testing .mov

This is a test of a podcast for Cherene.

Testing it out

This is a test to embed a .mov file without QT pro.

Using your new LCD projector

John asked me how to include the original radio War of the Worlds broadcast in his blog so that students and parents could listen to it together. This is the original broadcast from Mercury Theatre on the Air, Orson Welles's radio show from the 1930's.


Thanks to a tip from this blog, I'm using a modified version of Odeo to make this happen. It's a great tool, but it's slowing down my computer a bit since it is such a huge file. Let's see how it works.

Ok! Well, it took a few minutes to get going because it was such a big file, but seems to work beautifully. Try it, and wait patiently on the page while it loads.

Interested in doing this yourself? You'll need to find an MP3 online that you would like to use -- keeping copyright in mind, of course -- and then you can follow the directions here.

Slideshow of poster projects

Ray is planning to use his blog to communicate with parents as well as to teach students how to comment and use blogging as a tool. He has digital photos of the fifth grade solar system poster projects, and will be uploading them in a slideshow that will look like this (but with entirely different photographs!):




Interested in doing something like this? We used Picasa. It interfaces easily with blogger because it's owned by google, but you can use any photo sharing program you want.

To get started, gather your digital images (photographs of student projects, images from online, etc) in one place so that you know where they are. Then go to http://picasaweb.google.com/. You'll need to sign in with a Google account : if you don't have one, it's easy to create and link to your berkeley.k12.ca.us email.


Once you've signed in, look for the small box that says "New Album". This is the set of pictures that you'll be featuring in your slideshow. You can have as many albums as you like.

This screen will pop up. Give it a title, a date, and a short description. You can leave the "Place Taken" blank. At the bottom of the page, click "Create."





This page will appear. Click on Upload Photos.

Getting started with research

I think that most science teachers send students to two different information sources for their research projects: books and the internet. I know some, probably most, use a list of suggested web sites so that students will get reliable information rather than just searching in Google... especially since many of them are Googling at home anyway.

Cherene suggested having students review and critique a particular topical web site. I think this would be an outstanding idea. The teacher could begin the class with a discussion/critique of a particular site, and then ask students to critique a site of their own. She could pick a few sites and have students do the assignment in groups of 3-5, or pairs, or individually. Each group could write a post and others could comment, or each group could write their critiques in the comments on the original post. They could use the comments to review during the start of the next class.

Another possibility (or perhaps a task for another post) would be to use a customized search engine to constructively restrict students' searching. If a teacher already has a list of 6-10 sites, Google has a feature that allows you to make an ad-free search engine that's limited to the sites you want. The blog post could link to the page, instruct students to type in the address, or simply insert the search engine into the post, like this:

The Arctic

This particular search engine used web sites that I put together for the third grade during their Arctic Animal research projects. Try it out and see what you think!

Students could search in pairs/groups/individually for information on their project and post one interesting fact or a reflection in the comments. John suggested that students could be required to use both a book and the internet to find facts: those who find facts in books can type 2-3 sentences in the same way that the internet searchers do.

This is an alternative to documenting their research process in their science notebooks, so it meets both the "internet research" and the "electronic journaling" EETT goals.

How to Comment on a Blog

(This exercise is courtesy of Janet Pedersen, a librarian with Cold Springs School in Santa Barbara, CA. She has allowed us to use it here.)

Learning to Comment on a Blog: What is Ethical?

We began our class today with a presentation about learning to comment on a blog. Following the directions and guidelines we discussed, write a comment (2-3 sentences) about the following:

What does it mean to have an "ethical online presence?"

Remember.......

• Write in complete sentences.
• Use correct punctuation.
• Check your spelling.
• Sign your comment with your initials ONLY.