Audio

     I thought that this chapter of Wes Fryer's book, Playing with Media, raised a lot of good points about the benefits of using audio recordings in the classroom. One benefit that I learned was that recording audio of someone is a lot less intimidating than doing video recording. I think that this is important to remember and something that I definitely agree with. I also liked the idea of using audio recording as a way of reflection rather than, for example, journal entries. This would benefit students who do not thrive at writing but still need a medium to articulate their thoughts. I also learned about many of the resources available on the web. I'm hoping to incorporate some of these resources into my classroom, such as StoryCorps, which is a great example of the power of audio.
     The three resources I looked at were StoryCorps, AudioBoom, and iPadio. StoryCorps is a website where you can listen to personal stories told by a wide range of people. I feel like StoryCorps could be used well in an English classroom to show the power of language, as the stories featured are very moving. This website could be paired with podcasts such as The Moth and Risk! in a storytelling unit, where students could also learn to be a good storyteller. AudioBoom is a website that easily allows you to upload video clips to share with others. In the book, Fryer uses an example of his daughter talking about a historical landmark they had visited. This showed how useful AudioBoom can be in sharing feelings and thoughts through audio recording. The last link I explored was iPadio. This website is a "phonecasting" website that allows users to livestream via the phone. I thought that this was very interesting because I had never heard of anything like it. I am interested to see if there's a way for me to use phonecasting in my future classroom.

Show and Tell

     This chapter discusses several ways in which teachers and share technology that they are using or products students have created with parents, students, and the community. There are many different websites that Fryer suggests are good to use for this purpose.
     One website that is suggested is Tumblr. I am an avid Tumblr user recreationally, so the use of Tumblr in the classroom is interesting to me. I think that there are many reasons not to use Tumblr that people who just use Tumblr as a blogging website are not aware of, such as the highly charged political culture that exists on Tumblr and the potential to see very inappropriate content on the website. However, since Tumblr is probably something many students are already comfortable using and enjoy using, attempting to use it to show and tell could be successful.
     Another website that Fryer suggests using is Facebook. Since Facebook is a social media site that virtually everyone uses, it is an easy way to reach a large audience. I think that Facebook can be used beneficially in the classroom in many ways, such as creating groups for classes where students can post questions about assignments or the teacher can post reminders. I can also see a teacher using Facebook to create a page or group that parents could like or join to communicate with them about technology being used in the classroom.
     Fryer also suggests that students make online digital portfolios using either Google Sites or Wikispaces. This is something that I have had to do in many classes, but the portfolios were never shared with anyone beyond the teacher and other students. I think that there is a lot of potential in this to share student work with parents in a way that they can check in on what their student is doing at any time, as compared to a physical portfolio which parents usually only see at conferences.

Digital Text

     In this chapter, I learned about Wikis and Blogs. Fryer talks about the differences between these platforms and how they can be used in the classroom. I learned about the differences between the two platforms, like how he calls a wiki more of an encylopedia and a blog like an online newspaper. Fryer also briefly discusses browsers and which ones are optimal for blogging. From this, I learned that Firefox and Chrome are best for blogging purposes, especially over Internet Explorer. I also learned that there are two types of blogs: client and web-based. A client blog is based and can only be run on one computer, while a web-based blog can be accessed anywhere and on any machine. Most blogging services now are web-based. One benefit of client blogs is that they often allow for greater customization.
     The links that I explored were Thingamablog, Kidblog, and WordPress. Thingamablog is a client based blogging service. This is different from a service like Blogger because the user must download the program to use Thingamablog. I found this service interesting because I have never experienced a client based blogging program. Although it looks confusing, the website provides a lot of support for users, with an FAQ, a forum, and a place to contact the creators. In contrast to Thingamablog, WordPress is a web-based blogging service much like Blogger is. I have seen many blogs that use WordPress and it seems like a good option that has a lot of customization. However, WordPress is more than a blogging service because it also allows users to make websites that are not blogs, such as websites for small businesses. The last blogging service I looked at was Kidblog. I enjoyed exploring Kidblog because it is made specifically for classroom use. It has a lot of privacy options that would probably be beneficial to use in the classroom, especially depending on the age of the students. As a teacher who is interested in incorporating blogging into my future classroom, I think it is important that I am aware of all the options students can use to create their blogs.

Final Fires Reflection

      I think that Fires in the Bathroom by Kathleen Cushman is an excellent resource for teachers and aspiring teachers. I think that it is very important to listen to student opinions and ask them what they like and are looking for. At many points in the book, it is said that these students are not really used to answering these questions and giving this type of feedback. I think that asking for student opinions is something we need to do more as teachers. As a teacher, the students are like our clients and just as any other occupation would, we need to cater to their needs and do what they benefit from and enjoy.       Since I started reading this book, I have learned a lot about teaching. Now that I have had some experience in the position of a teacher in my mentor teacher's classroom, I see how the concepts in this book really relate to the real world classroom. I can relate much of what the students say in Fires in the Bathroom to how I see students in the classroom behave and what I hear them say. I don't know if I have grown a lot in classroom management, as I have not had much experience actually using aspects of classroom management. However, I do feel more prepared and knowledgeable about classroom management than I did at the beginning of the semester and I feel like my second three weeks in field will really test my knowledge of classroom management.

Images

     Chapter 5 of Wes Fryer's book focuses on where to find images. He argues that, despite its popularity, Google Images should be avoided when trying to find images. There are other websites that Fryer list that only show images that are free to use, unlike Google Images where the license of an image is impossible to find. I looked at three of these alternative image websites: flickr (www.flickr.com), Behold (www.behold.cc), and Compfight (www.compfight.com).
     Flickr has a very large amount of images that are free to use under creative commons. I like Flickr because it has such a wide variety of images and is relatively easy to use. All of the photos on the website are of high quality and would be useful for making a website or a presentation. Compared to Flickr, Behold and Compfight are much simpler and also more limited. All of the websites allow the user to check off what kind of license they would like the images they find to be under. This is very convenient compared to trying to find images that are free to use on the mass of images that appear when using Google Images.
     From this chapter and investigating these websites, I learned that it is easier to find images that are free to use than I had previously thought. I also was shown how much variety there is. Although it is more limited than finding any image off of Google Images, there are still a lot of images to choose from. I am glad that this chapter exposed me to these sources, because I had previously felt limited when looking for images that I was allowed to use for projects. I think I will be ale to use these websites in my classroom easily. I will require that students use images that are free to use under creative commons and will direct them to these websites to find such pictures. These websites are a very good source that I can pass along to my students.