Detroit Lakes, Minnesota

Here is a Voice Thread on the history and growing up in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. I find that Voicethread is a great tool to archive history, photos, loved ones in a way that other medias can't. To me, having your great grandfather, father, mother, aunt tell about their lives would prove to be a very important part of any genealogical archive.

From a student perspective, they could create a collage, share a book review, do a character analysis, look at settings in a novel and present their finding using Voicethread. it would also be a great "Get to know You" exercise the the beginning of the year.



Here is a slideshow that I recently did about my family in Switzerland. I chose to show a family member following a place we have traveled because I felt it flowed better than showing all of the family and then the places or vice versa.

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Mind Mapping

Here are my two attempts using mind maps in classroom. I think that they can be beneficial when lecturing in front of the class about key issues in a novel, for students who are brainstorming possible writing topics, looking at characterization or plot in a story. The possibilities are endless.

I believe that blogs can be used for independent reading projects where students can summarize their thoughts on the book they chose to read. They can then have blog partners that will read and respond to their plot overview and critique of the novel. They could publish their final projects here as well.

I think blogs can be useful for teacher in place of creating a website. A place that can have useful links for the class or upcoming assignments or projects. Here is one educational blog I have created for the classroom: Media and the Holocaust. I am unsure what my topic will be for my final project, but my husband and I are planning a trip to the Dachau Concentration Camp, so it may center around this.

RSS Feeds, Web Browsers--What is Most Accurate and Why?

As for search engines, I tend to use google the most. Not really sure why, I guess I just like the browser. They have also came out with a faster browser called google chrome as well which works best for my older computer (my back-up to my apple) as well. I also use safari if for some reason google is down.

When I am searching for news, I tend to use the NPR site or the BBC news site. I personally find them to be the most accurate and give more of a global perspective which I like. If I want to research music, I like the 89.3 The Current site.

As for researching outside of that, I look at the website and look for it's authenticity based on the topic. For example, when my students are doing research on the Holocaust, I have them look at the National Museum of the Holocaust Website. This is a credible site that gives information on survivors, concentration camps, influential people of the time period, archive pictures, etc. I always tell my students to look at the sites credentials. If it is someone's blog for example, this is not as credible as National Geographic. I try to focus my eighth grade students towards sites that aren't blogs because who is to say they are an "expert" on the topic. I explain to them that you or your friends could write a blog on the Holocaust, and it may or may not be credible, but who is to know?

On my google page that I have set up on my desktop, the feeds I have subscribed to are google reader, google newsreel, BBC News, Teacher's Magazine, Web MD Health, and People. Now the feeds that I subscribe to on a daily basis reflect my interests and what I what to be informed on. The feeds I would choose for research, would depend on what I was researching at the time. For the Holocaust, I would ask students to subscribe to the following: Teaching Tolerance, the National Holocaust Museum site, The Jewish Virtual Library, and No Way Out Reader's Theatre. Google newsreel is also great to use and can have it put on to your blog and it will pull feeds from any topic you wish. The only problem with using Google newsreel is that you must make sure that it is current information. My husband was telling me about a story that Google reader put out and it didn't have the date on the article. So many people saw this particular article, and noticed the company was doing poorly and many people pulled their stock from it. I think as a teaching tool, especially with eighth grade students, Google newsreel could be used as conversation starters in the beginning of class looking at these articles with a critical lens. Is this particular article credible? Why or why not? Does it have a date when it was published?

The Use of Blogs in Every Day Life and the Teaching Profession

Since I am currently living in Hunenberg, Switzerland and recently moved here in August, I wanted a place to record my thoughts about cultural differences I see, my experiences as an ex-pat, as well as record milestones of my children for family and friends back in the United States.  I first started blogging when my son was about 6 months old.  If any of you are interested in checking out my blogs, they are positioned to the right under My Blog List which includes The Life of the Bieter Family, Destination Imagination, Media and the Holocaust, Poetry Jam, and Flowers for Algernon.

From a purely educational standpoint, the blogs I have created help students stay connected with one another, give them a voice and a medium where they can be creative, give them a place to publish their ideas and their work, and a new way to learn from one another.  I feel by implementing blogs into your coursework and student evaluations, it is not only meaningful for the reasons above, but also saves time.  By students being able to log on and respond to a few blogs from people in the class and give feedback is fast and efficient.  Likewise, as a teacher, it is a fast and easy way to access student knowledge and see their work without lugging a bunch of paperwork home with me each night.

Some ways that I think digital writing such as blogs can be a hinderance, is that it can take away from the personal aspect of talking to someone on a one to one basis, and I guess is less personal.  In my opinion, however, the benefits outweigh the negatives.

More specifically,  I would like to learn in this class how to better and more effectively create and use podcasts in the classroom and any digital medium for that matter, and utilize these new tools to enhance the work I have already begun.