Final Project-Podcasting

For my final project, I decided to work on podcasting with my 9th grade students.

There are four main things I like about podcasting discussions of literature:

1. It takes the focus of discussion off of me and onto the students. They don't stare at me and wait for me to ask a question. They have to come up with the questions and respond to each other.
2. Everyone has to be involved. When the group size is only 3-4, it is very obvious when someone is not contributing. The student who doesn't want to speak in front of the class, or is too nervous to speak in front of the class, or is just simply drowned out by the loud students in the class has a voice in the group.
3. I can listen to the discussions at my leisure, and go back to listen again if I want to.
4. Students can listen to other groups and comment on them, making it more of a classroom interaction rather than "I'm doing this for the teacher."

I started by connecting with Tina Christopherson, our head tech person at Wayzata. She and I figured out the best way to get the kids recording and the process they would go through. We decided that after they had exported as mp3 they would post it to my Moodle site so I could go get it and post it on my blog. She also came down and helped me show the kids how to use Audacity.

I decided to have a series of podcasts:

Practice Podcast-Old time radio show. I found a script of an old radio show online and they had to perform it and record it. This was really just so they could get used to the program and the steps they would have to go through. 5 min.

Podcast #1-Discussion of "The Most Dangerous Game." Everyone read this story individually and as they read they were to write five good, open-ended discussion questions for their group. Before they started recording, they could look through the questions and decide which ones would be best for discussion. 8-12 min.

Podcast #2-Discussion of chosen short story. Each group found a short story from outside the class and then went through the same process as for podcast #1. 8-12 min.

Podcast #3-Discussion of the play "Of Mice and Men." We read the book and watched the movie in class and then went to see the play at the Park Square Theater in St. Paul. Students again had to write discussion questions for their group. 10-15 min.


After they uploaded to my Moodle, I would go get the files and post them to my blog (http://wayspace.wayzata.k12.mn.us/blogs/jnelson/) so the students could go listen to other groups and post comments.

As my "Final Product" for this class, I sat down with two of my 9th grade students as well as the aforementioned Tina Christopherson and created this podcast:



I've really enjoyed listening to each group, and I plan on using this again in the future. Later this year, this same class will do podcasts on novels, which will be pretty lengthy but very interesting I think. Also, with my Sports Lit classes, before winter break they will do podcasts on E-ticket articles discussing themes and relating those themes to what we've seen in class. I'm hoping this will give them a good idea of how to write their final book paper, which is basically the same thing except individually.

Possible problems:
-Be prepared to be helping a lot on the first day they try to do it. How Audacity works, how the computers work, how to edit, etc. There's a lot of questions.
-It took me about a week to get iTunes to accept my podcast submission. It's not a quick process.
-Even though my podcast was accepted, iTunes has not been pulling episodes I've put up off my blog, and I can't figure out why.
-I had to have my upload capacity on my blog increased because the files I got were too big.

Even with these difficulties, once the students do it a time or two, it gets way easier and they have a lot of fun.

Portfolio Review

I think I have learned a lot in this class. I started with maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the "total knowledge" of the class, so that's a pretty good gain. Stuff like blogs and wikis I knew before, and I knew what a podcast was, but I didn't know how to make one or submit one. The comic life stuff was totally new to me, but I had prior knowledge of other programs that helped me intuitively work in Comic Life. I had done a little work in iMovie before, but had never used it for digital poetry or storytelling, and I really like those genres. All of the note-taking stuff with Delicious and Diigo I think is really cool and I didn't know anything about that before.

I think the projects I'm happiest with are the comic about my son and my PowerPoint presentation, with my Nicollet Avenue video close behind. The comic is so short, but tells an important story, and the process of creating those includes so many layers like photo placement, text placement, choosing which events are important enough to include (if there's a length limitation), showing emotion with pictures instead of text, and all kinds of stuff. The PowerPoint I like mainly because I had such a hard time coming up with an idea and I think the final product actually illustrated a pretty good point.

I think if I had my students doing an ongoing type of project or something like that, an online portfolio would be a great option for organizing and presenting the material that they have created. I'm still fuzzy on good options for high school students to create an online portfolio like some of the tools we have at the U, but a blog would be one option or a wiki, but I'm inclined to think that a wiki isn't the best option for that type of thing because you wouldn't want anyone but the student changing things, so then what's the point of a wiki? Maybe just the set up with different pages and links I guess. I'm thinking about using some type of folio with the poetry unit I do with my 9th graders in January, so hopefully it will go well.

As far as using the tools we learned in my class, we're already doing podcasting and online comments (Check out http://wayspace.wayzata.k12.mn.us/blogs/jnelson to see that). I'm also going to incorporate digital poetry into my poetry unit.

The big piece, though, is that next fall I'm going to propose a one-term class to teach called "Digital Writing" where we would use all of the tools learned in this class. It wouldn't go live until the 2011-2012 school year, but that gives us a lot of time to figure out where we could do it (all of the students would need computers obviously), if we have to cut other sections in order to do it, what it would do to the schedule, etc. I'm really excited about the possibility of this class, and I've already started talking to my assistant principal and our tech department to see if this could happen. I think the students would really enjoy it and buy into what is going on in the class.

"I'll Evaluate the Hell Right Outta Ya!" -Dr. Cox on "Scrubs"

For my final, my 9th graders are doing podcasts, so I created a rubric that is based on my paper rubrics. It has no points, just comments, and I just choose the grade. I figured it's hard to evaluate people's thoughts and opinions about literature, so the rubric basically just sticks with 1) Is everyone participating 2) Are they offering good open questions or poor yes/no questions 3) Is the text being used/cited during the discussion? and 4) Does the conversation flow well or does it jump around too much?

I like those criteria, and after it's all done the mp3's are posted to my blog where the students can go and listen to other groups and comment on them. My comments come written on the rubric. I would like to play around with recorded comments because I think you can say a lot, but I haven't totally figured out how to do that or with which projects/papers to do it.

I'm putting my rubric on the ning.

Trying Not to Hurt Your Eyes

Okay, here's the first one: http://www.belladesoto.us/

Wow. Just...wow. If you try to look at it, be warned that it will take forever to load because there is so much going on. How does someone even do that? How is there absolutely no sense of "Maybe I should try to organize this a little better." In fact, I'm almost inclined to believe that someone set this up so they could make every "worst website" list that ever comes out. I mean, you gotta be kidding me.

Here's the next one: http://noeband.gr/

This website is really simple, but cool looking and easy to use. When you click on most of the links, it doesn't take you off the page, the info just appears to the side. I love that. There's very little getting in the way of anything.

So I guess I would tell my students that they need to keep their presentations or any digital work simple because you want the viewer to get it. I have been failing for three days now at coming up with an activity or something for my kids to do and I've got nothing. I feel like I've been doing well so far on the topics in this class, but I'm struggling with this one. I'm not even coming up with a good topic for my own presentation. Ugh. I'll keep thinking.

(thinking)

(thinking)

Okay, it's been multiple hours but I came up with an idea. It's not much, but it makes an important point I think. There was one slide that didn't come through on Slideshare, I don't know why, but here it is:

A Simple Brain Exercise

View more presentations from JRNelson9.

Comics-ing it up

I had a lot of fun making this comic. I downloaded comic life, and was really surprised at 1) How complicated the things you make can be and 2) how easy it is to use. Drag and drop, intuition on how to move things around, etc. I didn't put in too many of the extra things, but I poked around and looked at the tools and stuff, and I was blown away by how much the program can do, and anyone can pick it right up! It was really easy and I think students would pick up on it really quickly and have a lot of fun doing it. Adapting "normal" texts into comic format would be a great way to get kids visualizing and creating, but also get them to pick out important points (you would have to cut a lot of stuff from the text), think about how emotions come through, and challenge them to think in a way they probably haven't before.

One of the things I really liked was realizing that I had to figure out how to get the pictures and text boxes to work together. I would put in a picture, then realize I had no place for text, so putting it off center actually helped, which is counter-intuitive when arranging pictures. The other thing I had to think about, which I already mentioned, is deciding what to put in and what to leave out. That's a hard decision, but I think students would really benefit from that decision-making process.

The comic I created is about my son, Joshua. Really, I chose it because I had a huge library of pictures to work from and I had already done our Honeymoon for Voicethread. Apparently Blogger does not accept PDF files, and I can't get it to convert to any other type of file, so I had to upload it to my softball team's website. Here's the link:

www.si-softball.org/ComicJoshuaSmall.pdf

Podcast-Schmodcast

I really like the idea of podcasting in class because students really get into it and have fun while doing things that are, I think at least, worthwhile.

First my 9th graders did a practice podcast where they had to perform the script for a five-minute radio show I provided. This was a perfect practice run because it's a little more complicated than the other podcasts they'll do, so they got very comfortable with how to work the equipment, and they also had to put in some sound effects, music, and character voices, which they had a lot of fun with. Again, it was just a practice, so I wasn't expecting greatness, but in the future I may use something else as a practice and make this an assignment. They could find a radio show script online and perform it, or write their own. OR BOTH!

The main thing they'll be doing is responding to literature. In small groups they will read short stories and then record their discussion about the story. They'll also do a podcast responding to a play we're going to see at the end of the month. One main thing I like about this is that it gets everyone involved in the discussion. They are only in groups of three, so pretty much everyone has to talk for it to be successful. Nobody can sit in the back corner and skate by.

The other thing I really like about it is time. In the spring we'll do Lit. circles and I was thinking I would have to take four class days and just sit and listen to a group discussion each day. This way, they can record it all at once and I can just listen to them at my leisure.

I am putting the podcasts on iTunes as "Mr. Nelson's English World," though it isn't letting me submit anything on iTunes right now because they're "experiencing technical difficulties." After a quick internet search, I discovered people having this problem every few months for the last four years or so. You'd think they'd be able to fix it, but I digress. I think putting them on iTunes as an "actual" podcast lends a little weight to the project. It's not just me listening, it's anyone. I told my 9th grade boys, "If you sound like a doofus, anyone in the world could hear you sounding like a doofus." They have also told their parents about it, and then reported to me that their parents were excited to be able to hear them online.

This whole process is also my final project for this class, so we'll see how it goes!

My Podcast

This is my podcast about how I can use podcasting in my classroom. I just put the file right in here, but I did go through the process with media mill and iTunes.

My Digital Storytelling Video

Here is the video that I created for digital storytelling, edited in iMovie and shot by my wonderful wife (you may hear our kids in the background a couple times). I did this in class, so some of the timing is a little off because I was trying to keep the sound low so as not to disturb anyone, but overall I was glad to play around with iMovie and figure out how some things worked. I'm not sure why the "album cover intro" comes up twice, I must have clicked something twice or something. I think this would be really fun for kids, and easy to use too. We had a great time making videos in high school, and I'm hoping to work it into my classes somehow.

My DJ goes wiki-wiki

Here is the wiki I created:

http://comm9speech.pbworks.com/

I created it for the speech unit we do in my 9th grade class, and I decided it would be a good spot for students to share their ideas about how to give good speeches. It includes tips for researching, writing, and all kinds of stuff. I think this is great because kids may have ideas for how to memorize something, for example, that I've never thought of, and that may help another member of the class. They can give each other ideas outside of sitting in class. I think this is also way less daunting for kids. We already sort of talked about this, but the kid who doesn't want to raise his hand in class may be an awesome contributor on a wiki site.

The other part of my wiki is that I would take the groups for their radio show project and assign each of them a genre of radio show like mystery, comedy, drama, sci-fi, etc. Each group would then create a page for themselves and write a short description of each genre and its characteristics. Then the other groups can go and read about each one while deciding what they want to do for their own radio show.

Finally, I have a section for resources where kids can find examples of old radio shows. They can post links to websites that have audio files or scripts and things like that, and I think that would be a really good way to help all the students find good resources when planning their radio show.

A long post all about my honeymoon

Okay, first, here's my flickr slideshow:



I chose this set of pictures because our wedding/honeymoon was awesome, and we had so much fun. I think what brings all of these pictures together is beauty. From the beauty of creation to artistic beauty to my beautiful wife :-) I look at these pictures and remember how much fun we had, how great our wedding was, and how different our life was just four years ago. To others who look at these pictures, I think they would a few things. First, they would see two people who love each other and had a great time on their honeymoon and are happy together. I also think they would see the beauty of the North Shore, because I don't think enough Minnesotans take advantage of what we have in this state. Finally, I think people would see that you don't have to go to some expensive, exotic locale to have an awesome honeymoon. A lot of our friends went to Hawaii or Puerto Rico or places like that, but we simply couldn't afford that. So we chose Grand Marais and could not have been happier. Those memories will last a lifetime, and I wouldn't do it any differently.

In my 9th grade class, I do a lesson on merging storytelling with pictures using a story called "Insomnia" and the famous painting "Nighthawks." The students have to find pictures and tell their story without knowing anything about the picture. I think voicethread would be cool to use because then they could use multiple pictures really easily and they could have multiple people telling different parts of the story. It adds an entirely new dimension to their creative process.

Okay, here's my voicethread. Hopefully this works. I had problems with embedding it, so it's just a link. Same pictures, but with commentary!

http://voicethread.com/share/645905/

My Personal Vlog

Bubblus map

This is still a really new idea for me, but I tried to brainstorm the different parts to the project I would need to do and how I could make it something to "turn in." I'm hoping to do a podcast of my own instead of writing, and that I could get a few students to sit in and talk about the experience.

Vlog Response

I watched the 3-minute egg vlog on the Ivey Awards for Twin Cities Theater. It was really interesting, and I have very little, in fact almost no, experience with vlogging, so this was new to me. I feel like the audience is people from the Twin Cities who want to keep up with arts events in these cities. There was no explanation of who these people were or where they were from, so the creator assumes that the audience already knows that. I know who Dudley Riggs is, so to see him speaking after receiving his Lifetime Achievement Award was really cool, but to somebody who has never heard of him, they wouldn't think anything of it.

Three things struck me. Two regarding how the vlog was put together, and one about the content.

I noticed really peppy jazz music in the background when the vlog started, and I feel like that was done on purpose so as to establish a fun, artsy mood. Jazz is generally seen as the pure American art form, so the connection to the theater awards is obvious. I feel like jazz is also connected to the "out-on-the-town, kool-kat-nightclub, smoke-and-whiskey, this-is-where-it's-at" scene, so it puts people in the mood like they're part of the in crowd.

Next, when they interviewed people, often it was done outside at night with the lit up Minneapolis skyline in the background. That view just gives a good sense of pride in the city and what we're about, and how "yeah! we're like New York with a happenin' night life!" or something like that.

Finally, there were multiple women who cried when receiving their award. Really? I mean, that's great that you won and it's an accomplishment and everything, but really? It's an Ivey, not an Oscar. You don't have to go all "Halle Berry" on us.

it's the FI-NAL COUNT-DOWWWWWWN

I'm really not sure what to do with my final project, but I have the seedlings of a couple of ideas, at least.

First, I teach Sports Literature, and we do a create-a-team project in which students, with a partner, create a sports team and then do a lot of work around it, like advertisements, game summaries, logos, etc. Usually they just turn it all in to me as a big packet, but I'm wondering if they could set it up as a website of some kind and have everything on there. Then I could go and look at everything they've done, and so could their classmates. I'm not sure what type of website would be ideal for this, and would allow for responses to be put on there, but it's an interesting idea. I think it would be great for the students to be able to link to outside stuff when writing about why they chose a particular sport or team name or stadium name or whatever for their city (cities chosen at random). Maybe I could just make this one aspect of the project so as not to overwhelm the students, especially those with limited computer availability.

The other option I've thought of is to do a simple case study of what happens in my class this fall. I have changed the paper process in my room. First, all papers are uploaded to my Moodle website where I can download them and read them. The feedback I give uses track changes in Microsoft Word, and my comments are typed onto the rubric. All of this is then sent back to the student via e-mail or directly on the Moodle site if that works. I'm also considering giving audio files with my comments to the students when they get their papers back. Also on the Moodle site we do News forums where students, in groups, find news stories pertinent to the things we are talking about in class and post them for the rest of their group to read and respond. Since this is the first time I've tried either of these things, I could simply study how it worked, how the students responded, what advantages or disadvantages I've found, how it affected our "live" classroom discussions, etc.

I'm not going to lie, I'm not really sure where to go with these ideas as far as research, networking, or things like that, I'm kind of at a loss on those topics. But hopefully over the course of this semester I'll figure it out.

Blog post for September 15th

Blogging is something I've never really done, but I'm interested to see how it could help students in various ways. Is it considered formal writing? Would I grade them on it? Is it just for their own practice? How personalized should it be? What if some students don't have internet access? Would I determine what they write about or just let them go with whatever they're feeling? These are just some of the questions I hope to answer over the course of the semester.

Over the summer, I took a class at the U on writing with Anne Beaton, who said that when she asks students to whom they are writing, they often respond, "whoever" or "anybody." She made the interesting point that ten years ago that was a cop-out answer, but in our current society that can actually be a valid answer. Students are posting on Facebook or Twitter and just about anybody who wants to can see it. They don't have a particular audience in mind, they're just putting stuff out there and seeing what will stick, so to speak. That disconnect between writer and audience is something I'd love to tackle more in this class, especially so we can figure out how to teach the students to write meaningful things even without a "target" in mind.

A couple of things stuck out me from the first chapter of Beach, et al. First, I love the idea of students working together to not just create a product but form ideas and have opinions. At Wayzata High School, we now have Google tools active for all students and teachers, and I believe the possibilities for collaboration are off the charts for any subject area. However, we also have a lot of older teachers who are wary of such tools and want to do things the way they've done them for the last thirty years. So, is it worth it for the teachers and helpful for the students if only 20% of their classes are using these tools consistently?

The next thing that I noticed was that "...71% of high school seniors had written only three or fewer papers during their 2004 senior year. When these students went to college, they were often not prepared for the marked increase in the amount of writing they had to do; half of students at liberal arts colleges had to write at least five papers that were 5 to 19 pages in length during their first year in college" (5). A couple reactions to this: First, we do a lot more writing at Wayzata. In my Sports Literature class alone (juniors and seniors) we write seven papers over the course of the semester, plus they have large papers in senior social studies and many students take composition or journalism classes, where they do a lot of writing. I find it extremely hard to believe that the students write that little during their senior year. Second, the quotation shows us what is still going on at the college level: formal written papers. If colleges are not using these digital tools, is it worth it to use them a lot in high school? Will their writing improve enough to the point that when they get to college they'll be able to produce good formal papers because of the digital writing they did in high school? If part of our high school purpose is to prepare students for college, shouldn't we be focusing on teaching them what they'll need to do when they get to college?

Please don't misunderstand my meaning, I think digital writing can be very valuable, but I have a lot of questions on how to make it work, put it to best practice, and just generally be meaningful for the students. I suppose that's why we're all in this class, and I'm looking forward to working through these issues with everyone!