Study Group Final Report

Below is a list of work created by members of the Will Richardson Study Group at the Newark Valley School District in New York, which read and experimented with educational technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and more. This study group was funded through a grant from the Tioga County Teacher Center.

Blogging
Check out this screencast produced by Ed and Lorrie that captures blogging basics. The screencast was produced using PowerPoint, Audacity and Windows Movie Maker, all of which are free at NVCS.
http://www.nvcs.stier.org/bookclub/New%20Folder/BookReview.html

I created two blogspots on Blogger.com, one for my 6th social studies class and one for my 6th grade math class. I have used both sites with great success. As a group, the students and I are well on our way to blogging and offering commentary on the work of others. I use both sites to post either a class assignment, an open-ended question, or work models. Both sites also include a thorough listing of applicable links for further learning -- Bev
http://coolhistory-meagher.blogspot.com
http://riddlermath.blogspot.com

I used eblogger to open a discussion of The Scarlet Letter -- Stacy
http://smallery-scarletletter.blogspot.com/

My writing lab students set up blogs through blogger.com. They use these blogs for publishing finished and semi-finished work, and so that their teacher can comment on their work between lab periods. These blogs also serve as publishing spaces or portfolios. Here are just a few examples -- Scott
http://mattgoarmyrangers.blogspot.com/
http://blog-r-done.blogspot.com/
http://writinglabawesomeness.blogspot.com/

Lori made her first blog for the computer lab, which can function as both a way to interact with students and adults, and also as a serious source of information.
http://www.lablingo.blogspot.com/

Lorrie used a blog to interact with her English class, often bringing in special guests from around the school to participate in classroom discussions
http://moose8period.blogspot.com/

Wikis
Check out this screencast produced by Bonnie and Jill that captures wiki basics. The screencast was produced using PowerPoint, Audacity and Windows Movie Maker, all of which are free at NVCS.
movie_coming_soon.com

Here's the wiki link that Jill and I used for our English 8R class -- http://english8r.wikispaces.com/

For the first assignment, students had to go to CNN and select a current news story and create a summary to post on the discussion site. Then they visited other sites and posted comments. Then they responded to the comments. We were able to have a "class discussion" even when we were not in class. Students posted comments from study halls and home. By the end of the lesson, there were over 200 postings among 10 students.

For the second assignment students selected excerpts from the book we read in class, Zlata's Diary. Then they combined the author's short, choppy sentences for a lesson in sentence combining -- Bonnie and Jill

I used wikispaces as a discussion forum for my Honors English class, extending the class discussion and utilizing it to discuss independent reading assignments. Publishing student work, forcing them to be more critical of their writing, allows them to have an authentic audience -- Stacy
https://englishclass.wikispaces.com/

My writing lab classes also used wikispaces as electronic portfolios, eliminating the need to have paper folders while allowing students to publish their work. This provides for a pride of authorship that has improved students' writing -- Stacy
http://amandawoods.wikispaces.com/
http://lewd.wikispaces.com/
http://ltruesdail13.wikispaces.com/

I used pbwiki.com for a collaborative essay project in which students divided up the work of an essay and combined their knowledge of content and writing to put together a group-written essay. They used comment functions to leave messages for group members, edited each other's work and even had the opportunity to reflect on what they learned about writing from their group members. Here are a few examples -- Scott
http://edgarallanpoe.pbwiki.com/
http://poedeath.pbwiki.com/
http://masqueessay9.pbwiki.com
http://edgarallan9.pbwiki.com

As an entire group, we collaborated in the improvement of the Town of Newark Valley entry at wikipedia.com, much of which was revised by someone else since our edits were posted back in January/February
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newark_Valley_(town),_New_York

RSS Feeds
Check out Stacy and Lori's RSS Feeds screencast which was produced using PowerPoint, Audacity and Windows Movie Maker, all of which are free applications to teachers at NVCS.
http://www.nvcs.stier.org/bookclub/New%20Folder/BookReview.html

Flickr.com
Check out this Flickr.com screencast produced by Bev that captures Flickr basics. The screencast was produced using PowerPoint, Audacity and Windows Movie Maker, all of which are free at NVCS.
http://www.nvcs.stier.org/bookclub/New%20Folder/BookReview.html

The following message is from Bev, who has used the Flickr.com site to support what she does in the classroom. She says, "Through the uploading of images, I was able to post them to both blogspots, annotate the pictures using historical information, and allow students to provide comment. Also, I use the photos found in the public files on Flickr to show with my daily postings."
http://coolhistory-meagher.blogspot.com
http://riddlermath.blogspot.com/

Podcasting
Check out this screencast about podcasting produced by Scott and Kathleen that captures podcasting and screencasting basics. The screencast was produced using PowerPoint, Audacity and Windows Movie Maker, all of which are free at NVCS.
http://www.nvcs.stier.org/bookclub/New%20Folder/BookReview.html

What It All Means
Take a look at Brittany's movie, which breaks down the various ways education is changing because of the shifting control over content.
http://www.nvcs.stier.org/bookclub/New%20Folder/BookReview.html