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.

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.

Video Thoughts

1. After making the MEL project, I found the section on animated video from text to be interesting. It gave many examples of websites to use to create a project like this. These are good resources to have because I have learned from experience how difficult and time consuming making a PowToon was. It is nice to be aware of alternative programs.

2. I thought the idea of no-edit videos was a good one. Because we don't have a lot of time to always be requiring students to make complicated, lengthy videos, an easy way to use this technology in the classroom is to have no-edit videos as homework. These videos can just be the student responding to a question, showing how to work through a problem, or any other quick task.

3. I like the concept of narrated slideshows. I liked that Fryer included names of apps that will help you do this. If my future classroom had iPads, these apps will be useful for my students.

4. I liked the tips for showing videos in the classroom, such as show short clips. Students may get bored if asked to sit through a long video.

Although I already have video projects in some of my lessons for Dr. Grace's class, I could incorporate video into other lessons or use them as hooks. If I could find a useful video teaching a concept, I could also show that video in class. This will give visual learners what they need to learn a concept, as compared to me lecturing at them. My final project for my unit it a video project, as well as a few others. However, it might be beneficial to give students an option of using one of the other techniques in this chapter, such as the narrated slideshows or screencasting.

Wes Fryer on Copyright and Fair Use

            Fryer’s chapter regarding copyright laws and fair use was very brief and easy to understand. It gave a great overview for someone who needs to understand the laws, but not every intricate detail of them. While I already had learned much of this information from the comic, Fryer’s book clarified the concept if Fair Use for me by specifying that it was a legal defense rather than a right. It was also interesting that the chapter touched on the idea of using Wikipedia as a way to show copyright details to students, as Wikipedia was always vehemently not allowed when I was in high school and middle school. In general, I did not learn a lot of new information from this chapter, but it clarified many of the problems I had with the other copyright assignment. I liked that this gave a useful and easy to understand overview of what I will need to know as a teacher.

            This chapter included on examples of how these copyright laws affect the classroom and how to avoid violating them. Like I mentioned, one of these ideas is to encourage students to look at image copyright information on Wikipedia. To me, this activity sounds effective because I hope to model these laws for my students in my future classroom. I think what will greatly affect how my students handle copyrights in my classroom is if they are educated properly. I hope that I will be able to educate my students and compel them to give proper credit to the owners of material or to avoid the use of materials made by others. 

Wes Fryer Chapter 1

            This chapter explains why it is important to play with new technologies and incorporate them into learning. I found the digital landscape theory that Fryer presents to be quite interesting. He acknowledges the knowledge of technology that my generation was born into, and claims that for older generations, learning technology is a choice. Fryer goes on to explain that, while young generations have a lot of knowledge about how to casually use technology, they are often unable to do so in the classroom. I agree somewhat with this assertion. While many students do not know how to use more complicated programs or devices, I often find that teachers underestimate the knowledge of the students. In every computer class I have taken, the students have known just as much or more than the instructor, resulting in the class being a waste of time for the students. I believe that computer based classes should be more about taking something students are already familiar with and showing them new, meaningful, and practical ways to apply that technology to learning.