Wisconsin

Want to keep up with current news in your subject area? Try Google Reader (or other RSS readers) to get constant, up-to-date RSS feeds from various news sources, blogs and podcasts. As May 1st is RSS Day, now is the perfect time to start.Before we begin, what is RSS? RSS stands for “Real Simple Syndication”. Basically, an RSS Feed is an address assigned to content that is updated frequently on the web (such as a blog post, podcast, newspaper article, etc). An RSS Aggregator seeks out content from these RSS feeds and pulls them into a handy reader. In short, it brings the web to you, instead of you going to individual addresses on a regular basis. Need more explanation? Check out the RSS Entry in Wikipedia. Or, simply setup a reader and learn by doing.

Setup
There are many different RSS readers (some are even integrated into browsers), but I suggest Google Reader for its ease of use. First, you will need to setup a Google account. Go to: http://reader.google.com. You will need to follow the instructions to setup an account.

Once you have Google Reader setup, you can add subscriptions by clicking on the ‘Add Subscriptions’ link. There, you can search for new content, and Google Reader will seek out content from these RSS feeds. Alternatively, you can add RSS feeds automatically from websites that have the orange RSS logo.

When reading your feeds, use the “J” key to scroll through the content, and “K” to go backwards. If you want to look at the information more closely, you can simply click on the title or link to the original content.

You can star noteworthy articles, and come back to them later. As some sites are blocked by my district, I will star interesting news feeds and then access them later at home. The more advanced user can do other things, like create folders, tag, read feeds offline, and share your feeds with your friends. Click on the Google Reader Thumbnail (right) to see what a standard display might look like.

Got more questions? Check out the Google Reader Help Center, and you will find many short articles to help you use Google Reader more effectively.

Uses
An RSS reader/aggregator can be an extremely useful tool for a science educator trying to stay abreast of current discoveries and news. This is extremely useful for teachers that want to stay informed for their own teaching, but you can also encourage your students to setup RSS readers to discuss current events.

But what about for other subject areas? RSS readers have obvious applications for history and political science teachers. Try searching for your local paper to see if it has an RSS feed for their top stories. If you are a foreign language teacher, you can get foreign news daily. But RSS readers can also connect you to blogs that might relate to your teaching. Entering the search string “teaching math” reveals a “forum for mathematics teaching for students from upper secondary/high school level through university”.

Enjoy
Go ahead and Read your Feeds! I find that Google Reader is my favorite newspaper; it is a collection of what I want to read, delivered to my desktop automatically. But be careful - if I don’t go through my feeds on a regular basis, I find that I can get thousands of posts behind!

(also posted on www.explodingsink.com)

My district has recently installed Microsoft Sharepoint. This is a dynamic tool (albeit from the MotherShip) that allows me to create and control groups where users can collaborate though shared documents, discussions boards, blogs, and wikis (and many other features).

My initial observations of Sharepoint made me realize that it has a distinct Microsoft footprint - heavy on tools, but clunky to use. It reminds me of that spoof video fantasizing if Microsoft had packaged the iPod. In any case, I futzed around with it for a while until I was semi-satisfied.

I have to admit - the discussion board is a powerful tool. It engages my students on a level that they would not comfortable with in the classroom. It challenges them to raise questions they would not ask in class. It actually brings more discussion into the classroom. And this was only after a week of discussion. (NOTE: the power of a discussion board is not new to me, but this is the first time I am able to use one under my district’s IT reign).

This is exactly a tool I have been looking for, as I have a colleague in Sweden who wants to have our classes collaborate on a project. Since SKYPE is blocked, this would allow the students to actually have that collaboration - supervised by me and my Swedish colleague.
Sharepoint is quite powerful in that it allows multiple configurations for its users with many layers of permission. There are a few no-brainers that I already have setup to protect my students. First - they can only post, but can’t edit or delete their entries. This helps to reinforce the idea that once something is posted on the internet, it is always there. Secondly, I don’t allow anonymous outside registration either - outside registration would have to be added by me or would have to be requested.

But I am not clear how to setup other student permissions/identities and if I should allow outside access for viewing. I have a few options:

1. Lock down the site so that ONLY students in my class can see and participate in the discussions
2. Lock down the site as above, but allow it to be viewed by any student or teacher in the district
3. Allow outside viewing, but protect student identities - make them create unidentifiable usernames
4. Other options?

If you use student discussion boards, what advice do you have? What are the benefits and drawbacks of these configurations? I want students to be safe, feel free to speak their mind, but I also want to emulate the outside world as well.

You can see what I’ve done (and what the students have done) so far. Their identities are protected - so I am currently using option #3. Most likely, these settings will change in the future. [Link]

This school year, I was fortunate enough to have an interactive whiteboard (from Interwrite) installed in my classroom. I was hesitant to get it at first, as I would lose some valuable front-board real estate to have it mounted.

However, once I started using it, I soon found out some interactive and intriguing ways ways to enhance my instruction. Here’s what I like about it:

1. More Student Interaction. I often find myself working too hard. That is, teaching to my students instead of working with them so that they can teach themselves. The IW has really helped to get students out of their seats and truly be more interactive in the lessons. Students love to write on the board, and it’s a great way to get students to contribute to the class.
2. New Technology WOW Factor. There are only a handful of IW’s in the school right now, and students still think it’s a pretty cool gadget. It’s like I have the iPhone of education hanging on my wall (sorry for the metaphor).
3. Great for Graphing. As a science teacher, I always have my students collect and graph data to analyze in class. The IW allows me to display graphs and write on them for analysis (usually through Logger Pro). The ‘write-on-able’ feature and the fact I can go back or save make the IW far superior to an overhead and some markers.
4. Import Work and other Media. The IW allows me to easily import many types of media. This is particularly nice when working with online or CD-ROM textbooks, as I can incorporate media directly from student texts into my lessons. I can also use non-digital media, as we have a copy machine in our building that will scan documents and e-mail them to teachers.
5. Save and Export Work. As I mentioned, I was a little cautious about losing some traditional whiteboard space. But I found that the IW actually expands this space, and I can create multiple pages and scroll back and forth. I can also record my movements on the IW to export them as a movie, and export the pages to a PDF file.
6. Demonstration and Interactive Use of Programs. I particularly like to use RasMol for molecular imaging. I can use the same basic mouse functions on the IW to manipulate the molecule on the board, as well as certain structures with the IW pen. Here’s an exported video of me manipulating a GFP molecule with the IW.
7. Interwrite Board + SMART Airliner Tablet = Extreme Whiteboarding! I still use traditional whiteboards integrated with the IW. I can assign multiple tasks for student groups to tackle on their own whiteboard, then take a picture of each and upload them to view. The students can present it on the board as I bring up their whiteboard picture. All the while, I am sitting in the back and can correct or add comments with a SMART Airliner Tablet or wireless keyboard/mouse. Again, the students produce, review and critique their entire lesson with my guidance.

Picture of Student Work:

Picture of Corrected Student Work:

If you can’t afford an interactive whiteboard this year, check out the economy solution - made from a Nintendo Wii [Link].

(Also posted on www.explodingsink.com]