Podcasts in the Classroom

I’ll be honest when I say that I have never previously considered the use of podcasts in the classroom…either for teaching purposes or for professional development purposes from a teacher’s standpoint.  However, there are many benefits of embedding podcasts into education!  First you need to take the time to find a good podcast, supportive of what you are looking for.  I searched the Education Podcast Network, which contains a wide range of podcasts useful for teachers. 

A podcast I found (but is actually a screencast because there is audio between two teachers and screenshot videos of them working on the Smartboard) is called Teaching with SMARTboard – Episode 30 – Algebra Tiles .

The Podcast, despite the fact that it may seem very long due to some “chatter” between the two teachers and from the notion of moving things around on the Smartboard applets while talking at the same time, is very informative on a professional development standpoint.  The screencast focuses on a Smartboard applet that has been created, and is available to download on the Teaching With Smartboards website page in which I found this screencast.  The application consists of Algebra tiles in which can be generated on the Smartboard screen, in which would help students to easily visualize numbers and variables (both positive and negative:  green for positive and red for negative), which would hopefully build a better understanding due to the visual representation.  The algebra tiles can be moved around in order to help simplify the expression into lowest terms.  I think the application would be a great asset for a teacher to gain access to, and the screencast nicely walks teachers through how to use the application, and even the Smartboard in general.

Many teachers today having access to Smartboards unfortunately are not educated well enough about how to effectively integrate the use of the Smartboard into their classroom.  One of the reasons this may be true could be due to a lack of professional development, in which schools can not afford to bring to their teachers.  Therefore, podcasts/screencasts such as this one can provide a wonderful source of professional development – free of charge!  The video aspect of this particular podcast may be even more effective than by taking a course of professional development where an instructor would use the Smartboard to walk through certain things, because this way, you will always have access to the video for future reference, and you can pause and restart the screencast as you please.  Therefore, teachers can’t go wrong with getting in the habit of looking for such podcasts and screencasts and using them to their full advantage!  Thanks to such educators in the field who take the time to create such informative podcasts & screencasts and wish to share them with the educational community!

ePaLs -- The World's Largest K-12 Learning Network!

ePals is “the leading provider of safe collaborative technology for schools to connect and learn in a protected, project-based learning network.”  ePals allows teachers to sign up and use this resource collaboratively, allowing for learners to connect not only locally, but also nationally and internationally as well.  Currently there are classrooms registered in over 200 countries and territories!

There are many available features apart of ePaLs.  Especially if you are a foreign language teacher or social studies/history teacher, there are many awesome opportunities of how you could integrate the use of this resource within your classroom!   In my opinion, those content areas would probably have the most benefit of using this website because having the ability to connect with other people from across the world can quite the learning experience!  One of the best ways to understand something can be to experience it firsthand…so how about working with students from another culture you are currently learning about, to really understand the heart of their culture and way of life?  Or how about learning the accent and pronunciation of a particular language – and having the ability to Skype with students that are fluent in that language?  Maybe the foreign language teacher teaching a classroom of students has not traveled to the countries of origin, so having the ability to connect with natives and rely on them for “primary source” type of information about culture and way of life can be very beneficial.  Or how about interacting with students who live in an area that has experienced natural disasters or inclement weather…talk about really being able to understand content?  It can be so much more effective than by just simply reading about something historical from a textbook or hearing about something in a lecture in social studies. 

Some specific features of ePaLs include “We Are ePals,” a monthly collaborative activity for available to the ePals Global Community.  If you as a teacher are thinking of a way to begin working with ePaLs and integrating it into your classroom, this looks like a great start!  Every month you could focus on the designated topic and get your students involved.  They would be able to learn from other participating classrooms across the world and be able to compare and contrast various responses!  Some of the most recent ones were:  How do we greet friends? What are we reading? What holidays do we celebrate?

Another feature is teacher collaboration.  If you are a teacher thinking of a certain project idea that would ideally involve another perspective…maybe from another culture or from a different location, this is for you.  You set up a profile regarding your location, classes you teach, ages of students you teach, number of students you teach, and what specifically you are interested in looking to collaborate with.  There is a search tool, for people to find your specific profile and contact you.  Or you can search for teachers that already established that they are looking for someone to collaborate with.  I particularly was interested in the involvement of teachers within New York State (because a lot of the curriculum would match up), so I decided to do a search.  My results found that there were 5,193 matches for meeting the criteria of being in New York State.  I could have even further searched using an advanced search to limit my results to be more specific…such to match the level of students I teach.   

I am still unsure as to ways of how I could integrate the use of ePaLs into my mathematics classroom.  I’m pretty sure with more exploration of the site and from looking to see what other math teachers have done, I will come up with some ideas.  I did a search to see how many profiles would match my criteria of being teachers within the United States, but also would have something to do with mathematics.  I found 230 matches for those criteria. 

Some ideas of a project I could have my students get involved with, related to mathematics, could be to find out how students of different cultures use math in their everyday lives.  I think that project would be pretty interesting and meaningful to students…especially because a lot of times students like to whine about "how they do not see math being important to them."   Through ePaLs, students would be able to learn a lot globally about mathematics.  Another idea has to do with currency…if I was teaching about rates and proportions I could have students interact with students of different cultures to find out about their currencies, and then have my students practice converting money amounts.  It would be very interesting to see how prices seem so different in areas with different currencies.  Also, I know that in many other cultures such as  Chinese and Japanese, students are a lot more advanced in their mathematics at an early age.  If I would have my students interact with students of those cultures, they would probably be in awe seeing how much more advanced those students are at such a younger age. 

Using Flickr Apps

I was very impressed to find out that there are various applications that use Flickr photos. These applications could be very beneficial for teachers to use in their classrooms...either by creating something to show to students while teaching, or for having students work with an application to create an assignment. The website Big Huge Labs has many applications to use with Flickr such as creating magazine covers, maps, movie posters, puzzles, etc. Bubblr is a tool for creating comic strips from Flickr pictures. And Bookr is a tool for using Flickr images to tell a story or illustrate a poem in a "virtual book" available online.

I decided to check out Bookr. I took this tool as being another way to present information, but I liked the fact that instead of just being a mere powerpoint presentation, the pictures can tell a story. I really liked this ability, especially for presenting mathematics content. A topic I decided to focus on teaching was the concept of slope. If you are just introducing this concept to students for the first time especially, a great way to explain slope is by using examples of slope that appear in the real world. Therefore, showing pictures of such examples for students to consider is a great idea.


I therefore created a bookr titled Examples of Slope in the Real World, including mutiple Flickr pictures depicting slope in various ways...ski slopes, mountain ranges, escalators...even roads and bathtubs! I think students would really enjoy seeing these images and viewing the bookr in a "story" format that has text descriptions at the bottom of each page. Check it out!

Flickr, and Creative Commons

Flickr is a great website for the storing, sorting, searching, and sharing of photos online!  Since people can share their own personal photos, they may not want everyone else on the internet to “steal” and reuse their photos without permission.  Therefore, many photos on Flickr carry Creative Commons copyright licenses, which allow for their legal use.

"Creative Commons is a non-profit that offers an alternative to full copyright."  Using a Creative Commons license, photographers can indicate what types of uses they will allow for their photos.  There are six main licenses offered when you choose to publish your work with a Creative Commons license.

There are four licensing conditions in which creators can choose from to apply to their work.  Here are those four conditions listed from most accommodating, to most restrictive:

1)  Attribution –You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.

2)  Share Alike – You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

3)  Non-Commercial – You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for non-commercial purposes only.

4)  No Derivative Works – You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.

Here are the six main licensing types:

1)  Attribution – Allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially.  They must credit you for the original creation. (This is the most accommodating of licenses offered.)

2) Attribution Share Alike – Allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. All new works based on yours will carry the same license. (This license is often compared to “open source” software licenses.)

3)  Attribution No Derivatives – Allows for redistribution: commercial and non-commercial.  Must remain unchanged and given credit to you.   

4) Attribution Non-Commercial – Allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially. New work must acknowledge you and be non-commercial, but they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.

5)  Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike – Allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under identical terms. Others can download and redistribute your work, but they can also translate, make remixes, etc. based on your work. All new work will carry the same original license, so any derivatives will also be non-commercial in nature.

6)  Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives – This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, allowing redistribution. This license is often called the “free advertising” license because it allows others to download your works and share them with others, as long as they mention you and link back to you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.


Here's a cool photo I found, that is licensed as Attribution-No Derivatives.
The image of this photo is helping me to "escape" from Buffalo's rain and cold temperatures!

Photo by Kathy Vitulano

Twitter...in the Classroom?

Twitter is something that is highly popularized in today’s society, but I personally have never had a Twitter account.  I’ve been trying to be open-minded towards the whole thing, but I was still really unsure of how it could be useful in the classroom.  Reading some articles about educators using Twitter was very helpful to me to get a better idea of the benefits of Twitter.  One article titled, Nine great reasons why teachers should use Twitter, by Laura Walker, obviously included some of those “top” benefits of using Twitter for professional development purposes.  With Twitter, teachers can form a professional social network to share thoughts, ideas, opinions, links to articles worth reading, and links to new technological resources.  Unfortunately, there is just not enough time during the school days for teachers to truly converse, collaborate, and share ideas.  Therefore, “Twitter can be like a virtual staffroom for me …I can access a stream of links, ideas, opinion and resources from a hand-picked selection of global professionals.”  Twitter can easily give teachers the opportunity to connect and “share these reflections and both support and challenge each other.”  Reading about other teachers’ experiences can give you great insight of what has worked for others, and can therefore guide your current practices.

One thing I think is most beneficial about using Twitter is that the act of reflection and sharing ideas extends towards helping teachers to be “smarter about their work.”  Teachers spend far too much time reinventing the wheel, when in actuality, there are options out there to research what other educators have used/done, to help guide your teaching and save time!  It’s definitely worth being apart of. 

Another great benefit of Twitter is that educators can always stay “up-to-date” with the latest educational advancements:  “users can stay right at the bleeding edge of innovation and creativity, and literally be among the first to know when a new product is launched, article is published or opinion is voiced.”   Tweets about such advances would come right to you to view as soon as they become available, instead of taking the time to search the entire internet for such advances.  In conclusion, educators can truly benefit from Twitter as a professional development resource.  “Following smart people on Twitter is like a mental shot of expresso.”

On the other hand, what are some ways that teachers can use twitter within the classroom, either during class, or as an additional enhancement outside of class?  Since I’m unfamiliar, I was unsure of how beneficial it could be as a classroom resource.  I found this article, Leveraging Twitter in Large Lecture Classes to Increase Participation, that includes a 5-minute video titled “The Twitter Experiment,” where Dr. Rankin, professor of History at the University of Texas at Dallas, wanted to know how to reach more students and involve more people in class discussions both in and out of the classroom. She had heard of Twitter but wasn’t sure how she could incorporate it within the classroom setting.  I was very impressed with this video, despite the fact that it was used within a higher-education classroom lecture hall of about 90 students…a classroom setting that I am not at all interested to teach in.  In a lecture hall of about 90 students there would not be enough ideal time for all students to make comments, and obviously there would be some shy, uncomfortable students not wanting to voice their opinion out loud.  However, this video showed me that there is great potential I was totally unaware of to engage students using familiar technology, and giving them more confidence with participating in class from having the comfort of tweeting their comments.