About 9 years ago, I decided that textbooks were enough for our students. Our students are in the Multimedia Generation. These Millennials spend most of their waking hours Reading, Watching, Listening to, and Doing multimedia. This means that their brains are wired to acquire and assimilate information through multiple forms of media but most of our teachers still use paper textbooks.
The challenge was how to provide recent and relevant materials for my classes. I needed a system that was easy to create, easy to use and easy to update. I wanted a tool that would allow me to release pages of resources on predetermined days. Did I mention, that I wanted it to be easy?
Blogger was my answer. It was simple . . . It was free . . . and I knew how to use it. It would also provide an easy RSS feed for students to capture their assignment Certainly, there are other more sophisticated blogs and website design tools, but Blogger made the job that much easier.
Let's begin by discussing what each of these topics includes and then we will provide additional resources in each of these areas in following postings.
My dream for Listenings is that my auditory-learning students will be able to download them to their phones and then listen to them as they walk to school or workout. The only problem that I have had is that not all of my students knew how to download sound files to their phones. You don't necessarily know how to use technology if you are a Digital Native. =-) It may require you showing them or creating a screencast to instruct them in how to download these files.
The challenge was how to provide recent and relevant materials for my classes. I needed a system that was easy to create, easy to use and easy to update. I wanted a tool that would allow me to release pages of resources on predetermined days. Did I mention, that I wanted it to be easy?
Blogger was my answer. It was simple . . . It was free . . . and I knew how to use it. It would also provide an easy RSS feed for students to capture their assignment Certainly, there are other more sophisticated blogs and website design tools, but Blogger made the job that much easier.
What to Include?
I realized that there are basically 4 types of activities in learning. These activities include Reading, Watching, Listening and Doing. What I needed to do was to create a tool that would allow for students to access all of these types of resources.Let's begin by discussing what each of these topics includes and then we will provide additional resources in each of these areas in following postings.
Readings
Just because you aren't reading from a textbook, it doesn't mean that your students won't be reading. It means that you will be able to direct them towards recent and relevant readings in the form of articles, books, and reliable websites. Just because I list the resources on the web, it doesn't mean that I don't assign books to them to read. I often assign books to support what we are studying. They are often available in digital format. I also try to find Open Educational Resource (OER) books. We will be sharing some resources for these books later in this RWLD as well as the 2 other RWLDs that are included in this presentation.
Watchings
These are the videos or vlogs that you want them to watch. These may be videos that are already available for you to use, or they might be videos or screencasts that you have made to help educate your students. While YouTube is probably the most popular resource for ready-made videos, there are many other resources that you can access.
Listenings
Some of your resources will be auditory. These will primarily be podcasts. There is a huge selection of podcast resources online. The most complete directory of podcasts is iTunes. It doesn't matter if you are a Mac or Window or Linex user. iTunes is available on all of these platforms so you should be able to find them and use them.
My dream for Listenings is that my auditory-learning students will be able to download them to their phones and then listen to them as they walk to school or workout. The only problem that I have had is that not all of my students knew how to download sound files to their phones. You don't necessarily know how to use technology if you are a Digital Native. =-) It may require you showing them or creating a screencast to instruct them in how to download these files.
Doings
These are the activities that your students will do. I have my students complete surveys, do online searches, create projects, or whatever. This is the section that includes the things that don't fit the other sections.
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