I’ve talked about Pandora in the past. It is a great site for discovering music and it’s an easy way to play some tunes in the classroom.
One drawback to Pandora was that naughty words popped up in some of the songs. Fortunately, Pandora has a fix to this little problem.
Click “Settings” in the upper right corner to see an option to enable an explicit lyrics filter.
Now I can play my “White Stripes” station without worrying about the words my grandma doesn’t like.
A book about email
Recently I heard an interview on Wisconsin Public Radio about email. The guest was David Shipley, coauthor of “SEND: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home.”
Shipley gives tips to help avoid email pitfalls and discusses how to write the perfect message.
I encourage everyone to give it a listen; it was a fun interview.
The authors also have a website where you can read examples of bad emails.
We all have our horror stories, here’s what bugs me the most:
- No meaningful subject line—Imaging if the newspaper quit using headlines or changed them all to “read this” or “FYI”.
- Email for the masses—Chain letters, rants, persuasion pieces…why did you send this to me? I barely know you. (This website provides a solution.)
- Forward of a forward of a forward— I don’t always need to see who sent you the message. And maybe they don’t want you to spread their email address all over the world either.
- Pretty email—Just because you can make your default font Comic Sans in purple doesn’t mean you should. And there’s nothing wrong with a white background.
Aaaah that felt good. Now post your pet peeves in the comments section below.
Use Rules to prune your Outlook inbox
With all the messages that get sent around at work, we need to prune our email inboxes every once and a while.
Outlook lets you move (or even delete) messages that meet certain criteria. For example, you can delete all messages that are from spam@temple.com or you can move all messages that contain the word homecoming into a “Homecoming” folder.
Outlook makes this easy with its Rules Wizard. You can find a quick step-by-step tutorial to get started.
You need to fight for Pandora and NPR
A few weeks back I wrote about streaming music in your classroom. I left out the fact that Internet radio (like Pandora) is in jeopardy due to a possible royalty hike brought on by the RIAA.
Savenetradio.org explains:
The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date.
Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, explained in a recent interview that this would cost Pandora millions of dollars. It would very likely end their business. It’s not just going to affect Pandora. Thousands of internet radio sites and even NPR will be subject to the increase.
Everyone understands that paying royalties is a fact of life but these prices are unreasonable. They are much higher than satellite radio. Traditional broadcast radio doesn’t pay any royalties to record companies or recording artists!
Visit SaveNetRadio.org to join the fight for the preservation of Internet radio. There is a bill in congress, The Internet Radio Equity Act (H.R. 2060), that would fix this. Call your congressperson to ask them to co-sponsor this bill. Tell your friends to do the same.
Abstinence Only? Not for my TV (or computer)
April 23rd marks the start of Turn off TV Week. Children across the nation will be pledging to abstain from viewing television for one week.The project is lead by TV-Turnoff Network, a non-profit organization with the goal of reducing the amount of TV children and adults watch.
Here is how they described themselves at their website:
TV-Turnoff Network is dedicated to the belief that we all have the power to determine the role that television plays in our own lives. Rather than waiting for others to make “better” TV, we can turn it off and reclaim time for our families, our friends, and for ourselves.
The site also provides many pages that vilify TV. Some pages claim TV causes violence, obesity, and ADD in today’s society.
TV-Turnoff Network doesn’t seem to have anything good to say about TV. How can a technology that inspired young scientists during the moon landings, made us laugh with Johnny Carson and helped us grieve during the September 11th attacks be so evil?
Like anything, TV has its problems when it is overused or misused but let’s not forget that it is a remarkable invention. TV is also a great educational tool. Growing up I watched many NOVA specials on PBS with my Dad. (As a matter of fact, there will be a brand new episode during Turn of TV Week.)
TV-Turnoff Network’s approach is all wrong. Simply pressing the off switch is not enough. TV is an important and powerful force in our society. You cannot turn your back on it. You must take it in warts and all. Set limits for children. Know what they’re watching. Know what lessons they’re learning.
TV is no longer the only important screen in our life. The status of computers has been elevated by the Internet. It won’t stop with computers. My new cell phone can display pictures, the Internet, TV shows, movies and more. Media will become ubiquitous. We will need to teach our children how to live in this world. I don’t believe slogans that basically tell you to close your eyes will help.
Research doesn’t favor notes via PowerPoint
Recent research on cognitive load theory suggests that PowerPoint is doing more damage than good.
From the full story in The Sydney Morning Herald:
It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you in the written and spoken form at the same time.
Professor John Sweller states:
It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented.
If you wish to use a PowerPoint presentation, consider using it as a visual aid. PowerPoint should not be used to display only text. If you have notes to present [top slide] consider using images to emphasize your points [bottom slide].
When thinking about this topic, I’m reminded of this comment one of my colleagues wrote a few months back: “I love PowerPoint, but for me it’s used to enhance my instruction, not remind me of what I need to say.”
Her statement took me back to a book I read several years ago by Clifford Stoll title, “High Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don’t Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian.”
Here is an excerpt from the chapter title The Plague of PowerPoint:
Want to make a splash at your next public talk? Know your material so well that you can speak off the cuff, without computer, laser pointer, or video projector. Scribble your important points on a chalkboard and emphasize them with your voice. Face your audience, not that computer monitor. Throw out that tired clipart and the cliches about the explosion of technology, the challenge of the future, and the crisis in education. Let me hear your voice, not a pre-programmed sound effect. Show me your ideas, not someone else’s template.
Stoll has a point. When was the last time you walked away from a lecture and said, “wow, that lady’s PowerPoint was awesome!” You can read the entire chapter here.
The bottom-line is that PowerPoint is a great tool when used correctly. When used poorly it can be boring or distracting.
But you don’t have to delete all your shows. Here is a tutorial to help you improve your presentations.
Music in the Classroom
If you like to play music in the classroom, consider these sites.
Pandora: Enter a song (or artist) that you like; Pandora will create a radio station that plays music similar to the song you entered. You can tweak the profile by giving a thumbs up or down for each song.
Musicovery: Pick a mood, decade, or genre; Musicovery will play songs that match what you’re looking for.
Both sites are a great way to discover new artists. Enjoy!
Play YouTube Videos at School
From time-to-time I find videos online that are perfect for the classroom. At school we can look for online videos via Google Video.
Now that Google purchased YouTube, you can find YouTube videos in Google’s search results. YouTube is another online video website that is becoming more and more mainstream. For example, some of the 2008 presidential hopefuls are using YouTube for major announcements.
Unfortunately, our school district blocks access to YouTube. Perhaps this is the right decision for our students but I have ranted in the past that it is wrong to block teacher access.
So, if you find a YouTube video that you’d like to use in class, here’s a work-around:
- Copy the URL displayed in the search results of Google video
- Visit Vixy.net and paste in the YouTube URL
- Choose “MOV for Mac” in the drop down (this is the video format that will work at school)
- Click Start and Vixy will convert the video for free
- When the video is converted, you’ll be prompted to download it
Disclaimer: YouTube has had its share of problems with copyrighted material. Please consider copyright and fair use when using Vixy.
My Video Podcast Trek
I’ve been tinkering with video podcasts the past few weeks. My goal is to use the podcast so students can review:
- notes from the past week
- the practice problems at their own pace
- demonstrations and lab activities performed in class
To play the videos, I chose the Flash Video Player. This free player is easy to configure if you read the directions. I had one snag with the slider but I solved this by using the proper metatags in my flv files. To fix the metatags I used FLV MetaData Injector. Again, this was explained in the installation directions. To host Flash video at your site, you’ll also need to update your webserver’s MIME types to include the flv extension.
The best piece of software I encountered on this trek was Camtasia. It is not a free program but they do offer a fully functional trial version for 30 days. Camtasia is primarily a screen capture program
(used to produce screencasts) but I found it does so much more.
Here are just a few highlights:
- edit and trim your video
- add zooms, pans and transitions
- add a second audio track
- insert captions and overlays
- export to a wide variety of formats
Camtasia was easy to use and provided timeline style editing. After I finished editing the video, I was able to produce a Flash version and an iPod friendly version in just one step.
There is something weird about seeing your lesson on an iPod. What’s even weirder is seeing students use it!
The last step to any podcasting adventure is the most crucial—create the rss feed. Your media can not be called a podcast without it. The rss feed is a text file that contains specific information about your show and describes each episode. You update the feed each time you create a new episode. I used several templates as an example to make my feed. (examples: 1, 2, 3) If you want to be iTunes friendly, you’ll need to follow some of their special formatting rules. You’ll also want submit your feed to Apple so users can search for your podcast right inside iTunes.
Here is my final product. I welcome feedback, questions and comments.
No Time to Search—Try ChaCha
Today, a student asked me if Florida had a sales tax. So I thought I’d put ChaCha to work. ChaCha is a new search engine that uses social searching.
As well as traditional algorithmic search, ChaCha offers the ability to have an on-site IM [chat] conversation with a “guide”, who will then go out and find the information for you. They’re launching with over 2500 guides, including college students and stay-at-home moms. What’s more, these users need to climb a hierarchy before they can get paid.
I typed my question into ChaCha’s and a guide began searching. When I came back they had the answer.
Give it a try . Enter a question and choose “Search with Guide.”
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