L2eL - Learning to e-Learn

I like the new feature to allow teachers to easily create blogs for students now available in Edublogs. I would have liked it even more if it were possible to put together a csv file and author a series of blogs in this way - it would make it that much quicker now that most teachers have a spreadsheet for student details in a class.

The new blog creation tool would be useful for creating a class set of blogs, let’s say 30, but I can’t see a teacher creating one for each student in the 8 classes they teach.  I’m guessing that in these instances you’ll be looking to use a class blog.  It could be a good detention punishment though.

Filed by Paul at 4:28 pm under blogging, free stuff, web tools
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Read a great entry on Doug Belshaw’s blog on using Twitter with students.  I’d mentioned using this with Studywiz and the RSS Reader in Studywiz, but Doug’s post goes in to a lot more detail and suggest some learning applications for using Twitter.

Filed by Paul at 5:29 pm under blogging, free stuff, internet, web tools
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I have discovered three websites that allow students to add subtitles to video.

• www.dotsub.com
• www.mojiti.com
• www.bubbleply.com

These sites take video from other sites and allow students to add subtitles.  A teacher could upload a video clip to a site like YouTube or TeacherTube, and provide students with the link to this video in one of the subitile websites.

MFL teachers could use this to support students in developing a target language.  Geography teachers might use this to annotate a video of a volcano, demonstrating students understanding of a concept.  English teachers might use this to allow students to add infromation about a scene in a play.

Filed by Paul at 5:22 pm under internet, web tools
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I discovered Gabcast last week accidently whilst trying to find AudioBlogger for Blogger, which apparently no longer exists.

Gabcast allows you to post a voice recording to your blog or the Gabcast site using a phone.  There is an RSS feed for your account, so others can subscribe to your recordings.

Examples on the Gabcast site have people phoning in messages from trips round the world. You are provided with a phone number in the UK, and enter your account number and passkey before recording your message.  It was very simple to use.

Thinking as a teacher, Gabcast could be used when on Geography field trips to update parents on the events of the day whilst away.  It could be used to record a learning journey, recording what a class or group has learnt during the day.

School sports teams could phone in match reports after games.  Language teachers could record messages as though they were a spy for students to listen to and decipher using the target language.

It might also be an interesting way of logging homework or reminders for students.

The teacher can control the posts by ensuring they keep the passkey unknown and change it frequently to stop students phoning in their own messages.  If it is just a teacher using this account it would be straight forward to maintain the security of those posting to the account.

E-safety concerns would require students and staff using this to be aware that no student should be identifiable from the recording - so first names only.

Filed by Paul at 6:11 pm under blogging, internet, mp3, web tools
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Found this great timeline maker, xtimeline, on the web. I picked up the link from a podcast about Smartboards and followed the link up.

It allows you to create dynamic timelines easily, adding details, images,video and flash for each event you add.

The example below sums up what a great tool it is.

Xtimeline - History World War 1 example

As a teacher I could create these timelines to accompany topics, however, I think the true value of this website is getting students to create their own timelines.

Xtimeline is an intuitive to use, and I think most students would find it easy to use. It would be an excellent tool to support revision of chronology for a topic.

One tool that could be useful is the ability to create a timeline using an RSS feed - this might be useful when creating a timeline for something like a school trip, and presenting a diary of the vents in a slightly different way.

As a web2.0 site, xtimeline does offer potential e-safety issues, and you cannot be certain the information presented is accurate and unbiased. Encouraging students to use this to create timelines can expose them to slightly inappropriate material. It is obviously worth tackling this issue when using xtimeline, and hopefully students won’t spend too much time exploring the Heroes timeline.

It’s a pity there is not an educational version of this that removes the e-safety issues.

Filed by Paul at 11:41 am under free stuff, internet, web tools
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Sometime last week I came across Mediamaster. I was looking for a way of embedding mp3s in my portal page and had a search through Google. I came across Imeem first - this allowed me to embed a widget that would play back an mp3. This would have been fine except the file I loaded wouldn’t play when embedded. With so many free tools out there, if it doesn’t work first time I frequently move on to the next thing.

Mediamaster worked first time - always a bonus. What I liked was the simple way I could upload mp3s and embed a widget. I was using Studywiz a lot last week and found this to be very simple in a multi-content resource. It also worked in RM’s Portal+ and PBWiki. In fact this page is the only place I’ve found it difficult to embed the widget - hence it’s not here.

Mediamaster saves the need for students to download mp3s and then play them - simply clicking on track in the widget will play it. This could be a useful tool for adding MFL content to learning platforms or portal pages. I could record myself or students talking in the target language. I could pose questions relating to the files. My iPod or memory stick with a mic could record students or myself. It becomes easy to share these files.

It would also be an effective way of sharing student performances in school.

Below is a quick tutorial on using Mediamaster with Studywiz.

<embed src=”http://www.teachertube.com/flvplayer.swf” FlashVars=”config=http://www.teachertube.com/flvplayer.php?viewkey=f47269ed5cea9f625f7a&vimg=http://www.teachertube.com/thumb/1_1778.jpg” quality=”high” bgcolor=”#000000″ wmode=”transparent” width=”400″ height=”350″ loop=”false” align=”middle” allowScriptAccess=”sameDomain” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer”> </embed>

Filed by Paul at 5:33 am under embed, free stuff, internet, mp3, online storage, web tools
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Came across this on a blog and thought I’d see if I could embed my google map in my blog.

Filed by Paul at 10:16 am under collaborative, free stuff, internet, web tools
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I spent a couple of hours playing with PBWiki.

It promised to be simple to use, and I have to agree - it took very little effort to become familiar with the set up.

Click on the image below to link to the pages I created while exploring PBWiki.

First impressions, without having yet used it with students, is that it has a lot of potential in its use.

One of the key considerations before using a Wiki with students is introducing the culture of collaboration and the purposes behind using the Wiki. Simply providing the tools for students to collaborate doesn’t ensure that the collaboration is fruitful.

In class exercises on collaborative writing could be supportive in using an online collaboration tool. As with all of the tools and ideas with Web 2.0 they need to be introduced in a way that support realising their benefits. Lack of planning and support will quickly highlight that simply using web 2.0 tools does not in itself produce exciting learning activities.

Tecahers in using wikis need to emphasis the product and outcomes of using the technology, not the technology in itself. Wikis are not used to collaborate, they are used to collaborate to produce something - and it is the something that is of value, not that it is a wiki.

Filed by Paul at 7:32 pm under collaborative, free stuff, web tools
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Spotted this being used on a blog. It was really easy to use and I think it looks good.

Here’s one I created. The embed doesn’t seem to want to work - must be missing a plug-in or something - the link will take you to it.

Put the slide show in to Google maps with no issues.

Filed by Paul at 7:53 am under free stuff, web tools
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Whilst spending a pleasant Sunday in the garden enjoying the weather and surfing the Internet, I came across this free poll tool.

It was easy enough to set up my poll and responses - click on the polldaddy logo above to access my poll.

Polldaddy instructions indicate that pasting in the html for my poll should allow the poll to appear in my blog.  I tried this a few times, even using the flash embed, however I couldn’t get this to work successfully.

For the time being I am happy to create a link from my blog to the poll.

The Democracy plug-in for Wordpress is easier to use in a blog, but the Polldaddy poll creator would be easier to use in other contexts.

Polldaddy would be a useful tool for students to create their own polls.  There are plenty of polling tools so it would be unlikely that schools or teachers would want to use Polldaddy.

It is straight forward to use and would allow students to easily create a poll.  A link could be added to a discussion board or emailed to fellow students.  Being web-based removes issues of software to create a poll for students.

Polldaddy has a custom style option using CSS.  This would allow those with an understanding of cascading style sheets to create a poll with the same look as their website.

Many learning platforms provide online environments that offer the ability to create a poll.  Polldaddy is comparable in terms of outcomes and is as easy as the simplest to create a poll.

Filed by Paul at 1:05 pm under collaborative, web tools
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