I love school holidays – not because I’m not teaching – but because I can do things like listen to the awesome ladies of WOW2.0 broadcasting through Worldbridges and EdTechTalk, Tuesday nights at 9pm EST. (Which is our Wednesday afternoon at 1pm – GMT+12). This week’s show features four top Australian educators:
Graham Wegner – Teaching Generation Z – Judy O’Connell - Jo McLeay – The Open Classroom – and Jason Hando – Clever Learning. Now that’s a show that will be worth listening to. I’m sure the chatroom will be spectacular too! I can usually listen to the live stream from school (as it’s my lunch with no duties) but I can’t access the chatroom unless I’m at home. So if you get a chance tomorrow – tune into this show – because it sounds like a “goodie”.

Thanks to Judy O’Connell’s blog post on a podcasting toolbox, I came across another toolbox
Video Toolbox: 150+ Online Video Tools and Resources. There is a wealth of links in this mashup, from How-tos to Online Video Editors to Online Video Converters – everything you could need for using Video in your classroom programme! I was really impressed with the Mashable Social Networking site that these two toolboxes came from. Definitely worth a longer look at. Gee I’m glad I’ve still got a few more days of holidays left!

That awesome man Jeff Lebrow over at Worldbridges has just sent me this link to a video of my question to Dr Kathy King about good podcasting examples for my students to listen to. (Check out the other very good videos of interviews too!)
Thank goodness I always scroll through my Akismet Spam catcher (but it is mighty fine spam catcher!) because I found this comment from Dr Kathy King in there (only because she has very generously added a whole lot of links for me to look at). It’s full of information so I just had to share it with you all.

_{Hi
It was great talking to you via the webcast from Podcamp NYC (www.podcampnyc.org) and I am pleased that the information was helpful.
Here are the names of the teachers and their student produced podcasts which I suggested
(AND a few others) of course I do not mean to exclude other student podcasts.. these were off the top of my head across various subject areas…}

_{Jeff Bradley at IPS: http://ipsbradley.blogspot.com/ (science)}

_{Another great one SMASHcast http://www.smashcast.org (tech, science, and more)}

_{Dr. Joselyn Todd with her students at Carey Academy (science) http://web1.caryacademy.org/facultywebs/joselyn_todd/podcasts/default.htm}

_{MUSIC (music created by students) podcasts by students
Greenwich High School’s Electronic Music Classes! http://167.206.79.135/staff/bfreedman/ghs/podcasts/Emusic/Emusic.html}

_{a History podcast (not with students BUT great content) ERIC Langhorst
http://www.speakingofhistory.blogspot.com/}

_{I also author About.com column about Podcasting in Education- http://podcasting.about.com/od/podcastingineducation}

_{Here are the Podcast for Teachers (teacher learning, teacher professional development)
home page: http://podcastforteachers.org/}

_{archive of past episodes: http://podcastforteachers.org/TechpodArchives.html}

_{and archive of ALL resources and links mentioned:
http://podcastforteachers.org/ResourcesbyPodcast.html}

_{Here is something very different— We have converged the concept of Internet radio with learning related podcasts so if you go to iLearn Radio http://www.ilearnradio.org you will find an radio station that “broadcasts” podcasts.
It is NOT a podcast directory. It is a different experience.}

_{People just come to the site and then hear podcasts playing one after the other. Only those podcasts we have previewed are included- so they meet quality standards.
People who have educational podcasts – across a broad range of topics can be included for free. Podcasters can email us for information info@bxradio.net}

_{Hope this info helps.
Feel free to contact me for more info and catch us on Podcast for Teachers (teacher education for grade school) (www.podcastforteachers.org) and adult learning Adventures in Transformative Learning (www.podcastforteachers.org/atl)}

_{Virtually yours,
Dr. Kathleen P. King
http://www.bxmedia.net/kathleen-p-king.html}

I am so glad I dragged myself out of bed at 5.30am to take part in this. I am so glad that I read my emails before I go to bed. I am so glad that Edtechtalk sends out informative emails! I am so glad that people like Jeff at Worldbridges and Dr Kathy King take time to talk to people like me.

Now all I’ve got to do is get my timezones right (no thanks to Daylight Saving) and I can finally connect again with the wonderful ladies at WOW2.0 on Tuesday Night at 9.00pm EST. (But that is another story for a later post!)

Yesterday there was an email in my inbox from EdTechTalk about NYC Podcast Camp. It included some links to a skypecast. After checking out the time difference between New Zealand and New York, I discovered that the skypecast was do-able my end albeit 5.30am Sunday morning – 1.30pm Saturday afternoon NYC. I’m so glad I set my alarm.

Doug at Worldbridges is such a helpful man! I was able to skype in and even ask Dr. Kathy King in New York at the Podcast camp a question! WOW! I asked what would you recommend my students listen to, to get a really good idea about what makes a good podcast? I tried writing them down as fast as possible! Here’s what I got:- Try
Jeff (?) (Missed the last name – sorry & no luck on google)
Eric (?)
Arvind Grover from 21st Century Learning and
Podcasts for Teachers
Podcasts for Teachers has a huge archive section apparently and every single podcast has been screened so they are safe to share with students.
(If I’ve got anyone’s name wrong or you can share some more excellent student podcasters to listen to, please leave a comment).

Dr Kathy also suggest that Oral Histories was a really neat way to get students started with podcasting. It’s very authentic, yet simple. Students interview older members of their family to record their “stories”. In the States – very cheap audio recording equipment is available for about US$30. I’m not sure if we have anything that inexpensive here in NZ – I’ll definitely be checking that out. I’d be interested in hearing from any New Zealand schools that are podcasting – how they are doing it.

There were also some very interesting people in the chatroom too. It was awesome making contact with JoseR whose class blog – we’re going to see if we can do some SkypeTalkandWrite with Jose’s class in California as his class is younger than mine. Jose also let me know about podsafe audio and achive.org. It was also awesome to make contact with Nellie in Israel. That was really cool chatting to her and I hope do something collaborative there too.

I did google Educational Podcasting and go the following helpful links:
Educational Podcasting – there’s heaps of links about podcasting and how to do it here!
Podcast Directory for Educators, schools and colleges – this is a UK directory but looks full of examples.
Educational Podcasting - Middle Tennessee State University – very imformative site with links!

Was it worth getting up so early? You bet ya! I’m off to have another cup of coffee and then to email Carter at Crowdabout to ask for educator space!

This is my new toy – a SONY ICD-U70. It has voice recording, MP3 playback and a max of 502 hours of recording time thanks to 1 GB of storage. I’ve got heaps of ideas on how I can use it in the classroom – to justify the $149 I just spent!

So here’s my mission (’cause I’ve already chosen to accept it – grins)
1. Learn how to use it (that’ll be a laugh)
2. Record a podcast and post it to our new class blog – (I think I’ll read a chapter of our class book )
3. Get some students to have a go at making a podcast – (I think we’ll read some good books for Simon’s class to listen to)
I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

This is being shared too! I’m watching this presentation and listening to the podcast at the same time! Check it out! There’s some very informative stuff Chris Craft is sharing, not only about Slideshare but about presentations in general.
I needed this before learningatschool07 Chris!

Things to be precise.  I can not believe how “fast” this web2.0 journey is going!  It’s amazing, it’s exciting, it’s motivating, it’s ….. it’s …….. it’s mind boggling!  Today we had our first ever inaugral international skype! Up until today we’d only ever skyped with Simon’s class down the road.   Today we skyped with Columbia, South Carolina!  How cool is that?  My students met Mr Craft (who was enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon whilst we were working hard out at school on Monday morning!) the teacher who’s been working hard over the weekend on a wikispace that will help his students and my students and students from other countries compare their worlds.  It looks fantastic (but I won’t link it until it’s ready to go).  I don’t think it sunk in for some of them that it was still yesterday and this was someone who was actually half way round the world, not down the road.

We’ve started working on our class wiki, beginning with a wiki warm up task.  I’ve had to add another task already! “This is way cool” (a comment I overheard today).  We’re also looking into the way round blocked YouTube that CoolCatTeacher blogged about a couple of days ago (just scroll down a bit).  I think we just might be able to do it that way too.  Otherwise there’s this suggestion to try from Chris Lehmann over at Practical Theory  I’ll keep you posted.  Next will be trying to unblock the edtechtalk chatroom so I can participate in the WOW2.0 chats.  I’ll be missing this week’s one too though – First Aid Course to attend.  Hopefully that will give me some time to try getting into the chat from school otherwise I’ll just have to wait until the holidays!

Our online collaborative project (thanks OP4T & Jen Wagner) with another Intermediate in Te Awamutu, New Zealand and Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia is just about ready to begin.  Watch this space.

I’ve watched my fellow colleague Simon step right out of the shadows lately to post more and reply to other’s posts.  He got a mention by the reflective teacher too after posting on Your Days in Sentences!  And he’s been getting some pretty amazing emails lately.

When I stop and reflect for just a moment, it just blows me away at how far things have progressed since our wonderful trainer Jenny at Sitech mentioned that word web2.0 to us.  It was only in October 2006. Unreal!

I’ve been listening to the Tech Chicks podcasts.  (I’m a lurker podcast subscriber).  These ladies are just awesome to listen to.  Fantastic simple, easy to follow, and downright useful tips and tricks!  A must subscription over at itunes podcasts. You’ll definitely need your google notebook open to take notes – or if you’re listening to it on your ipod like me – best you settle down with a big piece of paper and a pen with lots of ink in it!  It’s not a good idea to be driving while listening to these two! 

A few posts ago I shared my 6 Web2.0 resolutions for 2007.   It’s time for an update on what’s happened so far ……………..

1. Maintain a class wiki  It’s up and running - take a look!  
   
2. Explore Google Earth   I did find an informative article to help me with this resolution – you might find it useful too.  Since there’s a bit going on now we might not use this till Term 2
3. Join a collaborative project    Thank you OP4T (and Jennifer Wagner) for putting me in such a fabulous group of teachers.  We’re going to be using wikis and videos.  Now all I need is for the School Year to start!  (1½ weeks to go!)
   
4. Have a go at podcasting  This has it’s own post!
   
5. Skype with a class in another country 
   
6. Use flickr for a class assignment
   

And I was right – tomorrow was so much better.  After a little bit of thought I decided to try to download another version of LAME mp3 encoder after I found this very helpful website …….. 

how to set up a podcast   which led me to this even more helpful wikispace ……….

Lame Installation - Audacity Wiki   which led me back to the LAME mirror site but this time I chose the lame-3.96.1 – www.overnet.org version

Looking, looking, looking … Yipee there was the magic, long awaited file I was looking for!  Back to my audacity project to try exporting to mp3 again, and, as they say, the rest is history!

Is podcasting easy?  Yes!  Just make sure if you’re using audacity, you have downloaded that magic little file called lame_enc.dll  and your speakers are on!

Is uploading your finished podcast to edublogs easy?  Yes! and it looks good there too! 

So what are you waiting for?

Two down, four to go!

Having a go at podcasting.  Right.  Well everything I’d read so far suggested that it was a relatively simple thing to do.  Ok.  I’ll give it a go especially since it was No. 4 on my Web2.0 Resolutions for 2007.  How hard can it be?  What a hoot!  I was particularly tempted to do this resolution by the Technospud Newsletter for January 2007.  Jen Wagner’s Technology Tip was “Creating a Podcast without the Pod Part 1″.  The instructions looked really easy …….. and ……… they were! (Brilliant Jen!) 

Recording the podcast using audacity (which I already had been using last year) was an absolute breeze.  I only made one mistake so it only took 2 takes and it’s called First Ever Podcast .  I just had to figure out how to put it on this blog – didn’t think of that did I? But as usual the help section (Edublogs forum, in this case) came to the rescue with these very simple instructions!
Next step involved saving the recording to a file that could be uploaded to my blog and that’s where the fun began!  Now this bit’s quite long so if you don’t want to read it I have recorded this and it’s called …… very original ……. Second Ever Podcast  sorry having technical problems with this one!  (It helps if you turn on your speakers) Second Ever Podcast
Audacity gives you several options:- wav, mp3 or ogg vorbis (didn’t know what that was?!?), so I figured that with my little knowledge of how things work, that the mp3 file would be the most suitable.  Right!  Click file, export to mp3 – easy.  NAH!  An error message!  

“Audacity does not export mp3 files directly, but instead uses the freely available LAME library to handle mp3 file encoding.  You must obtain lame_enc.dll separately by downloading the LAME mp3 encoder, and then locate this file for Audacity.  You only need to do this once.  Would you like to locate lame_enc.dll now?”

Yes, I would.  Another error message!

“Could not open mp3 encoding library.”

Ok.  It’s not that bad.  I’ll just use the help files in audacity.  (Always use the help files … they are surprisingly helpful! Usually!).  By this time it’s a bit late, 11.30pm but as I’m a night owl and I am on holiday still, it’s ok.  So….. help files …… very helpful …… the links for the mp3 encoders are on the Audacity webpage.  No problem!  Took a bit of detective work to find what I was looking for ….. scroll to optional downloads, click on Lame mp3 encoder, click on the operating system you have (in my case, Windows).  Not hard so far.  Click on the latest LAME version 3.97.tar.gz.  Save it, unzip it (have to use classic interface & not wizard in WinZip). Searching, searching, looking, looking,  No lame_enc.dll !!  Oh *%$#!  What did I do wrong?  Quick flick back to the help files …. you dufuss …. wrong version!  It needs to be 3.96.1  Ok.  I can cope with that.  Delete files downloaded and start again this time from here.  Perhaps while I’m here I better download the latest version of audacity while I’m here.  Didn’t take long but time was certainly ticking along quite fast.  12.30am – that’s ok – I won’t be long.  (Famous last words!) Right, right version this time!  Toilet stop while it’s downloading, check the kids, turn off the hall light, make a coffee - …… always multi-tasking!  Unzip archive, looking, looking, searching, searching, No lame_enc.dll !!  Oh *%$#!  What did I do wrong this time??  Re-read the instructions again.  By this time, I’m really tired, and a weeeeee bit frustrated.  Only one thing to do.  Bed! I’m sure it will be so obvious ….. tomorrow!