Learning is Change

Unconventional Podcasting

Podcasting is not one thing. It is not an audio file format. It is not an iTunes feed. Podcasting is bigger than that. It includes the ideas of digital storytelling, new literacy, audio and video sharing, the writing process, and the Read/Write web. But none of those words matter.

What matters is the learning, the change we are making in the classroom. So, what is the best way to do this? The quickest way? The way that makes technology invisible instead of opaque?

The Presentation PDF – Starter Tools, Creator Tools, Designer Tools

Creating Enhanced Podcasts on the PC 

Tutorials:

Gcast:

[flash http://34.136.86.195.nip.io/wp-content/uploads/Gcast.swf h=679 w=805]

VoiceThread:

[flash http://34.136.86.195.nip.io/wp-content/uploads/VoiceThread-2.swf h=679 w=805]

Audacity:

[flash http://34.136.86.195.nip.io/wp-content/uploads/Audacity.swf h=700 w=804]

02.14.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Pair Discuss-on:
  2. Analyze Utopian Poetry.
  3. Create a unique perspective in your own utopian poem.
    • What images are you going to invoke?
    • What metaphors would help to explain your vision of utopia?
  4. Extensions:
    • Finish your Utopian poem for next Wednesday
    • Talk about what next week looks like.

Core 2:

  1. Write-on:
    • What will you have to face?
  2. Rev-it-up
  3. Talk about survival simulations. (Print off a new copy of the PDF if you need one.)
    • What is required?
    • Who is in your group?
    • What are the first steps?

  4. Extensions:
    • Start to brainstorm (and write down) who your character is in the survival simulation.

Core 3:

  1. Brainstorm on:
  2. Read Edgar Allen Poe’s Dark Romanticism story.
    • How does this story live up to the Romanticist’s beliefs?
    • Why would someone want to delve into morbid and macabre themes?
  3. Talk about the next Image Grammar Activity
  4. Extension:
    • Turn in your Academy Authentic via Academy e-mail.
    • Think about: How does revealing the darker side of life, help you to articulate your beliefs?

02.13.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Extended Write-on:
  2. Continue reflection on Survival Simulation through discussion.
    • Any final words before we bid the project, adieu?
    • Anything we should do differently next time?
  3. Highlight some really great works of writing done on Monday.
  4. Return to Utopian poetry.
    • How does the Tipslastt format help you to understand and appreciate the poems you read?
  5. Extension:
    • Read your AR book.

Core 2:

  1. Rev-it-On
    • How does what we know now about Steve Irwin change the way we read the story?
  2. Is utopia about more than just survival?
    • What happens if you have to build up from the survival level of life?
    • What is the progression of building a society?
  3. Extensions:
    1. Continue your writing from Monday and put it onto Google Docs and share with friends for Academy Authentic.

Core 3:

  1. Write-on:
    • What kind of answers do we expect to get?
  2. Does how we look at math, school, and life affect the answers we seek?
  3. Describe your quest for answers.
  4. How does Romanticism and Transcendentalism differ?
  5. Extension:
    • What does it mean to be a dark romantic?

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02.12.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Listen and Present-on:
    • Listen to the survival simulation presentations and start to ask what-if questions that are more based upon the feasibility of the society rather than terrifying events that may befall the inhabitants of the islands.
  2. Group 1 Voicethread for questions.
  3. Group 2 Voicethread for questions.
  4. Group 3 Voicethread for questions.
  5. Core 4 Group 1
  6. Core 4 Group 2
  7. Core 4 Group 3
  8. Extensions:
    • Make sure that you have your poetry analysis done for tomorrow.

Core 2:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Rev-it-Up:
    • Survey
  3. Read about the Shakers’ Utopian society:
    • How have they peeled back life to the survival level?
    • What is better: Simplicity and survival, or complexity and chaos?
  4. Extensions:
    • Write a paragraph about a day in your life as a Shaker. How would you feel? What would it be like?

Core 3:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Prepare for debate on transcendental revival.
    • What reasons do you think would support your side?
    • How are you going to argue your points without bullying your idea across?
  3. Debate/Discussion
  4. How does Romanticism compare to Transcendentalism.
  5. Extensions:
    • Ask someone if they could be a transcendentalist. If they don’t know what you are talking about, explain it to them and then ask them again.

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02.08.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Discuss-on:
  2. Survival Simulation Presentations:
    • Write down two questions for the groups as they present and be ready to ask them at the end of their presentations.
  3. Extension:
    • Continue to work on your personal curriculum.

Core 2:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Rev-it-up!
  3. Continue our discussion of Separatist Utopias in early America.
  4. Extensions:
    • Would you separate yourself from society if you knew it meant a happier and more fulfilled life?

Core 3:

  1. Categorize/Act-On:
    • Use the words on the bottom of the Smart Board to categorize them into Transcendentalist ideas or not.
  2. Read the definitions and quotations from Transcendentalists.
    • How do the transcendentalists use language to continue their cause?
  3. Extension:
    • Do you believe that the transcendentalists wanted to change the world or merely themselves? Why or why not?

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02.05.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Paper-only Write-on:
  2. Take a look at your Language Arts folder.
    • Keep what you would like to show your parents during conferences and take the rest home.
  3. Finalize your Survival Simulations including Cast, Goals, and What-if’s.
    • Create a voicethread as the presentation for your society (you can work collaboratively on this or you can have one person do it while others work on the documents).
  4. Extensions:
    • Finish your Voicethread and documents for your Survival Simulation.
    • Mentally prepare yourself for conferences and two days without me.

Core 2:

    • Create a voicethread presenting to your parents about what you have learned in Language Arts this year?
    • Embed the voicethread into your blog.
  1. Decide what to keep in your LA folder and what to take home.
  2. Continue our discussion of Separatist Utopias in early America.
  3. Extensions:
    • Would you separate yourself from society if you knew it meant a happier and more fulfilled life?
    • Mentally prepare yourself for two days without me.

Core 3:

    • Create a voicethread presenting to your parents about what you have learned in Language Arts this year?
    • Embed the voicethread into your blog.
  1. Decide what to keep in your LA folder and what to take home.
  2. Continue our discussion of Transcendental politics.
  3. Extension:
    • Mentally prepare yourself for Conferences and two days without me.

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02.04.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Pair Write-on:
  2. Utopian Poetry (Happiness, Before I Could Call Myself Angel Gonzalez, The Future, analysis:
    • How can poetry describe utopia better than prose?
    • How does the imagery of the poems influence your concept of utopia.
  3. Extension:
    • Continue to work on your Survival Simulation and finish TipsLastt poem analysis.

Core 2:

  1. Rev-it-on
  2. Read about real-life utopian societies.
  3. Extensions:
    • Read your AR book.

Core 3:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Read “Civil Disobedience”
    • What does Thoreau believe about government?
    • Are Thoreau’s ideas unpatriotic?
    • What is more important, the individual or the collective (the society)?
  3. Extension:
    • Compare/Contrast the Transcendentalist ideas of politics with your modern beliefs of politics.

02.01.08

Cores 1+4:

  1. Write-on:
  2. Take another look at Trurl.
    • Why does Lem write this story?
    • What does the robot represent?
    • Why is it so important that Trurl be right?
  3. Extensions:
    • Continue to work on your Survival Simulations.

Core 2:

  1. Rev-it-on: Do and say crazy things about our Level 2 words in order to introduce them.
  2. Go over Metaverses Survey
  3. Extensions:
    • Read your AR book.

Core 4:

  1. Get ready to podcast one idea of how knowing a grammatical element will help your writing.
  2. Take a look at transcendental nature.
    • Why is nature so important.
    • How do we see a return to a more transcendental way of thinking?
  3. Extensions:
    • Read your AR book.

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Itches and Scratches

This is my first official Learning is Change podcast, and I hope it lives up to the legacy that the Discourse about Discourse educasts established.

This podcast is all about trying to answer the following question: “What is the itch you are trying to scratch?” In the podcast, I try to outline how to identify the primal needs that technology realization can satisfy.

The following are educators and links that I reference during the podcast:

  1. Wes Fryer
  2. Christian Long
  3. DK
  4. Chris Lehmann

What we need from "the district."

The Principal of the Online School in my School District asked me a really interesting question regarding the growth of our vision within the district and the region. She asked, “What are the 2 or 3 big pieces that we need from the system/district?”

I was taken aback by this question. Is it possible that my district really wants that kind of input? Can I really influence the future just by asking for it?

This question begs us to examine what we want to ask of our institutions. Many times we just assume that our institutions are not interested in what we have to say or what we would like to create, but perhaps they just need to know what it is that we need. So, this is what I have been thinking about:

What are the 2 or 3 big pieces that I need from “the system” in order to create the Authentic Learning Environments I have been writing about, podcasting about, trying to create, and aching to find?

  • We need teachers who do not have to pile technology-rich learning experiences on top of their every day classrooms. We need teachers who are hired to simply do the work of creating a ripe environment for students online (or are at least shared with a brick and mortar in some kind of ratio that makes sense).
  • We need to be able to rewrite the rule book a little on what tools are okay to use in classes. It should not be a don’t ask, don’t tell policy. It should be a conversation about which technologies really do produce the most authentic learning for the most students.
  • Ideally, I want access to a learning spa, where teachers can come in and learn all that they can about teaching online without the fear of being rushed or having to regurgitate the information for students. I want a place that will create culture among students, a place to do projects with kids that will get them comfortable with the tools they will need in order to take courses online. I want a place where teachers are encouraged to create a community, to have a shared vision, to stay informed, and to create something new. It would be nice if that place existed as a brick-and-mortar entity and not just as a consistent webinar meeting.

What would you ask for if you knew your district was listening?

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