of her statements.

I think this podcast would be a great way to bring up pragmatic competence in the ESL classroom. It is very important for ESL students to understand what the cultural norms of American society include. For this reason, I think that this podcast would be a great way to begin a topic concerning conversational norms. The students would be able to discuss what they think are appropriate conversational topics in various situations and between various people in society. Overall, this is a very important lesson and I think it would be great for the students to not only practice their listening skills by listening to the podcast but also the content of the podcast is directly relevant to their study of American culture.

The Diigo Versus Scoop.it Debate!

I have recently learned about the use of internet tools such as Diigo and Scoop.it for social bookmarking and curating. I signed up and started an account using both of these tools. In general, they are both great resources for keeping a collection of websites that can be accessed from anywhere. They definitely show marked improvement from the use of the favorites or bookmark toolbar. I have at least sixty different websites in my favorites and it is nothing but disorganized chaos that I cannot even access from anywhere but my own computer using a specific browser. This is nothing but aggravating! Diigo and Scoop.it are both great options to resolve these problems and keep organized collections of useful websites.

One of my favorite features of both of these tools is the ability to follow other people's accounts and share information with one another over the web. It allows me to connect with people who have the same interests and therefore locate even more resources than only the ones that I have found. Both sites also allow its users to use multiple tags. This allows the websites to be sorted and organized under keywords for easy finding later.

However, there are various benefits that are unique only to each tool. For example, Diigo allows its users to highlight, capture, and annotate specific parts of the website for followers to see. This is one of my absolute favorite aspects of this site and something that I would use all the time. It is a great way to take notes and emphasize specific elements of the website for others to see. This would be extremely beneficial to my students when they decide to read online. Most importantly, it is a very interactive and engaging element for its users. Although this is an extremely useful tool, there are some limitations to Diigo that Scoop.it takes advantage of.

When using Scoop.it, the users can comment on the scoops of one another. This is great because not only can the user follow other people but they can also communicate through comments to expand their thoughts and ideas. This internet tool also provides suggestions for related articles which is extremely helpful when trying to expand your collection.

Now, in my opinion, there is a major difference when just simply looking at each site. Diigo seems to be slightly boring and does not look very appealing. On the other hand, Scoop.it has a lot of colors and pictures right from the start. It looks very engaging and interactive. Personally, I think Scoop.it looks much more approachable and friendly, especially to students who will most likely enjoy the flashy design.

Overall, if I had to choose to use one over the other it would be a very difficult decision. The highlighting, capturing, and annotating aspects of Diigo are extremely useful. However, Scoop.it is much more visually pleasing, suggests articles, and provides the ability to comment on each others scoops. I wish there was a tool that would combine each of these elements together. In the meantime, I guess I will be using Diigo for my annotating and highlighting needs while I will use Scoop.it for its design, comments, and suggested articles. However, I am sure it will not be too long before someone creates a tool that has all of these features since technology is changing and improving all the time!

Back to the Future! -- Technology in the Classroom!

Today I watched several videos about technology and the affect it has on education both now and in the future. Technology is a major part of people's lives outside of the classroom both for professional and personal use. It makes complete sense in this new technologically savvy world that students should be taught to use these new tools to their advantage.

One of the videos I watched, "The Future Starts Now", reflects directly on this idea. The video discusses the term "ICT" (Information and Communication Technology) and how it should be used in the classroom to motivate students and improve learning. The video speaks directly to the notion of building a "knowledge based society". It suggests that the way in which to do this is by using "gadgets" such as ipads, iphones, computers, et cetera. This video also mentions that ICT is the fifth basic skill of the curriculum in Norway. However, it is important for teachers to be educated on the use of ICT and the benefits it can provide so they will actually enforce it in the curriculum. It is suggested that it should be a part of pre-service teacher training. I completely agree with all of the statements made in this video. I can honestly say that without this class, I would not have known or cared to use many of these technological tools in my future classroom. However, after using these tools and practicing them as part of my pre-service training, it has definitely changed the way I will approach the use of technology in the classroom. I had thought of it as more of a hassle but now I would say that it can make education and learning both more motivating and accessible to all.

Another video I watched, "Social Media Revolution 2011", discusses the very drastic effects of technology on today's world.  It was obvious even before watching this video that technology is a major part of our lives outside the classroom. Yet, I think that this video does a great job of highlighting the extent to which social media has impacted our lives. I thought this video was very eye-opening because it provides statistics stating the effects of various social media sites such as Facebook on the world today. It is amazing to see such high percentages associated with the use of these various sites especially for professional purposes. One part of the video that really struck me was the quote, "We don't have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it," by Erik Qualman. I think this quote perfectly reflects on the way that not only technology should be used in the outside world but also in the classroom. For teachers today and in the future, the use of technology is no longer a choice. For me, it is simply a question of "how" to use technology in my future classroom.

The last video I watched, "Classroom of Tomorrow", gives some great visual examples of technology use in the classroom. It was really interesting to see the way classrooms would work using new technology. The video has images of students using their iphones and ipads to participate. It also gives great examples of the teacher using the devices during presentations. The way all of the devices are interconnected is shown in the scene when the teacher slides a stock market picture from his iphone right up onto the screen for the students to see. I would love to have tools like this to use in the classroom. It makes the learning process so much more motivating and inspiring when you can actually visualize and animate something the students are learning. It solidifies learning because it makes it an experience rather than just a list of facts.

Overall, I enjoyed watching each of these videos. I think they give a great view of technology in the classroom. It is altogether inevitable that technology is now a part of the world and must be a part of the classroom. I look forward to continue learning about these internet tools so I can use them in my future classroom. I am especially excited to use these different tools because it makes learning fun and interactive. I hope that my students will feel the same!