Due to the limitations of Weebly, my audio and video Podcasts can be found on a different blog, here.


This podcast was created for a High School Spanish II classroom. It meets the following Michigan State Standard and Benchmark:

Communication: Communicate in Languages Other Than English

1.2 Interpretive Communication: Students understand and interpret
     written and spoken language on a variety of topics.
 
     1.2.N.L.d Understand main idea of an audio presentation (CD,
                  lecture, radio, podcast, songs/music)

Podcasts can be used in a variety of ways inside and outside of the classroom. Students can listen and follow along on a podcast when the teacher wants to present new information in the target language, for example when the teacher would like to introduce new vocabulary. The teacher can use the podcasts as a review for an exam, or as a performance assessment within the classroom. Podcasts can be used by the students to present book reports for fellow students to listen to, or so parents can listen to them to showcase their language learning ability. Video podcasts can broadcast information about their lives to pen pals in Latin America or Spain, for example, or it can be used as an introduction to everyone in the classroom.

Another great way to use podcasts is to communicate with other educators as well as parents. Educators may like to look at other students' podcasts to see what they are doing, as well as my personal professional development. Also, it would be a good communication tool to keep in touch with parents on what is new in the community as well as the inside the classroom.

I chose to create a mock digital story that provides an example of something my students might construct as part of a lesson or unit in a course I teach. For example, with the VoiceThread above, as you watch it you will see that I have researched a city in Mexico, commented on each photo, and others have commented on the photos as well. This is an example of a project that I would give my students to do as part of their final portfolio and a good portion of the grade would be commenting on other videos. It is important because students would be able to utilize the Spanish language, complete research about the culture, products, government and politics of a foreign country that speaks Spanish, and also write in the Spanish language. They would then need to read other video comments as well as read the information in order to find good information to complete the project. This would be an all around exciting and excellent project for my students to complete. We could then post them online for their parents to view their work and see their progress in the Spanish language.

Creating the digital story was very simple, although I did have to work out a few minor kinks at first due to my own errors. At the time that I am writing this I do not have a microphone available, but hope to have one before the assignment is due (because I do have one at my parents' home) and will be there this weekend, so hopefully I will be able to see how my voice comments affect the outcome of the story. The doodling is an interesting technique, but I have yet to figure out how to incorporate that into my Spanish curriculum. If anyone has any ideas or thoughts, please run those by me!

As you can see above, I can use the digital storytelling to showcase my students' research, but there are many other ways to utilize this unique technology. First, it is necessary to say that this is a fascinating technology and I believe that students will be thrilled at the prospect of learning how to use this. The students can use digital storytelling to have oral exams over book reports; students can actually have debates using digital storytellings over hot topics (of course they would use the Spanish language!); we can keep a running tab on how their language skills are improving throughout the year through digital storytelling; educators introducing new topics with digital storytelling to gain the students' interest, etc.; and finally, something that Ms. Sarah Wilson is focusing on that is an excellent idea is that of having students present themselves using digital storytelling. This is especially useful for students who are upper-level Spanish and can prepare and speak in full, complex sentences about their past experiences. It is an 'About Me' presentation in the first few weeks of class that would focus on bringing the classes together. I think it is an excellent idea.  

Photo Attribution:
Original Image: Quinceanera Alter
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliceomega/1358730826/sizes/l/

by: impercivibleneon87 (flickr account name)

Released under an Attribution Non-commercial No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic License.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en

Before this week's lab in CEP 416, if a student had approached me to help her look for images online about a project we were doing in class, in this case Quinceañeras in Mexico, I would have directed her to a few different websites that I have used in the past. For example, I have used Google Images, Yahoo Images, MSN Images, or just search the internet using the keyword 'images' to see what came up. This is what I have used in the past to search for images as well as where I have used to get images from. In regards to how to cite the images, the thought would have honestly not crossed my mind. I would not have mentioned to the student to cite their image at all. If she would have been adamant about citing, I would have said to list the website where she found it on. I am sorry to say that I have never cited an image source until I realized in this lab that it was actually considered stealing to use someone's image without their permission.

However, it is a happy day now that I am able to say that my perspective has changed on searching for images on the internet and I would lead my student in a different search direction after the lab this week. Although I realize that these other websites mentioned above can still be viable sources (only if they have the correct 'some rights reserved' copyright), however, there are a plethora of other images available to the students. For example, if the students does a search at Creative Commons Search, they will be able to find images provided through many different search engines. The student can also use FlickrCC to search, as well as other websites. I will also sit down with them and go over which images they will use by showing them how the licenses work. I will also show them how to correctly cite where the image is taken from (see example above).

I have been reading up on some of the blogs that other folks have been writing around the world, and I discovered one that is very interesting! A young boy, a 15 year old, writes on technology he finds interesting and how it could be applied to the classroom. He is so intellectual and his writing is very, very mature for his age! I find it supremely genuine that he is interested in bettering the public school system with technology. His blog, Newly Ancient, is clean-cut, easy to navigate, and he also includes a lot of personal information about his life, which is typical for a young man of his age. He also raised money for a cause he believed in and I find that very admirable.