Edtech Treks: Squeaks, Squeals & Squawks

by Carol Holzberg – Sunday, May 4, 2008, 03:17 PM

Posted in response to: Session 5: Incorporating Podcasting and Video Streaming (April 21 – May 4)
1. Discuss the benefits and challenges that you anticipate from integrating streaming audio and video into your classroom, school, or district. When discussing the challenges brainstorm the steps you might take to overcome these challenges.

Hey everyone, Welcome Back!

Podcasts, Video, Audio, oh my. Anne Marie did a terrific job of enumerating the challenges of integrating streaming audio and video in classroom instruction, so I’m not going to reinvent the wheel. For challenges she lists: “bandwidth constraints, inferior technology and budgets” (Now all I need to do is…”Just Do It!”, Anne Marie Salvon – Friday, May 2, 2008, 04:51 PM).

Stephen adds another constraint commonly faced by dedicated educational technologists like us, i.e., the reluctance of older, experienced teachers to integrate new tools in their instructional toolkit. He refers to an English teacher colleague who is both cynical and skeptical about new tools, reducing Web 2.0 technologies to “a bunch of bull____!” i.e., a nefarious plot hatched by “corporate America selling billions of dollars of technology.” (I feel the trend, Stephen McCabe – Wednesday, April 30, 2008, 10:55 AM).

Convincing technophobes to give technology a try may not be where we should focus our efforts. The gadgets we like so much probably won’t work for them anyway. Stephen’s colleague reminds me of the Peanuts’ cartoon character, Pigpen. No matter where he goes or what he wears, a cloud of dirt always hovers around him. Regrettably, it spreads to those who hang out with him too. (Pigpen Hoedown, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ4c7E57P8Q and Peanuts Snoopy Pigpen Regina Carpet Cleaner Commercial, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXghPWDCjXM.

Folks who are anxious about technology may be anxious for a reason. Perhaps they have technology karma! All we can hope for is that our students wax poetic about how much they learn from our Web 2.0 rich classes and how much they enjoy learning the content we teach. And, if they also score higher on those standardized tests (much like the students at Elk Grove Calvine High School who achieved higher scores when teachers integrated unitedstreaming clips into classroom instruction (Video Goes to School, Part 1, http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=36294&page=2), administrators will take note and reluctant teachers will be motivated to improve their teaching bag of tricks.

Even students don’t score higher on those tests, if it’s the technology that helps them stay focused and on task for longer periods of time doing something well because it has become personally meaningful and becoming better at writing or communicating because of it, heck that’s a big plus for me!

The benefits that Anne Marie and Stephen list as reasons why we should persevere and continue to use Web 2.0 tools with our students are quite compelling. Anne Marie points out that more 90% of her 6th graders learn to use a computer before they learn to ride a bike and notes that: “The fact that the Millennials have been engaged by audio and video since they were born is the number one benefit to the integration of it in their classrooms.” Stephen writes: “These technology tools are interesting to students and will motivate them. This is their electronic medium and they love to explore and communicate via these technology tools.” You bet!

We should probably think of these technologies from several vantage points. Integrating streaming audio and video into our classes does add a dynamic instructional component confirmed by the following quotes gleaned from some of this week’s reads:

• [video] “makes the teachers better by modeling different ways to explain the same content (Video Goes to School, Part 1, http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=36294&page=2).
• “video collections available via the internet allow teachers to easily locate and show small portions of the video that complement the lesson–and that correlate with specific state or national standards” (Video Goes to School, Part 1, http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=36294&page=2).

However, Wes Fryer adds another dimension that we must certainly consider when looking for the benefits associated with streaming audio and video, i.e., the potential for students to produce for an audience outside the classroom (and by audience I mean more than just their friends, parents, or relatives). Fryer writes:

• “The potential of publishing for a global audience is precisely the characteristic of podcasts which gives them so much motivational power for student writing…Students can get very fired up when they realize other people besides their classroom teacher are listening to and responding to the ideas they are sharing via a classroom podcast.” (Fryer, Wesley A., Tools For The Teks: Integrating Technology In The Classroom: Classroom Audio Podcasting, http://www.wtvi.com/teks/05_06_articles/classroom-audio-podcasting.html) [The same thing can be said for students producing their own vidcasts!]

This second point reminds me of Ron Berger’s work from back in the day before “Wikinomics.” Berger is one of those nationally acclaimed teachers championed by the likes of Howard Gardner, Deborah Meier, Theodore Sizer and Carol Holzberg (me!). He wrote a book titled: An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students (2003). In the text, he describes how he teaches kids to do their best work, take pride in what they do, and produce work that is worthy of pride. When students perceive that people care about how well they do, they do better work, preferring not to let their audience down. He believes this craft of excellence develops with support from a school culture that encourages kids to “volunteer, to work together, and to care deeply about the quality of what they [do]…an ethic, a culture, which supports and compels students to try and to succeed…It’s a long-term commitment. It’s a way of life.” (Berger 2003, p. 4).

I guess what I’ve decided as I write this is that while I am committed to Web 2.0 technologies (living and breathing them excessively to try and figure out how I can use them for teaching and instruction), there is more than one way to use them. Some may appreciate them as tools to make content more intelligible; others may appreciate the way these tools motivate students to produce content for larger authentic audiences interested in the results of student work. When students produce for the outside world, they are more likely to develop a passion for quality work.

Bye for now,
Carol

P.S. I watched Robert Thompson’s 4 Generations: The Water Buffalo Movie (http://t2.com/waterbuffalo/) and like Beverly, I found it very moving. Heck…I cried. It’s only 8 minutes long, but very powerful. I’ve already shared the link with others. The video reminded me of the beautiful work that Marco Torres and his students do with film, teaching the art of representation without being literal, using audio to create mood, writing poetry with moving images. Take a look at some of the videos by Torres’ students, e.g., Ham and Eggs (http://www.sfett.com/html_movie/Ican5/ham_and_eggs.html) filmed by Elizabeth and Rosa Ruvalcaba. Or, if you teach elementary school science, Marcus Marcal’s You Don’t Know Beans is a must see too (http://www.sfett.com/html_movie/Ican5/you_don’t_know_beans.html)! Finally, just because sometimes I need to step back and give thanks (you might too), watch Hero by Joe Perez (http://www.sfett.com/html_movie/Ican6/hero.html). It does have a happy ending.

P.P.S. I have a Skype account. I have used it to chat with my anthropology mentor of days gone by. When it works, it works really well. But sometimes like cell phone, it cuts out. A PhD student at Capella University wanted to have me join in on a conference call with her mentor (I sit on her committee). If memory serves me correctly, all 3 of us we chatted simultaneously using Skype’s conference call capabilities.

I access my Skype account from a Belkin Wi-Fi Phone for Skype. This amazing wireless device makes local or long distance calls without connecting to a computer or a telephone jack. It’s “wire free!” All it needs is access to a secure (WEP, WPA or WPA2 with PSK) or open Wi-Fi 802.11b/g network. Think free hot spots like Internet cafés, hotels, conference rooms, airports, local libraries, or municipal access points! (Belkin Corporation, http://www.belkin.com/skype/howitworks/, 877.736.5771, $180 from Belkin). It looks just like a phone. I’ve also Skyped from my desktop computer but it requires that I hook up a headset so I can talk and listen and I find the headset a bit awkward.

Resources:
Berger, Ron (2003). An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship in Schools. Heinemann, ISBN-10: 0325005966, http://www.amazon.com/Ethic-Excellence-Building-Culture-Craftsmanship/dp/0325005966

Branigan, Cara (April 1, 2005) Video Goes to School, Part 1. ESchoolNews, retrieved from the Web, May 4, 2008 from http://www.eschoolnews.com//news/top-news/index.cfm?i=36294.

Fryer, Wesley A. (2005-06). Tools For The Teks: Integrating Technology In The Classroom: Classroom Audio Podcasting. Retrieved from the Web May 4, 2008 from http://www.wtvi.com/teks/05_06_articles/classroom-audio-podcasting.html