Episode #1:  
Orienting and setting up your SmartBoard 
 
Have you heard the term orienting but don't know what it is or how to do it? This podcast will walk you through turning on your SmartBoard and give you step by step instructions how to begin and end the orientation process. I would love to hear your questions or comments. Are you maybe looking for a particular tip or tutorial that you would love to hear as a podcast? Email me and I'll work on it. alyssa@itsco.org 

Posted by: Alyssa Baker
Podcast: orienting.mp3

at Johnstown-Monroe. Mrs. Tatham's Kindergarden class shares their wonderful podcast celebrating Earth Day. The podcast is full of great and interesting facts about recycling, so take a moment to listen. You will surely learn a lot! 
 
Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work! 

Posted by: Lauren Fee
Podcast: tatham k.mp3

Thanks to Ms. Baker from Mt. Vernon City Schools for sharing her very first class podcast with us. Below is a summary from Ms. Baker about how her 1st grade students created the podcast. Great work!!! 
 
"This is our second week studying whales. As a class we visited several websites and read lots of books about whales. We broke up into 4 groups. Each group focused on a whale topic (kinds, babies, behaviors, fun facts). They did the brainstorming and additional research, and writing, then broke the writing up so that everyone had a part. That’s what we recorded." 
 
Ohio Standards meet while producing the Podcast: 
 
Language Arts: Writing Processes 
1. Generate writing ideas through discussions with others. 
2. Develop a main idea for writing. 
4. Use organizational strategies (brainstorming, lists, webs, Venn diagrams) to plan writing. 
6. Construct complete sentences with subjects and verbs. 
 
Research 
1. Discuss ideas for investigation about a topic or areas of personal interest. 
2. Utilize appropriate searching techniques to gather information, with teacher assistance, from a variety of locations (classroom, library, community resources) 
3. Use books or observations to gather information to explain a topic or unit of study with teacher assistance. 
4. Recall important information about a topic with teacher assistance. 
5. Report information to others. 
 
Communication: Oral and Visual 
4. Speaks clearly and understandably. 
5. Deliver brief informational presentations that: demonstrate an understanding of the topic; include and sort relevant information and details to develop topic; organize information with a clear beginning and ending; and express opinions. 
7. Deliver simple dramatic presentations (poems, rhymes, songs, stories) 
 
Social Studies Skills and Methods 
1. Obtain information about a topic using variety of oral and visual sources. 
3. Determine categories for sorting information 
5. Communicate information orally or visually. 
 
Science: Life Sciences 
1. Explore that organisms, including people, have basic needs which include air, water, food, living space, and shelter. 
3. Explore that humans and other animals have body parts that help to seek, find, and take in food when they are hungry (sharp teeth, flat teeth, good nose, and sharp vision) 
5. Recognize that seasonal changes can influence the health, survival, or activities of organisms. 
 
Technology for Productivity Applications 
1. Use technology resources with teacher assistance (e.g., pre-selected Web sites, launching applications, educational software). 
 
Technology and Information Literacy 
1. Talk about the difference between factual information and fiction (.eg., what is real and what is pretend or make-believe). 
2. Use a graphic organizer to sort information. 
3. Ask questions about an identified topic and list facts already known about the topic (e.g, graphic organizers for brainstorming, charting, webbing). 
4. Find information in a technology-based resource (e.g., Web site, database, DVD, software program, video). 
***Use technology to tell what was learned from information gathered (e.g., use simple presentation tools to create a poster, book, slide show). 
 
Wow - now that is a lot of standards! Thanks for sharing your wonderful work! 

Posted by: Lauren Fee
Podcast: whales_mt.vernon.mp3

Wow - this is so cool! In addition to photo sharing and photoblogging, now you can EASILY geotag all your Flickr photos and put them on the map! 
 
This feature was just added in September. I am just beginning to explore classroom uses for geotagging, so this is just a "get started" how-to... 
 
If you are not sharing photos on Flickr yet, you should try it out! It's fun and useful for sharing photos with family and friends if nothing else - AND it's free!.  
 
http://www.flickr.com 
 

Posted by: Peggy Whyte
Podcast: flickr_geotag.mov

 
Diigo (dee'go) is a"Social Annotation" tool that combines social bookmarking, clippings, annotation right on the web page, tagging, full-text search, and more. Diigo allows users to add highlights and sticky notes, on any web page they bookmark.It is one of my favorite research tool today! 
 
Diigo 
 
TechCrunch Review 
 
My Bookmarks 

Posted by: Lauren Fee

Book studies with ITSCO and online resources… 
 

Posted by: Amy Palermo
Podcast: bookstudy.mp3

 
Now you can view your KMZ files in Google Maps! 
 
Links: 
http://maps.google.com/ 
 
Technorati Tags: geotags mapping flickr google maps  

Posted by: Peggy Whyte
Podcast: Google_Maps.m4a

In this podcast, we are going to look at the online note taking tool, Google Notebook. Basically Google Notebook lets you clip text, images, or search results and save them in an online notebook. This notebook can be private or shared with others. We consider the pros and cons to using this application and discuss how it can be used in the classroom.  
 
 
Reviews: 
English Education Professor Blog Review 
Google Overview 

Posted by: Lauren Fee
Podcast: podcast_office 2.0 part III.m4a

There are many opportunities to tie real world activities into the classroom curriculum. In this podcast we explore two such activities. Technology & Learning is collaborating with Adobe Digital Kids Club in K-12 photo contest with the theme “My Point of View.” For more information, visit www.techlearning.com/content/contest/photos/index.html. Another digital imaging project is available at www.connectwiththetroops.com, where students can participate in the creation of the world’s largest scrapbook in an effort to support the U.S. soldiers in Iraq.  

Posted by: Amy Palermo
Podcast: digital-images.mp3

This podcast is a follow-up to the previous Cable in the Classroom podcast. While the 1st podcast focused on general information about Cable in the Classroom as well as specific information about Discovery School, this podcast focuses on specific information about Weather Classroom. The Discovery network and The Weather Channel network are both members of Cable in the Classroom. 
 
www.ciconline.org  
 
www.weatherclassroom.com  
 
 

Posted by: Alexa Stazenski
Podcast: weather classroom.mp4

 
In this podcast, I build on my previous podcast, Blogs -- The Personal Connection, Part I, which helped you connect with blogs on a personal level. I show you some technology tools that will allow you to “subscribe” to blogs, so that you don’t have to manually check them each day to see if there are new blog entries.  
 
Resources to Check Out:
 
Software Based RSS Readers For Windows  
FeedDemon 
Tristana 
AmphetaDesk 
NewsGator 
Software Based RSS Readers for Mac OS X 
NetNewsWire 
Rocketinfo Desktop 
Web-Based RSS Readers 
Attensa Online 
Bloglines 
Google Reader 
GritWire 
NewsGator Online 
 
Susannah's Public Bloglines Account 
 
 
Technorati Profile 

Posted by: Susannah Azzaro
Podcast: personalblogspart2.m4a

 
 
In this podcast I will nudge you to see blogs through your personal eyes versus your professional ones. My hope is that you will start integrating blogs into your personal life, and, in time, start to come to your own conclusions about how blogs can enhance your curriculum. 
 
 

Posted by: Susannah Azzaro
Podcast: personalblogsfinal2.m4a

 
This may be the only software you need for your digital photos! It's easy to learn, it's very cool and it's FREE! Learn about Picasa and then try it out for yourself! 
 
 
http://picasa.google.com/ 

Posted by: Peggy Whyte
Podcast: Try Picasa -It's FREE!.m4a

 
Get going with local geography by having your students create placemark files (KMZ files) complete with pictures and info to share with the local community via the web! 
 
You can find more detailed turorials at http://kokae.libsyn.com/ 
 
It's fun and your students will learn so much! 

Posted by: Peggy Whyte
Podcast: KMZ_Google_Earth.m4a

Download Google Earth at http://earth.google.com and install the program on your computer to get your students started with virtual tours! 
 
For specific information and place markers for the city of Paris (le Métro, Versailles, RER stations, and much more), download the KMZ file at  
 
http://www.pariserve.com/map.htm 
 
For more information and lesson ideas for using Google Earth in the classroom, check out: 
 
http://www.juicygeography.co.uk/googleearth.htm 
http://www.gelessons.com/ 
http://www.telscenter.org/confluence/display/Tech/Google+Earth 
 
Whether you're planning to take students abroad or just want to create engaging, dynamic lesson for your students, Google Earth is a wonderful classroom resource! 

Posted by: Peggy Whyte
Podcast: Paris_GE.mp4