A podcast is a series of audio or video on the web that can be cataloged and automatically downloaded. There are over 125,000 podcasts listed in the iTunes Podcast Directory. Teachers like to create their own podcasts because it is a great way to reach students. Students like to create their own because it gives them a potentially world-wide audience.

Participants in Arizona K-12 Center's technology integration class "Audio Podcasting for Teachers & Students" have been analyzing a variety podcasts. After listening to lots of examples, they certainly have opinions on good podcasts.

Continue reading "Good Podcasts"

What if you could automatically send an email to your readers when you update your blog? You can with Google's free Feedburner service! This means your audience (parents, student, other teachers, etc.) don't have to visit your blog to see if it has been updated. I'd like to show you how to set up Feedburner's Email Subscription Service to allow your readers to sign up to receive your blog posts via email.

Yes, I know, savvy users might use Bloglines or Google Reader to know when your blog is updated, but most folks don't yet use those kinds of tools. That's why it's so great to offer an email subscription option.

First, to see how email subscriptions work, why don't you go ahead and subscribe to this blog. All you have to do is click this link and fill in your email address:

feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=2540219&loc=en_US

Continue reading "Send Your Blog Updates through Email"

Tasks that engage students often focus on a product or performance that has significance to the student. As explained in Working on the Work, a quality that affects student engagement is being product focused. Having something tangible to share with others gives students motivation. If that product is perceived as important to students, they will care about how the product turns out and give it their best efforts.

With thoughtfully designed projects, many required standards and objectives can be met. It's not easy to craft projects that will engage students and meet multiple standards. But, if anyone can do it, imaginative teachers can! Phillip Schlechty has a great quote in Working on the Work:

Teachers are inventors. They are called on to create schoolwork that will produce authentic engagement on the part of students.

Continue reading "Product Focus Affects Engagement"

Many teachers and students use Google's free online version of Microsoft Office called Google Docs. Google Docs lets its users create, store, and share word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms.

The best way to learn about the power of Google Docs is to watch this three-minute video:

Continue reading "Getting Started with Google Docs"

Another quality that Phillip Schlechty identifies as affecting student engagement is protection from adverse consequences for initial failures. We all know it's no fun to fail. Sometimes when we are afraid of failing at something, we don't give our best effort because failure seems certain. Correspondingly, students are more engaged when they can try tasks and be protected from adverse consequences for their initial failures.

As teachers, we want our students to try new things without fear from negative consequences, punishment, or feelings of inadequacy. But, we also have the urge to grade everything students do. When students are graded on tasks where they lack knowledge and skills, there is that chance for failure and the hesitation associated with it.

Continue reading "Protection from Adverse Consequences Affects Engagement"

Classroom webpages are great for students and parents as they can be a window into your classroom. A classroom site can be a great place for teachers to showcase student work, post announcements, and link to instructional resources.

Visitors to a classroom site may expect frequent updates to the content. Unfortunately, most classroom teachers do not have the time to regularly update their sites. Visitors may also want interactive content and that is not something teachers can easily create themselves.

Web widgets, little bits of code you embed into the HTML of a webpage, are useful for posting instructional resources and self-updating information. Once a web widget is placed on a site, it can grab updated information and display it on a webpage--all automatically. Unlike widgets for Protopage, Macintosh Dashboard, and Yahoo, web widgets are embedded on any webpage, blog, wiki, or social networking homepage because they do not require you to use a certain service or platform.

Continue reading "Freshen Up Your Site with Web Widgets"

Phillip Schlechty identifies qualities that affect student engagement in his book Working on the Work. The first of the eight qualities I'll be writing about is authenticity. Students find authenticity in tasks that have meaning and significance in their lives. When students perceive tasks as authentic, they feel ownership over the results. That feeling of ownership means they care about the quality of their work.

It's tricky for teachers to develop tasks and projects that have high levels of authenticity. Students usually cannot just follow what they are passionate about because state standards so often dictate exactly what students learn. Furthermore, students know when the tasks teachers ask them to do are contrived and inconsequential, and they do not find meaning in these tasks. So it's up to the teacher to craft activities that incorporate what students need to learn in a way they will view as meaningful. Here's a powerful quote from Working on the Work:

Teachers are leaders and like other leaders, they are known more by what they get others to do than by what they do themselves.

Continue reading "Authenticity Affects Engagement"

One of the keys to successful learning is engagement. In his book, Working on the Work, Phillip Schlechty describes five types of responses students have to the tasks teachers ask them to perform.

We'd all like our students to respond with authentic engagement. If they aren't authentically engaged, we'll settle for ritual engagement, where the student carries out the task but is not really motivated by the task itself. Grades or parent expectations are the motivation to a student who is ritually engaged. We've all seen students who aren't even motivated by grades: they are passively compliant to avoid unpleasant consequences. Then there are students who refuse to do what is asked of them. These students might retreat mentally or physically from the task or openly rebel against the task.

Continue reading "5 Types of Responses to a Task"