Maria Knee

It's Elementary Show #13 - EduCon 2.0 Reflections

maria — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:02:13 -0600

Lisa and Maria shared their EduCon 2.0 experience with several guests who were also in attendance. The post show conversation added to the overall discussion and the chat room was lively as well. It was a record breaker!

Chat Below

It's Elementary #12 Using RSS (Really Serious Stress relief)

coordinator2 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:39:13 -0600

Our guest, Jennifer Dorman, gave lots of great information about using RSS in education.

We defined RSS feeds (sorta like a magazine subscription, but online);
We discussed why you would want to use it as a teacher, and in your classroom;
We shared examples of how we use it (sometimes for ourselves and our professional development, sometimes to automate information given to and from students); and
We talked about opportunities and challenges.

You can find our planning wiki here.

Some featured bookmarks from the show are here:

From Jennifer Dorman:
RSS for Educators wiki page
RSS Presentation file
RSS in Plain English (from Lee LeFever at CommonCraft, examples it really simply)

A more extensive list of bookmark is here on Diigo.

One issue that came up was the lack of RSS on content pages geared towards students. We've used feeds from Highlights, and Discovery Science. If you have other elementary-age content that has an RSS feed, please share it on in our Diigo group, or here as a comment. Thanks!

Chat Log Below

It's Elementary Show #11 - Tagging to a New Taxonomy

maria — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 21:50:06 -0600

With our Guest Steve Hargadon. Steve shares his insights about tagging with us.

Our discussion included use of tagging in blogs, pictures, in social bookmarking, at conferences, and with our students.

Steve talked about the purpose and structure of tagging. We use tags on content we produce so that it is useful to others on the net. The use of tags in social bookmarking such as del.icio.us and diggo are examples. We are able to see how others tag content on the web. We can tag our own content using similar taxonomy or create our own. Steve reminded us that there is tension between using standardized tags versus a more independent free flowing tag system. We can use technorati and or Blog search engines like google to make sense of all the content.

At NECC 2007 session specific tags were proposed and adopted by the community. This standardized form of tagging allowed for aggregation session specific content. The same system is also used in classroom 2.0 to standardize the way blog posts and other content is tagged.

Our next show will be on January 14th, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. Pacific / 7:00 p.m. Eastern. at Edtechtalk

Chat Log Below

It's Elementary Show #10 - Copyright, It's the Law!

maria — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:34:39 -0600

Our guest for this show is Aimee Bissonette whose legal practice focuses on copyright and trademark law, as well as rights licensing issues. Alice presents a case study to inform teachers about copyright and how it affects multimedia projects that you post on the web.

Chat Log

It's Elementary -- Equinox Webcastathon 2007

coordinator2 — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:04:48 -0500

Come and listen as we talk about our projects. This is our Back to School Special. The It's Elementary Team; Lisa Durff, Maria Knee, Alice Mercer and Jose Rodriguez. As the Webcastathon begins to wind down the Chat Room was buzzing. We had some of our regulars and special visitors from New Zealand. Hope you enjoy the show!

Chat Log Below

It's Elementary #5, Oodles of Moodle.

coordinator2 — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:27:43 -0500

It was another great show with James Gates of Tipline - Gates? Computer Tips taking us through Moodle, and it's features. Jim was excited and passionate about this subject as you'll be able to tell from the show audio.

Jim started with a slideshare on Moodle in the classroom:
http://www.slideshare.net/jgates513/moodle-for-elementary-grades

He then talked us through the slides which highlighted the features in a moodle.
It's a great walled garden system that has a number of modules that you can pick and choose from.
There is even a great basic wiki, and word list/glossary builder feature.
There is a free moodle services available at http://globalclassroom.us/

Our Diigo links for this show include some school sites using moodle. Many have guest sign-in that will let you look at pages without editing privileges.

Please join us on September 24th, 2007 for a discussion of social networks in Education with John Pederson.

Chat Log Below

It's Elementary Show #4: Essentials for Web 2.0 in the Classroom

alicemercer — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:51:37 -0500

This was our Back to School Special. We discussed the following;

We explored the differences between a traditional classroom and a Web 2.0 Classroom.
We discussed the new NETS standards for technology. We looked at student profiles and what students are expected to do in the different grade levels.
We talked about how we use Web 2.0 tools in our classrooms.
We then opened up a round table discussion.

Other resources from the show:

Our show outline can be viewed here

Our next show will be on Monday September 10 at 4 p.m. PDT/6 p.m. CDT/8 p.m. EDT, on the subject of the use of Moodle in the elementary classroom with our guest, James Gates of http://eduspaces.net/jamesg/weblog Join us then, at http://edtechtalk.com/chat!

Text Chat Log Below

It's Elementary #3 Podcasts - Just Listen to Me!

coordinator2 — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 02:13:58 -0500

We had a very information packed discussion full of insights and suggestions with our guest, Wes Fryer. Our show included discussion of the following:

We discussed what podcasting is and why you would want to podcast.
Examples from each of our classrooms (Kinder on up) of podcasting and our insights from that experience.
Wesley then shared resources on podcasting.
We then opened up a round table discussion.

Wes made his own podcast of the show, and has show notes on his blog, Moving at the Speed of Creativity.

Other resources from the show:

Our show outline can be viewed here
Our Diigo links which include more podcasting resources than we could cover in a 30 minute show. Check them out if you'd like more information.

Our next show will be on Monday August 27 at 4 p.m. PDT/6 p.m. CDT/8 p.m. EDT, on the subject of essentials for Web 2.0 in the elementary classroom with our guest, Christopher Shively, from On the Trails to Teaching and Learning. Join us then, at http://edtechtalk.com/chat!

Chat Log Below

It's Elementary #1 - Blogging, Just Do It!

coordinator2 — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:59:45 -0500

Our first attempt at Webcasting! Hosted by Alice Mercer, Lisa Durff, and Jose Rodriguez.

We were joined by Paul Harrington, Jason Hando, and Maria Knee talking about their blogs.

Paul shared about his blogging with Allanah King in New Zealand and his blog.

Jason shared about his first blog, "24 Stars". Work done on an outreach trip with students to Thailand.

Maria shared about blogging in Kindergarten on her blog.

Please join our next webcast on July 23, 2007 at 23:00 GMT on the edtechtalk channel where we discuss webquests.