Blogging in the Classroom

When an excellent resource passes my way, I feel compelled to share it. In the middle of a conversation about using classroom blogs at at parent teacher interview, this link was dropped in by Cindy Zautcke. The link speaks for itself.

As an intern in the class of 2.4 of Webcast Academy, I have entered a new world that I only dreamed about in 2001. Seven years ago I worked with educators, ICT experts and parents chairing a working group as part of the Ontario Knowledge Network for Learning - a Ontario Ministry of Education initiative. I was excited to join in the development of recommendations for strategic directions on ICT in education. My role was specific to recommendations to connecting parents and the community to the classroom using information and communication technology. Broadband has caught up to the recommendations and the dust is off the cover. Kudos to the Classroom teachers who have now embraced Web 2.0 technologies and taken the lead on creating learning environment for students of the 21st century.

Strong leadership from people like Jeff Lebow, Pam Shoemaker, Derrall Garrison at Webcast Academy have made me an avid student. They have given me the tools to I needed to revisit the use of information communication technology to connect parents to the classroom. Presentations for Parent as Partners such as “From a Principal’s perspective”, an interview with Dan Trainor, Canadian Principal of the year 2007, was created as result.

Podcasts are becoming common place but the instructions for recording two way Skype calls simplified the process and made the SkypeOut interview easy to create. It gets better. Teachers now have the tools needed to broadcast live and take their students and classrooms to the global stage.

Alex Couros from the University of Regina has prepared an excellent tutorial on how to use Skype, Ustream and Camtwist to Broadcast live.

Its hot of the press and there is lots to do.