Even though I moved on from Internet Explorer in the early 2000's, first to Firefox and now to Chrome, many of my colleagues and schools that I work with continue to use Internet Explore 7 (released in 2006) or Internet Explorer 8 (released in 2009). Seeing that it is now 2012 I would love to encourage that they all upgrade to a browser developed in this decade, but alas Internet Explorer 9 is only available on computers running Windows 7. In my building and in most of the schools that I support Windows XP still rules the day making this upgrade an impossibility. And while I could campaign for wider adoption of a modern browser that works on Windows XP, one that automatically installs updates and plays well with the modern internet (...ahem - CHROME!), it has been my experience that folks like what they like or in some case are not allowed to install or use "alternative" browsers. There are also instances where legacy software that schools run on dictates the use of older versions of Internet Explorer.
I could live with this browser based digital divide except for the fact that nearly everyone I work with and many of the schools I support have started using Google Docs. If you have ever opened Google Docs in an older version of IE then you have likely seen, and ignored, the little yellow warning stating that your browser does not fully support Google Docs. Ignoring this message generally results in parts of the web page not opening properly and features not working. In my experience, in spite of the warning, people don't realize that the problems they are experiencing is due to their browser, so they continue to hack at their computers until they cry out in frustration "I give up, Google Docs doesn't work". Believe me, I have seen this scenario more than I care to tell.
This problem led me recently to an open-source plug-in for Internet Explorer called Chrome Frame that essentially takes over whenever you browse to a website that was created using newer web technologies such as HTML5. The free download takes only seconds to load and does not require administrative rights to be installed. Voilà! The modern web all wrapped up in a browser that is still in love with Brangelina and Donald Rumsfeld.
Now for the caveat. I'm working with my IT department to test Chrome Frame a bit further before I extoll its virtues to the people who write my pay check. We want to check it against some of the legacy software we run and to run it in some test cases with users who don't freak out the moment a problem shows up. I'd suggest the you do the same before installing Chrome Frame. And if you need to uninstall here is how.
If you have any experience using Chrome Frame in your schools or at home I'd love to hear what issues you found or success stories if you have them.
Just before the end of the school year I was able to check out an iPad from our RESA Assistive Technology lending library and test a few different apps with students. One of the apps I felt had great potential in the classroom was Qwiki. Qwiki compiles reference information from sites like wikipedia, images, videos, and maps to create an immersive information experience. But the most unique feature is the text-to-speech narration that accompanies every Qwiki. Captioning at the bottom of the screen is read by the text-to-speech engine giving the user the option to listen or read along. In essence, Qwiki turns your searches into movies.
In the short video clip above, students used Qwiki to research elements from the periodic table for a science project. I was impressed by the engagement level I saw, but also noted that the students using the Qwiki app were jotting down notes for their projects and reviewed their Qwiki search multiple times before moving on to the related searches presented at the end of the presentation. Because we were testing in an open environment without headphones other students paused to watch as well and even started discussing some of the qualities of the element being shown. This was vastly different from the disinterested search process that I had witnessed before I introduced the app.
It is worth noting that Qwiki is not just an iPad app. Their website http://www.qwiki.com offers an identical experience minus the intuitive touch screen interface. I'd love to see Qwiki develop some editing features that would allow students to curate their own resources and create dynamic presentations that could be shared.
Have you used Qwiki in your classroom? Please share your thoughts on how you think this website and app might support struggling learners or help increase engagement.
It has been a while since I have written a blog post. I've recently acquired an android smart phone which has inspired me to write this post today. Actually I'm speaking this post using the blogger app and the android voice recognition. It works surprisingly well.
I'm looking forward to writing or speaking more blog posts about the use of cell phones in education. I'm also looking forward to my Macul conference presentation entitled "cell phones are 4 learning." See you there!
In my recent post on using audio and podcasting in the classroom I discussed phone recording options such as Google Voice and ipadio.com. In this post I am looking more specifically at phone services which record audio and transcribe voice-to-text, but are designed primarily as reminder and to do applications.
What are the benefits in education?
First, phones are one of the most ubiquitous technologies in schools. Land line phones as well as cell phones are available to almost everyone both in school and at home.
Secondly, reminders and to do lists are an important organizational strategy. Services such as Dial2do.com and Reqall.com add features which traditional to do lists lack such as access on multiple internet connected devices and integration with other online services such as calendars, social media, and blogging. And unlike traditional lists and reminders the audio recordings provide another means of accessing and remembering important information.
Teachers could use these services to broadcast classroom notes and alerts or for personal organization and reminders. Students can use these services to become more organized but may also benefit from their voice-to-text transcriptions. This may particularly beneficial for students requiring assistive technology such as struggling writers or students who have difficulty using a writing device or keyboard.
Dial2Do
"Today I've been looking at a couple of different phone services which I might promote for students who are having difficulty writing things down. Dial2do is a phone service that converts voice to text and transcribes those messages-" Powered by
Dial2do appears to be moving toward a two tiered pay model and no longer offers a free account. Dial2do integrates nicely with services like Twitter and Blogger. The recordings are limited to aproximately 20 seconds, but the transcriptions are very good. The recordings are in Mp3 format and can be downloaded or listened to directly using the web based audio player.
Reqall
Here's another test I made today using reqall.com -
"Imagine using your cellphone to write your next persuasive essay. There's a student sitting at a table. He's looking at the assignment. He needs to write an essay. He pulls out his cellphone. In the future essays may be written by students who call in their paragraphs and have them dictated by a phone." Link to audio
Unlike Dial2do, reqall.com does offer a free and paid account model. It also has an iOS app which integrates nicely with the service and allows voice messages to be recorded and transcribed using an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. The time limit appears to be slightly longer, about 30 seconds, however the transcription did not pick up punctuation at the end of sentences and a few words required correction. One feature which I feel is missing is an embeddable Mp3 player for listening to audio online. Reqall Pro offers integration with services such as calendars, social networking, and Evernote.
I've been fielding some questions today about the best solution for students who would like to listen to books read aloud using an iPod touch. I'm reposting my response below with a few additions and links. Please comment if you have suggestions or ideas to share.
The Vbookz app would be a great
option for students who want to read and listen to books like Huck Finn,
Dracula, Pride and Predjudice etc. The app is a full ebook reader plus text-to-speech engine. It even magnifies the words as they are being read to help the reader track words as they are read aloud. The app gives you access to over
30,000 books for free download once installed ($1.99 for the app). Here’s
a Youtube video explaining the app.
I also recommend checking out Lit2go which has hundreds
of books read by actors in Mp3 format. Like Vbookz these are public
domain books which are no longer covered by copyright law. These Mp3
files and the text can be viewed on a computer or downloaded and added to an
ipod touch.
But if your students wanted to
read the book Hatchet, which is still under copyright, you would need to
purchase an audiobook copy through iTunes or from a service like Audible or
Amazon.
Finally, I highly recommend checking with your local library online services to see if they are using a service like Overdrive.com which allows you to check out ebooks and audio books using your library card. You can check for libraries using Overdrive.com by entering your area code I used my local library card to check out the audio book version of The Giver by Lois Lowry which students in 10th Grade ELA have been reading at my school.
Click here if you are unable to see the audio player. http://ipad.io/RCH
Audio recordings and podcasts serve a variety purposes in
the classroom. They can support instruction by allowing teachers to deliver
precise verbal instructions and capture lessons for archival purposes or future
listening. They give students the
opportunity to listen to instruction independently, without distraction (when
wearing headphones), and at their own pace using play and pause features for as
many times as is needed. Conversely,
students can use audio to demonstrate their understanding of learned concepts, create
instructional materials and tutorials for peers, broadcast classroom and school
news, conduct interviews, and practice fluency reading strategies. Determining
which audio and podcasting tools to use in the classroom depends upon your
instructional purpose and on your audio recording needs.
First let’s look at using audio to support instructional
delivery. One use of audio is to record
the directions for an assignment or test which students will listen to. For this purpose you might use Microsoft Word’s “insert
audio” feature to build the audio directly into the document. You might also choose to embed audio in an online Moodle
quiz or assignment using Audacity. On
the other hand you may be recording a series of lecture note, study casts, or
lesson tutorials which are not directly tied to a single document or assessment
but which you would like students to listen to for review and reinforcement. For these you may wish to use a podcasting
site such as Podomatic or ipadio. Podcast
recordings can be accessed by going directly to your podcast website, via RSS
subscriptions and iTunes, or by embedding recordings on a class website or
blog.
Student generated audio and podcasts can be facilitated
using some of the techniques mentioned above but may also require additional
considerations such as managing student podcast accounts, submitting audio
recordings for review, and the degree of technical expertise needed to produce
the recording. Using phones to create
student recordings can be an effective method capturing student audio and requires
very little technical training. Google Voice and ipadio
both allow audio to be recorded using a phone.
Students can also use simple online recorders such as Voki and Vocaroo.
Other options include using the recording options on a mobile device such as
iPod touch to make a recording and then e-mailing the recording to the teacher,
student e-mail, or class blog.
Once you have determined your instructional purpose for
using audio or podcasting you must also determine what audio elements are
essential to making the recording such as the duration, ability to edit, as
well as adding multimedia such as background music, images, text, or even geolocation. Most often you will want to create recordings
which are brief and simple. This is
especially true when assessing student audio because of the time required to
listen to student submissions. An
example might be when you ask students to record lesson reflections or exit
interviews. In these circumstances, it is best to use phone or online recorders
which limit the time of the recording, do not require editing, and make
publishing your audio easy. The insert voice option in Microsoft Word is
another example of simple audio recording. Students can use this feature to
record smaller written samples to self check for errors and build fluency. If however, you know that you will be making a
lengthy recording where editing mistakes, combining recordings, or adding
sounds effects or music tracks is necessary then audio editors such as Audacity,
Garage Band (Mac only), and Aviary’s
online audio editor Myna may be good solutions. These tools are particularly useful for
polished recordings intended to be published to wider audience or for
culminating student projects.
Before learning about and using a particular audio recording
and publishing tool you may wish to use the following matrix to evaluate which
tool(s) best fit your instructional purpose and audio recording needs. I also recommend becoming comfortable with
several audio applications. Relying on one application may limit your
instructional outcomes or cause frustration if that application isn’t working,
is discontinued or is no longer free.
In most cases you will need to either install software on
your computer or create an account to begin using a podcast recording
service.
Next you will need to use a microphone to make your
recording. Many computers have built in microphones, but external headphones
which you plug in via USB or 3.5mm jacks produce much higher quality
audio. If neither of these options is
available consider using a phone recording service such Google Voice or iPadio.
In most cases you will want to make an Mp3 audio recording.
This is true for anyone who plans to share the recording over the internet or
for use on Mp3 players. Many
applications such as Audioboo, iPadio, Podomatic, and Vocaroo do this
automatically. Audacity requires a small
program called a Lame file to be installed.
Microsoft Word’s insert audio can be used with the default .wav file
setting or be changed to Mp3.
Finally, you will need some means of allowing others to
listen to the audio file. Microsoft Word’s
insert audio, the voice recorder option on the iPod touch, and files made using
Audacity can be saved locally onto the computer or iPod touch they were created
on and listened to directly on those devices.
In most cases, however, the audio file will need to be hosted or
embedded on a website, blog, or podcasting site which can be accessed from the
internet. This has the distinct
advantage of allowing students to listen to the recording from a variety of
devices and locations. These services
also make the creation of audio more flexible as they do not require the user
to be on a particular computer or device to make the recording.
Overview of audio and
podcasting applications
With these steps in mind the overviews presented below are
intended to get a beginning user recording and sharing their audio. Advanced uses of each particular program or
application can be explored through the support documents and video tutorials
associated with each application.
This was a test of running Camtasia and Audioboo at the same time for the purpose of making a training tutorial. Although Camtasia was able to capture the screen and audio process fine, the Audioboo recording was distorted. It is possible that this was due to the fact my laptop does not have enough processing power to handle multiple recording applications simultaneously. Feel free to offer suggestions in the comment section below. To hear the audioboo sample which was created in the screencast click on the following link.
This is a recording of my interview with Dateline Schools host Terry Harrington discussing 21st Century Learning and technology in education. We also discuss RESA's Tools for Teaching Digital Natives teacher cohort.
You can also listen to my Dateline Schools interview from last year by clicking here
Dateline: Schools Radio
Dateline: Schools Radio, a daily radio segment aired on WPHM-1380 AM, focuses on a different school program or issue every week.
This program airs three times daily on WPHM 1380 AM with host Terry Harrington.
You can listen to Dateline: Schools at 5:50 a.m., 12:55 p.m., and 6:55 p.m., Monday through Friday.
If you are unable to view the audio player, click here.
My family and I enjoy the "Geek" sport of Geocaching. Ok, it's not that geeky when you consider that it is great excuse to go outside and explore. Plus there are a number of great classroom applications. Of course there are a lot of math applications (calculating distances and geometry) or using the answers to math problems to complete missing coordinates. And geocaching is well suited to teaching geography concepts and local history. But you can also use caches for team building, campus orientations, or tie into the geocaching online community to build communication skill. Regardless, it is a lot of fun.
My two children Bella and Tennyson helped me to make a quick podcast while we were out geocaching today at the Pine River Nature Center. I had a little difficulty with our recordings and ended up using a couple different iPod touch apps (Voice and ipadio) to get the job done, but it was fun to record on the go. Take a listen to get a better sense of what geocaching is all about.
Here a are a few of my favorite tweets from the past month. Too often, I favorite a tweet, bookmark a website, or star a blog post in my Google Reader but never go back to reflect and review these saved items. I'm including an audio podcast of my reflection for those who would like to hear a little bit more about why I chose to save these tweets and my impression of the links they include. Enjoy.
p.s. People occasionally ask how I get my favorites list into the blog posts, so here's my big secret. Go to http://twitter.com, open your favorites, highlight, copy and paste into your blog.
