Great Tool: Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a great way to keep track of what is going on online. If you have a Gmail account you can set up an alert for a specific term and Google will email you when that term is posted on the internet. You can set it up to email you immediately or less often.


You can manage your alerts and change their settings or even delete them.


This is what the alert email looks like. It puts the key term in bold so you can see how it is used in context.

Why would you want to set up an alert? If you are like me, you want to know when you are being discussed on the internet. Another great way to use it is to see if someone is talking about your blog, wiki, podcast or other content you have created and posted online.

I love to use it to see who is posting about a pet project of mine: #comments4kids.

Adding Streaming Video to Your Blog

After reading Miles Webb's, @NZWaikato, post on adding video to your blog, I decided to take up his challenge about how to stream video. First let me say this can be a very controversial subject. It seems that many educators, teachers and administration, are hesitant to open up their classrooms to public scrutiny. This is not a decision to enter into lightly. If you are interested in my story, here is a link to a post I wrote about it.

The first thing I need to address is the purpose of streaming the video. I stream video in my class so that others can see what we are doing. With a back channel, I can use the video to have a conversation with others outside my classroom. I also stream video to share specific things we are doing in class. I also use the streamed video to record events that I can post to my blogs.

Step 1, secure permission of your administration and, if necessary, parents. Our districts policies require parents to "opt-out" of being included in media. Since this includes year book, pictures for newspapers, news stories, etc. this has not been a problem. Since our district implemented the policy we only had one parent ask for their student to not participate.

Step 2, Get a camera. It is possible to use a cheap web cam without sound to an expensive camcorder that has video and audio out. I use a cheap no-name webcam in my Digital Media Center, a nice Creative webcam that is audio capable in my classroom, and an old Sony Steady Shot camcorder for video and Blue Snowball microphone for church.

If you just want to stream video without audio, don't spend a lot of money on a webcam. The video quality will be fine. If you want to record your video with or without audio using your computer you will want to invest in a high end web cam or an inexpensive camcorder. I use my camcorder with video out through the firewire port and import it into my bottom end Mac book. This gives me great video. I don't like the adio quality as well so I purchased a Blue Snowball to import the audio and it has made a noticeable difference.

Something to consider when choosing a web cam or camcorder is what will you use it for. Camcorders have the most flexibility but they cost the most. Webcams are usually inexpensive, but they have to be tethered to the computer. A seperate microphone can not only improve audio quality, but it also gives you a good tool to record audio. Here is a link to audio my students created in my class.

Step 3, choose your streaming site. I use Ustream.com to stream my video. It has several options I like including an optional chat. Here is a link to a post where I explain how I used Ustream to stream and record a presentation in my classroom with the chat enabled. There is also Stickam, and Mogulus. I periodically go back to these to see if they have improved enough or added new functions that may cause me to switch.

Step 4, start streaming. I can stream video and audio and record it with Ustream. I can place the streaming video on a blog, wiki, or a static page like Google sites using embeddable code. I can also do the same with the recorded video. This gives you lots of options.

Finally, here are some things you may want to consider streaming live: athletic events, musical events, teacher trainings, a class lesson, student presentations, science experiments, a student creating art, visitor presentations, awards assemblies, or, if you are crazy like me, everything.

If you are interested in streaming, but needs more information, don't hesitate to ask.

Creating Digital Video Reflections

I have been meaning to do this all year, but things don't always happen on my time table. Today I finally finished setting up my Digital Video Reflection area. My plan has been to have a place where students can jump in and make a quick video where they talk about their learning and then post it to their blog or the class ning. I believe that reflections is the most important step in the learning process and I want to be able to facilitate it in my school.

Why did I set this up when students are perfectly capable of writing their reflections? The answer is simple, because it is awesome! Let's face it, we live in media rich culture. Why read when we can see a picture; why see a picture when we can watch a video?

Why put up the students reflections where they can be seen by others? The same reason I write these posts, because I want people to see them, reflect on them, and hopefully leave a comment. My students want their learning validated just like I want to have my learning validated.

Here is my set-up. I use a Logitech webcam mounted on a tripod (with masking tape) to get enough elevation for the picture. The webcam is hooked up to my laptop along with my Blue Snowball microphone. Although the sound is not as loud with the Snowball, the students don't have to wear the headphone/microphone combo.

I set up a barrier so that the student recording wouldn't feel watched as they create their videos. It is hard for many to put themselves "out there" with their recordings and this can help them feel more comfortable.

This shot is from the back. I put the screen behind the student so it looks a little nicer than the wall/window combination. I plan on getting a few more screens to place around to cut down on the background noise and to make the student more comfortable. It looks raw, but if you have ever been to a television station before, only what shows on the camera matters.

Here is Yessy doing the first video reflection on the new set-up. She does an amazing job with her explanation. After she was finished I had her post the video on the seventh grade class ning. It will be used as an excellent example for the other students to emulate.

I would love to be able to set up a station like this in each classroom so that students would have access to them all the time. Imagine students having a Youtube channel that is devoted to what they are learning!

Using Skype to Connect ESOL Students with Foreign Language Students

Last Tuesday I facilitated a Skype conference call between Mrs. Baker's ESOL class and Mrs. Whittier's Spanish class. Unfortunately, I had duty in the morning and had limited time to set up the equipment.

I used a logitech usb webcam for the video feed feed and a Blue Snowball usb microphone for audio. The laptop is a Dell Vostro 1500 with 2 gigabytes of ram. We used the screen on the laptop for the video. We also used the built in speakers on the laptop for sound.We were using our wireless access for the internet. I wanted Mrs. Baker's students to be in their room so Mrs. Whittier's class could see the class environment.

There are several things I plan to change for the next Skype call. The first is making sure I have powered audio. We had a difficult time hearing Mrs. Whittier's students through the excited chatting. The second would be to run the video through a projector. Although the video stream isn't exactly great, it would still make it easier for the students to watch. I would also change from our webcam to my digital camcorder with my macbook. Our video stream would improve greatly that way.

To record the Skype call next time I will use CamStudio (Thanks to the recommendation by Eric Langhorst!). I had planned on using Jing Pro, but realized too late that it would only record 5 minutes of video. Obviously, this meant I did not get any screen capture video of our meeting :<. If you are planning on doing a conference call, here are some things to think about. Make sure you have an alternate (non internet) means of contacting the people you are skyping. I would suggest a phone number. See this post for how I learned that lesson. Also, do a practice call so the bugs can be worked out. I was having problems with my Snowball microphone on our practice call and had time to find a solution before the actual call.

Here is the view the students had of the call.

Here you can see Mrs. Whittier on the screen.

Notice how the students were focused on the other class.Here is a screen capture of Mrs. Whittier's class waving goodbye at the end of the call. You can see our video feed in the bottom right corner.

Here is some video. Plese forgive the poor quality.

I was very pleased with content of the meeting. Mrs. Whittier's class wanted to learn about schools in Mexico. We have several students that have attended schools in Mexico so they were very valuable resources. Mrs. Whittier also wanted her students to have authentic experiences with the Spanish language. They had the opportunity through the call to talk to native Spanish speakers.

In return, Mrs. Baker's students had the opportunity to learn about school in Virginia. The school Mrs. Whittier teaches at the Fredericksburg Academy is a private school that is very different from our school. Our students learned about some of those differences, but also learned that both groups of students had many similarities.

Overall, I thought the meeting went extremely well and we plan to continue the conversation later in the year. If you would like your class to skype with one of our 3-8 classes, feel free to contact me and we will set it up!

The Deconstruction of The Biome Project

I was reading a post by Elaine Plybon on her blog Cruel Shoes. On her post:
Teaching Truth #7: Bells and Whistles to You May be Same Old to Your Students she asks the question, "...teachers must really look at the technology, say “is this the best way to deliver this instruction?” and know what they are doing." This made me think about the number of times I have talked to other teachers about things I am doing in my classroom without ever explaining why I choose to do it the way I do. So, I decide that I should write this post and explain how and why I came up with the idea for The Biome Project.


My original idea was driven by the need to give my students a learning experience that they could get really interested in. There was only two weeks of school left and I knew if I didn't have enough time to introduce something new so I decided to review some of the learning they had from fourth grade. I know students like animals and therefor I chose to go with biomes. I would use biomes to teach biotic and abiotic factors.

I also wanted my students to give an oral presentation of what they learned, and I wanted them to make a physical representation of the biome they researched. I decided to have students create representations of their biomes using cut paper, which I use every year for a weather cycle assessment, or dioramas. This allowed for students to have a choice between how they created their representations.

We had used Voicethread before and many of my students liked to work with the medium. They could narrate their project without having to stand up in front of the class. This allowed students that did not feel comfortable in front of the class a choice. I decided that students would use Voicethread if they chose to use cut paper. I thought two dimensional representations would work better for Voicethread.

Creating video in my classroom is a pretty normal experience and I knew that many students like to be in front of the camera. I chose to have those students make the dioramas. I gave them a pointer to use so they would not be covering the camera and they could point out what they needed to.

Another option I gave them, but one I eventually dropped, was creating travel brochures. I have used this before when I taught my reading unit on the book "Holes" by Louis Sachar. The students were to use the brochures to describe the biotic and abiotic factors for a biome that could be visited. They were to also give an oral presentation that would be video recorded.

I used video and online resources to introduce the biomes we were studying as well as what biotic and abiotic factors could be found in them. Of course I wrote a blog post on the class blog linking the biomes for my students to refer to.

When I gave my students the assignment I created a document using Google Docs. In it I explained the assignment and gave them more links for them to explore. Unfortunately, due to time I decided that creating the travel brochures was too ambitious and so I dropped it as an option. I chose to put the assignment on Google Docs instead of just adding it to the blog because I wanted my students to become aware that it could be used to create word documents that could be accessed online. Hopefully this is something they can remember for future use.



I took pictures of my students working on their projects and created an Animoto video. This is an example of my using technology. This can be a very good motiviation tool because the students know you are taking their picture and it could end up on the blog.

I had given my students a firm date when their projects were due, but I knew that Voicethread can take a lot of time for each student and I only had one computer set up for the students to use. I had students finish their cut paper projects early and I had them do their Voicethreads as they completed them and this helped keep away from a big wait for the computer.

Finally, on the day the dioramas were due I set up a web cam using my laptop and Ustream, a streaming webcam site that I use to stream live video from my classroom every day. Ustream has a record function which I used to record the videos. After a quick briefing of what I wanted them to do, the students stepped up and gave their presentations. Although a few students mixed up biotic and abiotic factors, I thought that overall presentations were excellent.

I created a blog that I linked to the class blog called The Biome Project. I spent a couple hours adding the Voicethreads and the Ustream videos to the blog and tagging them so the students could find them easily. (I did have difficulty with the Ustream videos because of some left out code, but I figured out what I needed to add to the code to make it work. I had the same problem before and that saved me a lot of trouble shooting time.)

There are several lessons I took away from this project. One, students like to have options with their work. Two, students work harder and produce better work when they know there is a larger audience than the peers in their room. Three, although students only directly used technology for research and Voicethread, the technology was a driving part of the assignment. The last thing I learned which has had a big impact on what I want to do is that students need time and access to critically assess each others project. This year all my students will be expected to not only post on a blog, but to comment critcally on other students blogs.

I hope this walk through of the unit helps you think critically about what how you use technology in the classroom. Remember, always use the best tool to meet your students' needs.

Why I Stream Video

Ever since I started streaming video of my classroom at NoelTigers.com using Ustream people have asked me why. It really started as a lark. I was in another teacher's room helping her with a tech problem when I saw a internet cam sitting in her drawer. I asked her what she was using it for and she told me that she had it because of a satellite class that was going to be held in her room that had not panned out. I asked her if I could borrow it and she told me I could have it. I skipped back to me room wondering how I could use my new toy.

After I got it up and running, which took considerable effort because I didn't have any software to install so I had to find some streaming software to use, I showed my class that I could stream video. At the time it was simply something new and interesting to share with my class.

After hearing about two streaming services on a Leo Laporte podcast I decided to check them out. I looked at Ustream.tv and Stickam.com. I thought they both looked really complicated, but finally chose Ustream because it seemed a little easier to figure out. (I think it still is easier, although Stickam has some compelling tools that you can use too.)

After messing around with Ustream I discovered I could record video. Now I can see a reason to use the webcam, I can record stuff we do in class for the blog. I really like the idea of digital records for my students. Unfortunately, I discovered a big problem. The web cam did not have a built in microphone. So, I can record video, but I can't record audio. Once again I ran into a roadblock.

A few weeks passed and I put making video's out of my mind. Soon I received a digital camera that could take video (lousy video) that I could use so I now had no reason to use the web cam.

I don't really know what really made me think of doing the live stream all the time, It may have had something to do with watching videos of Steve Spangler doing science experiments. Surely watching Chris Pirillo taking skype calls on his net show was part of it. I know some of the seeds were planted when I read Friedman's The World is Flat and I realized my students needed to think more globally.

Finally, a real reason to stream from my classroom started to form. I wanted to share my classroom with people outside of my school. I wanted my students to show what they were doing to anyone that wanted to see. I wanted a connection to form between my students and the world.

The obvious people coming to watch were parents. Unfortunately, most of my students' parents don't have access to computers on the internet. My video stream to this day is still more likely to be seen by someone outside of the United States thanby a parent of one of my students. That is the reality I face.

The natural extension to this is: What does streaming mean for my class? It is a constant reminder that our world does not end at our city limits. It is the means by which my students come to realize our world is literally an internet connection away. It is my way of showing my students they can more than what my town can offer.

Mad Skillz

Macy went to Honduras and took some pictures while on a mission trip. I made an animoto video for her and then we created a voicethread. I am pleased that I can take something I have learned for use in my class and to help a student create something online.



I particularly like voicethread because it can be so personal and so shareable at the same time.

Experimenting with Google Apps

For a long time I have tried to find the easy way to create individual blogs for my class. I tried Blogmeister but could never get any response from my emails. I looked at other blog sites to help me find a way to easily create student blogs where what they post is put on a centralized blog. Unfortunately, I could not find what I was looking for.

I decided to suck it up last weekend and go ahead and create blogs on Blogger for my students. I had to get each student an individual email account, but after around 8 addresses, gmail quit on me. It thought I was creating email addresses for spamming. It directed me to Google Apps. To make a long story shorter, I used my noeltigers.com web address to create a Google Apps account. It allowed me to quickly and easily create email addresses for my students and therefor get Blogger accounts set up quickly. I will discuss our use of Google Apps as we continue to use them.

I then set up a real messy Rube Goldberg setup that emailed new posts from the students blogs to an email account which through a filter then forwarded them to a blog (Compendium) that I set up. It saves the posts as drafts and then I manually post each to the blog. (For peace of mind I also have all the comments moderated.

My students have been commenting on blog posts I made. The other two fifth grade classes I teach still communicate this way. I really want the students to be able to comment on each others posts. I think that this may force the students to think more critically knowing that their peers are going to be looking at what they say. I will continue discussing this as I learn more about how the students make the blogs their own.

Using Volki

Get a Voki now!

Today I used a talking avatar made at Volki's Website. Here is the link to my post. Making the avatar is really easy. I used the internal microphone on my laptop to give the voice, but you can also upload audio or it even has text recognition.

I chose to use the avatar because my students enjoyed one I made on my Enrichment Blog. I am interested to see how they respond when they use it tomorrow.