Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The Great Facebook Experiment expands



Happily we are nearly at the half century mark in the number of fans to our Media Center Facebook experiment. Bribing kids with food increased our numbers as did a little cajoling. We continue to use the page as a way to communicate upcoming events, deadlines, new books and whatever we feel is new, interesting, or "not ordinary". It is fun and keeps us on our toes. Will we grow much more?? Not sure--but we are going to enter into a partnership the the English department for summer reading-It may provide another means of communicating with kids at their level and get them involved at the same time.

Much to our surprise, the District now is using TWITTER. Not to be outdone, we added TWITTER(PSHSCougars)and also grabbed "Plainfield South High School" on FACEBOOK(just so no one else would take the name). I've not become big TWEET fan-I'm not sure I like the limits of 140 characters. I also do not communicate on the fly-- I don't have a BLACKBERRY or Iphone or a web enabled phone--I still like my phone and my other electronics separate-- Kind of like I like nuts and chocolate but not together.

At any rate, we have already discovered some nice ways to use TWITTER- quick event reminders and CONGRATS to various groups/kids is just another way to communicate.
I'm not sure what all of this means-but I do know that it is here to stay at least for the foreseeable future-Those of you in the PSHS family- let me know-Suggestions? Comments? Ideas? It's a BRAVE NEW WORLD!

Monday, April 27, 2009

FLIP VIDEO CAMERS



As we approach the end of the year and students begin final projects, let me introduce you to the newest tool in " your not so ordinary media center"- The FLIP video camera!

These mini-camcorders have been designed specifically for ease of use and portability. They are in fact totally simple. You do not need any technical knowledge to use them and to start recording video you just press the record button and then just press it again to stop. What could be easier?
There is no "media" ( tape, memory card, etc) required with these cameras- It's a PHD camera!(Push here dummy) There is a zoom and a RECORD button-that's it! It can easily store up to a whole hour of recorded video on board in the internal memory chips, which have a capacity of 2 GB.

Here is the best part-when you, or your student's are done recording, a hidden USB jack allows you to plug it into your PC, import it into Movie Maker and create a movie-No special software-NO HASSELS!

We have a class set available for check out-10 in all. Video production is no longer a burden or a barrier-Stop in and get recording!!

Monday, April 20, 2009

MUSIC SITES



One of my passions has always been music. My abilities to create and/or perform are fair at best. I love the ability to add music to my photos, videos, presentations, etc. That said, part of our job in schools is help students understand the appropriate(and legal) use of music in their presentation. The whole "fair use" and copyright laws always become an issue as projects are created. Kids want to use music that they know or at least something that they like.
Cathy Newsome has a GREAT site dealing with this issue, complete with charts and FAQs.

My favorite site for music to use in school presentations is FREEPLAY MUSIC.
The site has a terrific variety of music and an amazing search engine. Their licensing says :"FreePlayMusic grants free master recording and synchronization rights to students, to the FPM Production Music Library, when FPM music is used by students within a school or class assignment to be viewed only in the classroom or within the school." PERFECT! Music can be download as .mP3s which is perfect for inclusion in most kinds of presentations. I can recommend this higly enough as a place to obtain music for all kinds of presentations and projects.

I also just read about Free Music Archive, a social music website built around a curated library of free, legal audio. It's a work in progress for sure, but looks and sounds like something kids would like.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Cell phones in class


Welcome back from Spring Break! It is always nice to get away and have a chance to recharge--And in this case, the push to PSAE and the end of the school year!

First, an update on "the great Facebook experiment". Thanks in large part to Stephanie Stashak, we posted each day during the break with bits of information, and specifically, preps for our LUNCHTIME TRIVIA CHALLENGE. We are up to 30 FANS- not great, but 30 more than we had 3 weeks ago-- Our experiment will be featured in our newsletter this month, which may get us some notice as well. We are also going to try some special offers for "fans only". I will keep you posted.


Now to this week's post. Once again, another controversy--Cell phones in the classroom- Horrors!! We have made an effort to find ways to use the technology that the kids have in a positive way--I think that I have found a pretty good one. The site is TEXTMARKS. As their site says: "TextMarks web site lets users quickly register a keyword (for free) on the 41411 shortcode that enables them to collect subscribers and broadcast alerts, chat in groups, coordinate events, provide info, and more. "

TRANSLATION--You have a group of student on a field trip-let's say the zoo or a museum-They have a series of questions that they need to answer on a worksheet that you have created--Imagine them being able to respond to a question via text, and receive back in seconds, an additional clue, or the next question. Talk about being engaged in learning!!

For those of you in the PSHS community-some on down to the Media Center, bring your cell phone- I have a sample "scavenger hunt" set up.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

The Great FACEBOOK experiment



Several weeks ago Ellen DeGeneres discovered FACEBOOK. She talked on her show for days about the social network site and being connected with friends, family and fans. Being a fan, I like many others signed on to "Be a fan". Then the fun started... It seemed that every 10 minutes, during what I assume was the duration of her show, there would be postings. There are video clips of funny things that happen, comments on guests, prize opportunities, etc, etc.

Flashforward to a discussion of the survey taken by the PAW PRINT(the PSHS student newspaper) that indicated that upwards of 80% of our students' greatest obsession is technology. Social networking sites like FACEBOOK are a huge part of that "obsession."
Of course, the arguement is that the site is blocked in school-so what good is a presence? My feeling is that because our learning community can only view it off site and off hours, it is the perfect vehicle to stay connected. We can communicate in the evenings, week-ends, vacations and summer using something that they claimed to be "obsessed" with.
Thus began PSHS-Not Your Ordinary Media Center
I don't know if this is going to work or not. I don't know how much work it will be. All I know is that overnight on our first evening of exsistance, we added 14"fans". Good? I don't know-- all I know is that there are now 14 people out there who will find out what we are doing in the Media Center at Plainfield South and why are are "not your ordinary media center."

Stay tuned-- it's a work in progress!

By the way- become a fan-- it might be fun!