What it takes to publish to iTunes / Internet TV
Emily Hendrick - Works for the LDS church developing their iTunes and and Internet TV
Notes from PodCampSLC 2011
Who is my audience?
Strategy
Complicated Strategy
What format is my podcast in?
Do I want to be on multiple platforms?
3 Key Elements
Consistent and Clean metadata
Consistent labeling
Consistent titles
Consistent length
What not to do:
Don't have 20 variations on your keywords - choose the most important ones
Keep your titles relatively short
Look at the store first to see what you should be doing. Very important:
Your graphic is most important
Album artist
Author - Could put a variety of things in this field, ie. your Twitter name
Lyrics tab - can put the text of your podcast
Utilize every tag if you can - use your keywords wisely - 13 is the limit, but don't use 13 b/c that's too many
Legible and well-designed cover art
Consistent, clean titles, organization, and graphics
Multitple podcasts under the same umbrella could have a similar look
Quality video/audio production
Make it look nice
Green screen
Watermark
Great content
Personality
Publishing to iTunes
You want to be on iTunes - it's where the podcast traffic is and it's easy to upload
Upper Echelons of iTunes
Site Manager Page (minimum of 10 podcasts required)
Internet TV Channel
Roku
Blip.tv
Netflix
flickr
facebook
AppleTV
etc.
The drawback is that we don't yet know who the "big racehorse" will be. - Who will be the biggest provider for this?
The objective of GIS is not to create the perfect map, it is to recognize spatial patterns - explaining patterns and trends and predicting future trends.
GIS
Web
Desktop
allows you to overlay data from various maps
Utah has Arc GIS through USOE (Rick Gaisford - Rick.Gaisford@schools.utah.gov)
Week-long course on the desktop software -- 1st week of August with UEN
What is digital citizenship?
I have noticed a shift from simply teaching online safety to teaching digital citizenship. What is the difference? I think digital citizenship is more all-encompassing. It includes online safety (what I think of as the "stranger danger" aspect of digital citizenship), but is a more well-rounded and complete view of what it means to "be online". It addresses safe searching, filters, security, and protecting personal information as well as appropriate content, cyber-bullying, copyright, ethics, social skills, collaboration, affiliation, authorship, and accountability. It is not just acceptable use, but responsible use. Yes, parents and educators need to keep children safe on the Internet, but we need to teach them etiquette and behavior expectations as well, just like we do in the "real world". The virtual world should not be that different from the real world. It's the same people conducting the same business and social interactions, just in a new way.
What is Web 3.0?
At the Networking/Web3.0 session I attended at EduBloggerCon in June, we discussed the idea of "Web 3.0". This discussion focused on the following progression: from The World Wide Web, to Web 2.0, and on to Web 3.0. The World Wide Web was an amazing connection of hypertext and linked documents. Web 2.0 shifted to being of the people, by the people -- interactive and open-source. Web 3.0 has shifted to more than just talk -- we share information and help each other manage and find meaning in the information that is out there.
What does Web 3.0 mean for students, parents, and educators?
Parents and educators have a responsibility to help students understand that there are real people with real feelings behind all the tweets, posts, and avatars. Every person is a citizen online, just like in the real world. We are all expected to follow rules, laws, and appropriate social behavior in life, so we must do the same online. What does this mean for school work?
On school networks, no person should ever be anonymous. We should be asking our students to put their name on everything. Being anonymous is like wearing a mask. People behave differently. They feel that because nobody knows who they are, they can do things they would never do normally. They disconnect from their actions and therefore take no responsibility for them. Students should be taught to be responsible for everything they put out there -- every post, tweet, and comment they make. Teaching them to put their name on their work encourages them to take ownership and responsibility for it.
In addition, keeping things anonymous does not allow authorship. It does not allow students to take credit for the great work they are doing. Instead of encouraging anonymity, we should encourage authorship by finding people to comment and share with our students so they can experience the benefits of taking ownership of their work. How? We can use hashtags like #comments4kids on Twitter to get other educators to comment on student blog posts. We can let students know who has viewed their blogs. We can try to get student work published outside of the school -- linked to a local paper or on a public site. (For example, talk to an historian and create a site for the local museum, newspaper, historical society, or library.) We can get outside businesses and associations interested in what our students are doing. (This is mutually beneficial. The students gain an understanding of their potential influence, and businesses gain interest from the "under-30 crowd".) We should be helping students see how far-reaching their online influence can be.
How should educators handle social network sites like Facebook?
I think that although we do need to be responsible online citizens, we do not want to create fear of social networking and sharing online. We want students to be able to reap the benefits of world wide access to incredible educational resources and social networks. Facebook is the "pizza parlor" or "shopping mall" of today, as the video below says. That means Facebook is also a great way to get announcements, news, educational content, and information out to students and the community. How? Teachers can create Facebook groups or fanpages for their classes instead of friending students. While we do need to be wise and thoughtful about the use of and access to social networks, we should not completely shy away from using them as resources.
How do we bring the family along for the learning?
Parents need to be involved in the online lives of their children. They need to help their children learn appropriate online behavior, just as they help them learn appropriate real-world behavior. We as educators can help parents. How? We can start by helping them become educated about digital citizenship. We can help parents understand the Acceptable Use Policy and Information Release Forms they are asked to sign. We can make them aware of available digital citizenship and network literacy resources. For example, UEN has created NetSafeUtah - a collection of movies about Internet safety and citizenship. I watched one NetSafe movie recently that focuses on parent involvement in the online activity of their children:
Educators should help parents understand what schools are doing with technology, particularly with Internet resources, so they can support our efforts. How? Schools can hold parent openhouse nights to encourage family involvement. They can hold family tech nights at the start of each school year and then again throughout the year on specific technology tools and topics. They can hold classes at various times and in various places for short periods of time to make it easier for busy parents to attend. Some schools even allow parents who do not have computers or Internet at home to have some access to computers and Internet at the school.
Educators can hold classes for parents where they actually participate in the same types of assignments, projects, and experiences that their children are participating in so they understand what is happening and what the value is. Experiencing what their kids experience can also help parents understand how to help their children with technology issues that arise at home (ie. what to do when you have trouble uploading a file). Have parents comment on each other's posts and projects so they can understand how it feels to interact and receive that kind of feedback. Try sharing class blogs from previous years so parents to see examples of what blogs are for and what can be accomplished with them.
What about kids who do not have access to technology at home?
Many educators are finding that it is difficult to press forward with technology use in education when so many of our students do not have the same technology tools and resources at home that they have at school. In public education we cannot require students to use tools unless we provide them. Even if districts can purchase equipment for students, it doesn't help much if they don't have Internet access at home. Here are some ideas our EduBloggerCon discussion group brainstormed to help families access technology and Internet resources at home:
Set up a rent-to-own program through the district, just like many districts have set up for purchasing band instruments.
Use the free/reduced lunch format to achieve one-to-one access.
Buy technology instead of textbooks.
Purchase mobile devices that do not require a home Internet provider.
What are we afraid of?
There are a lot of questions to be answered and ideas to ponder when it comes to managing and using technology in education, particularly Internet resources. There are many things we need to be wise and thoughtful about. But, it is clear to me that we cannot be afraid of the opportunities presented by the digital world. We should be excited about them! We should be providing our students the training and access they need to succeed and make a difference as digital citizens. The world of technology is their world. We are tasked with the responsibility to prepare them for it. I think I'm about the break into song... "I believe the children are our future. Teach them well, and let them lead the way..." You said it, Whitney.
What is VoiceThread? I attended a session at ISTE this summer about VoiceThread that provided me with some wonderful teaching ideas. First, let me explain what VoiceThread is.VoiceThread.com says:
A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate pages and leave comments in 5 ways - using voice, text, audio file, image file or video. With VoiceThread, group conversations are collected and shared in one place from anywhere in the world -- all with no software to install.
Creating a VoiceThread The first step in creating a VoiceThread is planning. Before beginning the technical process, be sure to answer the following questions: One: What is my goal? Two: What kind of presentation is this going to be? Once you have decided the direction of your VoiceThread, prepare the media you plan to use in your project. Save all the needed documents, video, audio, and pictures in a file ahead of time so they are ready to be uploaded when the time comes.
Once you have a plan in mind, the technical process begins. First, you will need to register and create a VoiceThread account. Once you are logged in, you will see the three steps to create your project. Step one: Upload the media you have prepared. Step two: Record your comments. Step three: Share your project. To edit, use the tools located around the VoiceThread's window to alter your project's elements, pages, comments, and settings.
Visit the VoiceThread support page to find more detailed instructions, answers to frequently asked questions, and helpful hints for creating projects.
Tips and Suggestions There are a lot of things you can do to improve your projects, to make the creation process easier, and to adjust your projects to better fit the needs of your students:
You can upload the pictures you plan to use in your VoiceThread onto Flikr and automatically add a folder to your project.
Use your computer's built-in microphone or a USB headset to record audio for your VoiceThread.
You can input your cell phone number onto VoiceThread, and the site will call you to record your audio.
PowerPoints can be easily uploaded onto VoiceThread. Save your PowerPoint slides as jpg files and upload them to your VoiceThread.
If you need to include copyright information for photos you have used, you can screen capture the copyright information and upload the image onto your VoiceThread.
Record your voice or use video clips to upload to your VoiceThread.
Upload a variety of files to your VoiceThread including pdf, docs, etc.
You can record up to 15 minutes of audio per slide on the VoiceThread site.
The VoiceThread site will automatically scale photos so they fit the allotted space.
When recording, to avoid all the classroom noise, you can put a box on the student's head or hold a book up behind the microphone to block out the noise.
Allow anyone to view and anyone to comment on your VoiceThreads, but be sure to moderate all comments.
If you are concerned about sharing student work, you can opt to not allow your VoiceThread to be shown on the browse list.
You can create sharing groups to choose who can view and comment on specific VoiceThreads.
You can export your VoiceThread as a .mov file and burn copies for your class.
You can subscribe to VoiceThreads that you like.
Teaching Ideas Using technology tools in your classroom can increase student engagement in the learning process and help them connect to the curriculum in an authentic way. Following are some ideas of how you can use VoiceThread in your classroom to enhance student learning. As you read through these ideas, keep in mind that with VoiceThread online discussions can be had with anyone anywhere in the world. Students can interact with classmates, or students and experts far beyond the walls of their school.
Asynchronous Debate - Students research, plan, and prewrite a debate speech, then record and upload their speech to VoiceThread. They find images to go along with their speech. Each debate team listens to the opposing speech and then takes five minutes to plan a rebuttle and record it on VoiceThread. Such a debate can be held between various class sections, between different schools, and at different locations.
Explorers - Students create slides about different explorers and record information about them. Later, students can compare and contrast the explorers they have learned about on the pages of their class VoiceThread. They can record their findings on their original page.
Civil War Simulation - Students record first-person accounts of historical figures from the Civil War.
Middle Ages Feudal System - Students post pictures representing all the different classes of people in the medieval social system. They record either a description of their rolls, rights, and lifestyles or mock first-person accounts of their lives.
Interview an Expert - Help an expert set up a VoiceThread about their field of expertise. After learning from the VoiceThread, students record questions for the experts to answer. The expert then records answers to the students questions. Finally, the students create a VoiceThread as a report (ie. on an animal), and the expert views the report, listens, asks questions, and makes comments.
For additional teaching ideas, visit the VoiceThread idea page or simply browse through VoiceThreads that others have created. Benefits There are many benefits to using VoiceThread in your classroom:
Creative Process - Creating VoiceThreads is fun and a great chance for students to be creative!
Motivation - Students are often motivated by using new tools and technology to create projects.
Collaboration - Students are able to work with a variety of people in their own classroom or from all over the world.
No boundaries - Students can communicate with others without the restrictions of time and location.
Writing - Those who may not be big writers yet can express themselves through VoiceThread.
Speaking - Students who are not yet comfortable with public speaking can get experience with speaking and gain confidence through VoiceThread.
Multimedia - Students learn to combine audio, pictures, video, etc. in creative and effective ways.
Audience - It is highly motivational to create a project that will be viewed by a real world-wide audience beyond just one teacher or class. A live, responsive audience adds validity and vitality to student work.
Feedback - The "conversation" between the creator and viewers of each VoiceThread are invaluable.
Examples Following are some great examples of student VoiceThreads:
Register - they don't track the accounts except to allow you to jump in and out of your game
Interactive game that allows students to make decisions as if they were a person living during the revolutionary war. Historical fiction - some of the characters are real people from history, some are fictional The decisions that the students make build and impact the events in their game later on, especially as it starts to show whether they are a patriot or loyal to the crown. Students develop relationships with other characters and collect items that will affect the rest of their game. Sometimes, you have to break the rules that the other characters tell you. You've got to decide whether you are going to follow what they say you should do or not. The teacher can help students make these discussions by educating them on the topics. For example, when told not to buy supplies from South Carolina, you need to decide if you should or not -- are they British imports or are they not? It takes about 3 hours to play the whole game. Teachers could take as long as they want to guide the students through the game -- an hour and the rest at home, or a few days in class. There are a lot of lessons that could be taught along with the game. Teachers can teach as many of these lessons and hold as many class discussions that tie into the game as desired. Teacher resources include lesson plans, copies of the historical documents referenced in the games, etc. There are EXTENSIVE resources for the teacher. Recommended for 5th or 8th grade. Great for 5th because of the game/cartoon aspect. But, great for 8th grade because of the decisions that need to be made, and therefore the discussions that can be had. Teachers should preview the game and the decisions before hand so they can help the students make the decisions they would like them to that will enable them to focus on the topics they would like most to discuss. This is great at presenting multiple points of view in history. For example, when the Boston Massacre happens, each student may get different events and decisions. Then, they can discuss with their
I recently helped a 5th grade class create basic PowerPoint presentations on Native Americans. The teacher asked me to teach the basics of creating slides for the presentation, then go over a few rules to guide them in creating effective presentations. I found a couple of great blog posts and resources to help.
First, I wanted to get a good, basic list of presentation tips. Michael Hyatt lists 5 Rules for Better Presentations on his blog. In summary, they are:
Don’t give your presentation software center stage.
Create a logical flow to your presentation.
Make your presentation readable.
Remember, less is more.
Distribute a handout.
I recommend you take a closer look at his explanations about these 5 tips, particularly the point about distributing a handout. I am not usually a fan of providing paper copies of almost anything, but I do agree with him that providing a copy of your slides at the end of a presentation lessens the stress of those listeners who feel they need to write everything down. Perhaps the compromise it to provide listeners with a link to an electronic copy of your presentation.
After offering some basics to the students, I wanted to be able to show them some PowerPoint examples, particularly dealing with tip #3. I searched Google for some PowerPoints about PowerPoint. (Side note: For those who are not aware, if you add filetype:ppt to the end of your Google search, all of your search results will be actual PowerPoint presentations.) I found a presentation with examples and non-examples of PowerPoint slides. It reviewed concepts like limiting the number of words on a slide, not over-doing animations, sounds, and color, choosing readable fonts, etc. Click here to download this presentation.
I am a fan of the Apple iWork software, so I do feel I should mention that Keynote is a great program to use for creating presentations as well. For one thing, I more familiar with Apple menus and navigation. I find my way around Keynote much more easily than in PowerPoint. I also love the animation and movie-making capabilities in Keynote. If you've never given it a try, I highly recommend it!
A teacher recently asked if I could find some Internet sites that help reinforce the 6th grade curriculum on microorganisms. First I have included the Utah Core Curriculum on microorganisms, then I have listed some of the sites I was able to find:
Core Curriculum on UEN Science Benchmark: Microorganisms are those living things that are visible as individual organisms only with the aid of magnification. Microorganisms are components of every ecosystem on Earth. Microorganisms range in complexity from single to multicellular organisms. Most microorganisms do not cause disease and many are beneficial. Microorganisms require food, water, air, ways to dispose of waste, and an environment in which they can live. Investigation of microorganisms is accomplished by observing organisms using direct observation with the aid of magnification, observation of colonies of these organisms and their waste, and observation of microorganisms' effects on an environment and other organisms.
Standard 5 : Students will understand that microorganisms range from simple to complex, are found almost everywhere, and are both helpful and harmful.
Objective 1: Observe and summarize information about microorganisms.
Examine and illustrate size, shape, and structure of organisms found in an environment such as pond water.
Compare characteristics common in observed organisms (e.g., color, movement, appendages, shape) and infer their function (e.g., green color found in organisms that are producers, appendages help movement).
Research and report on a microorganism's requirements (i.e., food, water, air, waste disposal, temperature of environment, reproduction).
Objective 2 : Demonstrate the skills needed to plan and conduct an experiment to determine a microorganism's requirements in a specific environment.
Formulate a question about microorganisms that can be answered with a student experiment.
Develop a hypothesis for a question about microorganisms based on observations and prior knowledge.
Plan and carry out an investigation on microorganisms. {Note: Teacher must examine plans and procedures to assure the safety of students; for additional information, you may wish to read microbe safety information on Utah Science Home Page.}
Display results in an appropriate format (e.g., graphs, tables, diagrams).
Prepare a written summary or conclusion to describe the results in terms of the hypothesis for the investigation on microorganisms.
Objective 3 : Identify positive and negative effects of microorganisms and how science has developed positive uses for some microorganisms and overcome the negative effects of others.
Describe in writing how microorganisms serve as decomposers in the environment.
Identify how microorganisms are used as food or in the production of food (e.g., yeast helps bread rise, fungi flavor cheese, algae are used in ice cream, bacteria are used to make cheese and yogurt).
Identify helpful uses of microorganisms (e.g., clean up oil spills, purify water, digest food in digestive tract, antibiotics) and the role of science in the development of understanding that led to positive uses (i.e., Pasteur established the existence, growth, and control of bacteria; Fleming isolated and developed penicillin).
Relate several diseases caused by microorganisms to the organism causing the disease (e.g., athlete's foot -fungi, streptococcus throat -bacteria, giardia -protozoa).
Observe and report on microorganisms' harmful effects on food (e.g., causes fruits and vegetables to rot, destroys food bearing plants, makes milk sour).
Gadgets for Everyone! lesliefisher.com This post is for all those techie geeks out there who like to learn about the latest and greatest gadgets. Leslie Fisher is an expert at keeping up with all the newest tech tools. Following is a list of gadgets Leslie shared at ISTE10 that you might find interesting and helpful. Some are very helpful teaching tools, and some are just for fun. Enjoy!
eventbrite.com Eventbrite is a website that allows you to set up an event with online registration. With it, you can process credit card payments, accepts donations, manages recurring events, add number caps and waitlists, and create name badges and certificates for your events. This is a free tool for free events. If you plan to charge for your events, Eventbrite charges 2.5% +99¢ per event for each pay ticket sold.
Google Voice Google Voice sets up a universal phone number that you can attach to as many phone numbers as you want. This universal number can be set up to ring multiple phones (like your cell phone, home phone, and work phone) or go straight to voicemail. You can also use Google Voice to send yourself text, SMS, or email transcriptions of any voicemail messages you receive.
tripit.com Send your travel itineraries to plans@tripit.com from your signed-up email account, and Tripit will create an itinerary for you. You can then share itineraries as well as output info to many calendar formats. You can even print a master itinerary if you still like paper. Tripit also supports social networking, but be careful making travel plans available to the world. You don't want those with ill intentions knowing when you will be away from your home.
Twitter Did you know you can add your twitter feed to your website? Go to twitter.com/goodies, click on widgets, and click on the profile widget and it will give you the code to put Twitter onto your website. This can be used for tweets, for @replies, and to search any criteria.
Tweetdeck Organize who you are following on Twitter into logical groups. Add multiple twitter accounts, photo support, as well as facebook feeds. Tweetdeck is free!
Remember the Milk Rememberthemilk.com is free unless you connect to a mobile client. Use it create to do lists or to create task lists for conferences or trainings. Remember the Milk supports social networking.
Evernote Evernote.com is free! It is note-taking software. Grab anything - web pages, pictures, notes - using your web cam, phone, camera, etc. Evernote will place all your notes in a central, private location on their server so you can access your notes from anywhere. Evernote will perform OCR recognition on all submissions, even photos, to allow easy searching. (OCR recognition means that it will read a scanned document and transform what you have scanned into a word processing entry that is then editable.) You can then create albums and organize your information further. Albums can also be made public on the web. Use the iPhone app to access your notes on your iPhone. The Evernote site has Great demo videos.
Etherpad/Typwith.me Create a shared document with simultaneous typing so your students can work on the document at the same time. Each document has a time slider that allows you to go back to any of the edits that were made and play it back. Right now it is limited to 15 people at a time. Etherpad is now embeded in googledocs (go into settings to activate it) with no 15 person limit.
Zamzar Zamzar.com converts files. Send them a file or URL you want to convert from one format to another. They can even convert files directly from YouTube. The converted file will be sent to your email. It's free!
UStream Ustream is a free site to post streaming video. Use a webcam and stream your video online.
mozy.com Mozy.com is online encrypted backup for Mac or PC. It is free for up to 2 gigs. It is $5 a month for unlimited data.
Cisco Media Hub The Media Hub allows you to backup multiple computers. You can grant remote access to any device.
Apple Time Capsule Time Capsule is part wireless router and part backup. When paired with TimeMachine, it will make hourly backups of your Mac.
Orbicule Undercover If your Mac is stolen Orbicle will secretly transmit the IP and Router information so you can locate where it has been taken. It will also take a screenshot with your built in camera and mail it to you every 6 minutes so you can see who is using your stolen computer. If that still does not help you locate your stolen computer, it is ready with Plan B. Orbicle will slowly dim your computer screen to make it look like a screen failure has occurred. When your machine is then taken to the Apple store to be sold or fixed, it is like it has been returned to the mother ship. A message alerting Apple that yours is a stolen machine will appear. The volume on your computer will automatically turn up to the loudest setting, and your computer will yell, "STOLEN!" over and over again. The cost is $49.00.
Photos (paid) These sites have a store of photos you can use for projects. These sites are not free, but offer more photos than some of the free sites do.
istockphoto.com/lesliefisher-offer.php - If you would like 15% off the membership fee for istockphoto.com, go to this link for Leslie Fisher's discount.
Digital Cameras Here are some suggestions of good digital cameras for personal use. Both of these cameras can take 6 images per second. They are particularly good for low light settings. They both have panorama mode.
Camera Cards Using a professionally rated memory card will improve the quality of your pictures. The Lexar Professional and the SanDisk ExtremeIII are good cards. These take pictures more quickly and with better quality.
smugmug.com If you use smugmug.com for photo sharing you can upload photos of any size. The charge is $75 per year for as many photos as you want at any size. Free accounts are available for non-profit organizations. Some schools have sold their photos from school events to make money for their school using Smugmug.
Fast, Easy Video If you are looking for some simple, easy-to-use video cameras, here are some suggestions:
iPad Why would you want an iPad? The iPad has affordable apps, has a 7-hour battery, and is portable. The iPad is bringing reading back because i makes it simple and fun it is to use e-readers! The iPad has a variety of cool apps like Proloquo2Go, Star Walk, iStudiez Pro, NewsRack, Instapaper, and GoodReader. There are many cool cases that have been created for the iPad. The DODO Case is Leslie Fisher's favorite. A couple other good ones are the Quirky Cloak and Hard Candy. Hard candy is particularly good for use with kids because it protects well.
New Apps It can be difficult to keep up with all the new apps that become available for the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Appshopper.com is a site that will help you keep up with the latest and greatest apps. Here are a few new, popular apps:
Loopt - Keep up with your friends and follow where they are on a map
Foursquare - Post where you are and get points and status for where you've gone
Gowalla - This app is like Foursquare but allows users to create new locations. It has a better interface, but is not as popular as Foursquare. It is a little like geo caching -- you collect items and give them away to other people.
Charging Devices Keeping your devices charged is quite a challenge! Here are a few tools to help keep your devices running:
www.solio.com - a solar power charger - 1 hour of sunlight = 20 minutes of talk time
Audio At ion-audio.com you can find a whole variety of great audio tools that can plug your old-school audio devices (records, tapes, VCRs) into your computer through a USB port. Visit livescribe.com for information about a pen that can record and play back the notes you take.
