Here is my group's VoiceThread. This was a collaboration between four students in Instructional Technology 486. We went on a "nature" scavenger hunt and here is what we found:



If the embeded thread does not work, click here to go to our VoiceThread page.

This week in Instructional Technology our class experienced using the multimedia tool VoiceThread. Voice thread is an Internet-based multimedia tool that allows people to collaborate and share projects, presentations, slide shows, documents, and/or videos. Users can collaborate by supplying comments (voice, text, audio, video, or phone) or adding media to a thread and share it with others and allowing them to make comments as well.

You can sign up for a free account, or upgrade to a number of different "pro" accounts that are tailored to your needs. The K-12 accounts include a pro-educator subscription ($10/yr), a classroom subscription ($60/yr), or a school subscription ($1/per user). An upgraded subscription gives you 10GB+ of storage, the basic/free account limits 2GB storage.

I could see myself using this in the classroom. It would be a great tool for digital story telling, projects, and collaboration among students and other educators. You would need to take the time to walk through the setup and uploading features with your students. You would also need some form of consent from parents that would allow their child's work to be on the internet, even though the VoiceThread can be set to private I would imagine. VoiceThread has a great document on Getting Started with VoiceThread in the classroom, check it out.

There are also some limitations to using this tool in the classroom. If you run VoiceThread on a computer with a somewhat slower processor or Internet connection it doesn't run smoothly. While running VoiceThread on my home computer it was very slow. I could forsee this being a problem in some schools that have old and limited equipment. The recent Flash Player (10) is required to run VoiceThread as well. One other downfall to VoiceTread is that it is an Internet-based application. Thus, it can only be used if you have internet access, unlike using PowerPoint, iMovie, or Microsoft Photo Story which are programs that run from the computer. Any of these said programs or VoiceThread are nonlinear, though, and make it easy for students to be creativite while working on projects or other collaborations. They are able to "save" and come back to their work over and over again.

Overall, I'm intriuiged by VoiceThread and its potential for use in the classroom. I hope that next year I will find different ways that I can incorporate it into the classroom.


Links:
http://www.voicethread.com
http://voicethread.com/help/manuals/
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/PhotoStory/default.mspx

In the United State's largest school system teachers are being paid (full salary) to sit around and play scrabble, practice yoga, and fight over chairs while they await their disciplinary hearings and/or dismissal from their job.

Read about NYC's "Rubber Room" from the Associated Press/Yahoo!

Listen to This American Life's story about the "Rubber Room"

The Rubber Room Movie, a documentary



Links:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_re_us/us_rubber_rooms;_ylt=ApDYXQhrTCTBdS4yYCfsNJiCfNdF

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=350

http://www.rubberroommovie.com/

This is a slide show of my digital image collection. I chose whitewater kayaking as my theme. The captions identify the method in which the digital images were acquired. Locations and photo credits have been given as well.

This week in Instructional Technology we were introduced to Google Docs. This is a fabulous resource that should be utilized. I believe that Google Docs could be a very beneficial tool for educators.

I had previously collaborated on a project in my Science Education 422 class using Google Docs and was happily impressed. It took the confusion and time wasted over collaborating schedules to meet as a group out of the equation. My group worked on our science activity diligently as each schedule allowed, culminating in a terrific lesson plan that was easy to execute in class.

Currently I am collaborating with two other students in writing a web-based inquiry activity that will become part of our overall lesson plan using Google Docs. We are focusing on fourth grade science.

I look forward to using Google Docs in the future. It is my intent to use it in the near future to collaborate with my mentoring teacher during my internship year. My internship is in Roane County, in Rockwood, TN at Ridge View Elementary. Apart from the 50+ minute commute from Knoxville, late afternoons spent in the classroom will hopefully be minimal. This is where Google Docs will come into play, allowing my mentor teacher and I to collaborate on lesson plans and other documents while at home or on the weekends.

Visit Google Docs here: http://docs.google.com/

Science Education 506 - Ossabaw Island, GA - UT Miniterm 2009

During the month of May many pre-service teachers (as well as practicing teachers and post-interns), including myself, enrolled in a graduate level miniterm class. Science Education 506: Ocean, Beach, and Estuarine Ecology Education, involved a handful of pre-trip classes that culminated in a five-day, four-night primitive camping experience. While on the island we were involved in astronomy, geology, ornothology, field biology lessons, and book discussions. We also took time to comb the inland as well as the beach for items that would become part of our collections, and designed and executed a group experiement. Upon our return to the "real world" we were to finalize our collections, write up our experiment, finish our nature journal, review our photography, and devise a "Nature Teaching Improvement Plan." All of this will be presented and reviewed on June 22, 2009 during our post-trip "seafood banquet" class.

Here are a few of the 300+ photographs that I took:


I would highly recommend this course to anyone that was interested. Ossabaw is a truly unique place. The course was also well organized and the instructors and support staff were very knowledgeable. Read more about Ossabaw Island here: http://www.ossabawisland.org/

Hello, my name is Ashley Strickland and I am a student at the University of Tennessee working on my teacher licensure in elementary education as well as masters of science in education.

After many years of reading others people's blogs, I have finally set up my own. Obviously, this is my first blog post, ever. This blog will encompass my educational journey at the University of Tennessee. I hope to include reflections, projects, relevant course work, and instructional technology tools in this blog.

Stay tuned for more information and happenings.