EdTech 2006 - Audacity

Do you think you can use Audacity in your classroom? Please share any ideas you might have or ways in which you have already used Audacity. It is such a powerful tool...and it helps that it is free!

Cyber Safety

Cyber safety is an issue that needs to be addressed with students today. What are your concerns with this issue and how do you feel, as teachers, we should address cyber safety with our students?

Upstate Tech Conference Audacity Session

This post was created so that you could give me some feedback on my session "The Audacity of that Student! Isn't it Great?" ...and also give some feedback on the conference as a whole. What parts of my session did you like?....what did I need to add? How did you like the conference as a whole? Any ideas as to what would make this conference better next year? Please leave us your comments. We really care. We want to improve the use of technology in the classrooms across the upstate and need your input. Please feel free to contact the Intructional Technology Department of Greenville County Schools if you have any questions. Thank you for taking the time to come to my session and to help us make these types of events better with your comments.

Have a great day!

Upstate Technology Conference

Our school district is hosting the Upstate Technology Conference June 28 and 29th at Greer High School. The conference will start at 9:00 AM each morning and end at 3:00 PM. Our website is www.greenville.k12.sc.us/utc If you have not registered yet...please do! It's free to any educator in the state. There will be vendors and door prizes! Do you think we need this kind of technology conference? Is this a good time of year for the conference? Let us know what you think!

The Smart Board...Improved Software makes it even better!

You've heard of them I'm sure...but have you actually tried a smart board with their latest software 9.5. It is incredible. "Smart" has added a search engine so that you can find gallery items easier and faster. "Smart" has done an incredible job with providing a site (http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-US/Ed+Resource/Lesson+activities/Notebook+activities/ ) where teachers can get ideas about how to use their smart board in class and correlate these with state standards. The one drawback to the new software however is that if you are planning on downloading it from the Internet...set aside lots of time...and I mean lots! It took me almost two hours to download it and then install it.

I've heard from some teachers that the Smart Board has motivated their students where other methods had failed. How about you guys? Do you think you could use the Smart Board in your classroom? Please click on "Comments" below to add your own comment to this blog!

What's with this thing called Podcasting?

Okay...I've been told to research everything on podcasting and be able to instruct other teachers on this new wonder. What I've seemed to find is that most people do not know how to incorporate this type of recording technique into the classroom. I have heard of teachers using it to record lesson notes. I've also heard of some using it to record tours of a historical location or of a school campus. This has made me start thinking...there has got to be other ways to use this in the classroom...so here are some of my thoughts. If you haven't taken a look at Audacity ...you should. It's a free recording software that allows the student to record and edit. Now for my ideas.

Possibly...have a readers theater. Instead of having students do skits of books or stories in front of the class they can produce a radio show like in the old days. Sound effects and all.

What about taking a speech ...such as a presidential speech . Have the student ask questions of this president and pull in the answers from the speech. Once recorded it would sound as if the student was having a live interview with the president.

(This next idea I got from a conference ....I cannot take credit for it) Have the teacher record a 5 to 10 minute recording. Instruct the student to condense this recording down to 2 to 3 minutes where the student only keeps the important main ideas. A great way to summarize.

Any ideas?? Let me know.