I just found one of the really big problems with podcasts. I was listening to a podcast a month or so ago, and I heard the people talking about digital immigrants and digital natives. One of the points that was made really struck a chord. Of course, they said that the students of today are digital natives, and they’ve grown up with the technology. Their … Continue reading Searching Audio

There are some really neat things going on with podcasting, but I want to lay a little groundwork before jumping in with both feet. This is the first in a series of posts about how this technology can help teachers and students. First of all, a definition is in order. Basically, a podcast is an audio file that gets distributed through a feed. While you … Continue reading What is Podcasting?

I’m preparing a presentation for a staff development day coming up in March. One of the things the presentation includes is a series of slides with short definitions of buzzwords. Blog. Wiki. Podcast. Phishing. Terabyte. No problems. Web 2.0? That’s a little tougher. I quickly found that I needed two slides. Then, maybe, half a dozen. Then, perhaps, an entire presentation. The word gets thrown … Continue reading Web 2.What?

My wife wanted a CD for Christmas, and I waited too long to purchase it online. I couple days before Christmas, I walked into my local Coconuts music store. Apparently, I hadn’t been in a music store in a while. The rows and rows of CDs and DVDs were still there. They were rediculously overpriced, just as I’d remembered. The discount bin was still there, … Continue reading Music Stores Are Dead

It’s time to start teaching online. The universities have been using online learning tools for quite a while now. Community schools are using online tools to provide an alternative to public education. Students are using online communication tools to keep in touch with their friends. The time has come to take advantage of these tools. Moodle is an open source course management system for online … Continue reading Moodle-ing Around

Recently, Ryan Collins started a discussion about teachers wanting to opt-out of technology use in the classroom. He posed the following question to Ohio’s technology coordinators: What does your district do with teachers who want to "opt out" of technology?  Since we are pushing technology integration, one of the things on my plate this month is to have this discussion with my superintendent and  assistant … Continue reading How Optional is Technology?

A new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project challenges some of the conventional wisdom regarding gender roles and technology. For the first time, the report finds that young women use the Internet more than young men. In the 18-29 year old age group, 86% of women are Internet users, compared to just 80% of men the same age. This is the only … Continue reading Girls Use the Internet, Too

Smart people are starting to rearrange the puzzle pieces a little bit. Some of the technologies that have been around for a while are now being combined and interconnected in new and interesting ways, and it’s changing how we use the Internet. Consider Ajax, for example. It’s basically a combination of Javascript and XML, two technologies that have been around for a decade or so. … Continue reading Quite Writely

Making Web Pages is a PainI’m frequently asked for an easy way for teachers to create web sites and keep them up-to-date. In the past, I’ve tried a number of approaches with teachers. I started with writing html code by hand using a simple text editor. It’s really not very difficult to make web pages that way, but it was a little too techy for … Continue reading Why in the World Would I Want a Blog?

LibriVox is a volunteer initative to create audio versions of literature classics. People volunteer to record chapters or books, and then submit these recordings so others may download and listen to them. To avoid copyright problems, they only accept work that’s in the public domain. For the most part, that means books published before 1923. All of the recordings are freely available on the web … Continue reading Free Audio Books Online

It looks like I finally have WordPress working correctly with multiple users. I’ve also written a script that will make it easier to create new sites for staff members. This project is going to allow me to get information out quickly and easily, while still testing and playing with the tool.Right now, it’s pretty easy to add content. I can attach files and pictures to … Continue reading WordPress is finally working