Response to Chapters 5 & 8

“You can read more content from more sources in less time” (Richardson).  Chapter 5 Richardson really encourages educators or any active reader that RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) are today’s tool to be able to read what you want without the hassle of filtering out what you don’t want to read.  Although we have already set-up a blogger account for class so we have been reading RSS feeds already I didn’t realize this could be used for such a wide variety of content.  I had to stop reading the book, get out my smart phone and download a few new apps which included Zite and Newsfree.  More important than personal use, Richardson brings up great methods to incorporating RSS feeds in the classroom.

Similar to our EDU 653 Course, having student post weblogs is a great opportunity for student to write on the web.  Rather than clicking on (in my case) over 120 URL’s to view my student responses I can simply just use an RSS feed aggregator, collect all of their responses and I can view them all from one site.  Richardson states that RSS could stand for “Reading Skill: Scanning” or Reading Skill: Synthesizing” (Richardson), which both mean a lot when it comes to educating using common core standards and students using 21^st century reading skills.  Teachers should get into routine of reading through students work using their RSS feed and can even develop websites to share student learning.  Students can also gain a great deal of knowledge or conduct “24/7 research” (Richardson) by integrating RSS feed tools into today’s classroom.

Chapter 8, changes course to discuss different resources of sharing various multi-media types in the classroom. I am new to Podcasting and have never listened or created one that I know of so I am excited to learn what they are and how I can use them.  Podcasting “is the creation and distribution of amateur radio” (Richardson).  This can be done using many different types of software however Richardson recommends Audacity because it’s free and open source which can be used to easily mix audio files.  CCmixer.org is a free-to-use audio website which allows users to mix in music within the Podcast.

Video Publishing is also becoming popular in schools because of the video aspect.  YouTube is by far one of the most popular and is constantly obtaining new videos every minute.

Putting both of these resources together educator can use “Screencasting” to display with narration classroom directions, previous work and examples.  Although this can be a bit more difficult because it involves use of video I certainly think the visual aids can be very helpful, especially in middle school where students can watch the screencast multiple times to understand direction.

One final method Richardson discusses that could be used in an educational environment is live streaming.  Teachers could use this to have students create a live TV show about any particular classroom topic.  This can be a bit more difficult because it requires a fast internet connection and primarily works better on Apple products and mobile phones.  Since there isn’t a good free source to use for PC’s, this would be rather hard to implement at my schools environment but I’m sure it won’t be long for a good resource to come available.  After reading about all of these useful tools I am looking forward to implementing more different types of multimedia into my classroom!