I only have eyes for you: Social Media & Me

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Thirteen years ago, in a six-week summer school class, my life was redirected. That class was a Native Literature class with Professor Janice Acoose. Janice began with a two or three class diatribe on some lesser known facets of Canadian history. As a white Canadian, I felt so guilty for the way in which my ancestors and my institutions oppressed and mistreated the First Nations people of Canada. After a few days, I decided that I had not personally done any of those things myself but from that point on, I would do whatever was in my power to make a difference for the First Nations people of Canada.

During that class we read aloud Tomson Highway's play, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing. It was harrowing and hilarious. Another student and myself researched and presented to the class a Native Canadian author. The author we selected was Metis and adopted into a white family in Saskatchewan. His book was autobiographical and recounted his gradual feelings of alienation and his drift into using alcohol to cover up his feelings. He ended up in and out of jail. He was encouraged to write a book about his life when he got out of jail. The two of us read this book and researched online whatever other information we could find to present this author to the class. A few days before our presentation, I had the bright idea of phoning to this man's family members to find out if he was still living in the same small town. I spoke with his brother who told me that this author was back in jail (federal this time, which means more serious crime). I cried. The class was shocked when we ended our presentation with that

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news.

Near the end of the class (which was an evening class), I would walk home from the bus stop and cry. One evening, I looked up in the sky and saw the Hale-Bopp comet with a star shining nearby. Somehow, this gave me hope that I could make a difference with the Creator's help and guidance. That class in Native Literature changed my view of the world and of my place in the world. After that I made Native Studies my main teaching area. In my teaching career, I have always taught in schools with many Native Canadian students. I have treated them with respect, understanding, and love. That class changed my life.

Once again, I have taken another class which has changed me. This Web 2.0 tools class from the University of Alberta has been intense and demanding. Within six weeks' time, I have learned to understand and use many Web 2.0 tools: blogs (blogspot), photosharing (Flickr), videosharing (YouTube), social bookmarking (Delicious), podcasting, virtual libraries, wikis (Wetpaint), multimedia sharing sites (Animoto, VoiceThread), Twitter, and blog aggregator use (Google Reader). Along with learning to use two tools each week, I have had to create long blog posts to explain each tool. I have included readings and research into how each tool can be used by teachers and in classrooms. It's been a totally engrossing experience. It has been intense and life-changing. It has been fun and exhausting.

In honour of this experience, I thought of the song, "I Only Have Eyes for You". In the past six weeks, I have (pretty well) only had eyes for my computer and my online relationships. I found three versions that I liked of the song. So you can decide which one to click on (if you click at all). Shirley Bassey actually sings another song after "I Only have Eyes for You".







As I reflect on this class, I'm not sure where I will go next. As Mack Male (Edmonton social media guru) suggested to us, I am seeking out local people to follow on Twitter. (Twitter Mondo is a good tool to use to help you find those local people.) Today, I also found a site with lots of wonderful Saskatchewan bloggers. One of them is Carmen Klassen from Saskatoon. You can find her wonderful blog at http//www.carmsjournal.blogspot.com/

Today at the Farmers Market, I asked one of the vendors if she was on Twitter. There were so many unique finds at the Saskatoon Farmers Market today. One farm couple had made buttons out of deer antlers (which the deer shed each year). You can find deer antlers laying around in pastures. Another farm couple were selling mini artichokes (about the size of brussel sprouts). There would be so much scope to do a project similar to Dave Cormier's in Prince Edward Island with farmers.

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I guess the bottom-line is that I am a teacher. I have next year off in order to go to school full-time. I was planning to do research into how families support grade two students in their reading. I was going to use ethnographic field methods of direct observation during home visits, interviews with parents, and collection of artifacts (student's work, grocery lists, calendars, etc.). However, all of that research (which I have laid a foundation for) pales in comparison to doing something with social media or researching these new tools and their use in education.

This past week I had a further extension of the technology adventure I have been on. I was a vicarious attendee at two technology conferences. I say "vicarious" rather than the more common "virtual" attendee because I really experienced these conferences. The people who organized the Open Education Conference (#opened09)in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, provided live streaming video of each session. Now there are recordings of all the conference sessions available for anyone to listen to and use. (Link for recordings.)As well, those in attendance at the conference were generous with their tweets and even their notes about the conference. Other people around the world who were listening in and watching the live streaming video, were tweeting as well. One man said that in the room where they were watching the live streaming video, they clapped. They felt a part of it and so did I. The other conference which I attended was the Social Technology in Education Conference (#steconf) which was held at Harvard. This was a one day conference which I think was the brain child of Ed Lyons. Unfortunately they ran out of time and resources to live-stream this conference. It was free for the 250 or so in attendance. Once again, those in attendance were generous with their tweets so that others could learn from this conference as well.

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I can see that there are different ways to engage in professional development now. In fact, one idea that I came across was that rather than take five or six of your staff to a conference in another city, bring that wonderful speaker to meet with the five or six in your city. It will probably cost the same. (Oops, what did that have to do with technology? I guess just that I came across the idea online.)

Nowadays real people attending a conference are encouraged to use a back channel for talking about the conference. Jeff Hurt (2009) provides this definition of back channel: "A back channel is where attendees are texting or tweeting information about a presentation or event using SMS, a chat function or Twitter. The front channel, for lack of a better word and as opposed to a back channel, is the main presentation being delivered by the speaker."

Hurt (2009) suggests various reasons for encouraging the use of a back channel:

1. To reach and communicate with virtual attendees who could not attend the

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face-to-face event.

2. To encourage attendees to take byte-size notes. In 140 characters if using Twitter. It also helps them synthesize and condense the presentation into content nuggets which are often more memorable than long spoken or written paragraphs of information.

3. As a form of audience engagement especially if the presenter is lecturing and primarily using one to many style of presentation. Encourage attendees to further discuss the presentation with each other

4. To market your event.

5. To allow attendees to ask the presenter questions and provide comments.

6. To allow attendees to interact with the content. Some will look up definitions, other articles and additional links about the presentation, especially if they are inquisitive or need further clarification.

7. To allow attendees the ability to share additional resources and links related to the presentation.

8. To create a historical record and transcript of the presentation from many different perspectives. Go to WTHashtag , enter the conference hashtag, add date parameters and click the view transcript button. Then you have a transcript of the presenters information from the perspective of many attendees that were tweeting with the hashtag. This great tool allows attendees to read others views once the presentation is completed.

9. To listen to conference attendees and provide real time changes to the presentation or event.

10. To extend the life of the content and message besides a one-time hit of the present

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ation and reach a larger audience.

I found that the back channel at both of the aforementioned conferences did enable me to attend and learn from both conferences. It would be interesting to use some of Mack Male's magic with statistics to discover how many of the 3000 + tweets with the #opened09 hashtag were made by people in real time attendance and how many were made by those in virtual or vicarious attendance like myself. Doing research on the changing face of professional development for educators with access to such different types of learning would be so interesting. However, I think I may be too far along my other road for pursuit of a new topic. However, my academic advisor may be able to suggest some conferences in reading that I could join as a virtual or vicarious attendee. Maybe I will be able to combine two passions in one pursuit of learning.

This class has changed my viewpoint on the world. I really have "only had eyes for social media" throughout the past six weeks. I will continue to use my blog and my micro-blog (Twitter) to express my

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thoughts and to pass along interesting thoughts and viewpoints of others. I will continue to explore ways of integrating the use of my new tools into my thesis work and class work for this next year as a full-time student. I will work on building my online community one person at a time. If I am present in more than one on-line network, I will be a bridge to connect people from one network to thoughtful people in the other network. Even in this blog, I have introduced my fellow classmates (and any others from around the world who may be reading this) to someone from my local network (Carmen Klassen) who is writing excellent blog posts. I would like to see more awareness of social media, within my school, my school board, and within my city. I will make myself available to share what I have learned with anyone who wants to listen.

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"I don't know if we're in a garden
Or on a crowded avenue

You are here
So I am
Maybe millions of people pass by
But I only have eyes, for you."
(Warren & Dubin)

References:

Hurt, J. (12 August 2009). 10 reasons why you should use a back channel at your conference. At Midcourse corrections: Views from the trenches. Online at http://jeffhurtblog.com/2009/08/12/10-reasons-why-you-should-use-a-back-channel-at-your-conference/comment-page-1

Warren, H. & Dubin, A. (1934). I only have eyes for you. Information online at http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=I+Only+Have+Eyes+for+You&gwp=13

So you think you can dance, Ruth Elliott?

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Last night I watched the second program of this year's, So You Think You Can Dance, Canada? Some amazing young dancers took the stage to dance their way to the next stage of the competition. The cream was definitely rising to the top.

During the day yesterday, I encountered some other marvelous Canadians who are reaching far beyond our country to make a difference in the world. I had the privilege of being a digital, online participant (a virtual attendee) in the Open Education Conference in Vancouver, B.C. (#opened09) Dave Cormier was a master communicator who engaged his audience (both online and in the room). His talk had substance, depth, and breadth. People were tweeting about it and watching the Live Stream feed of the session. (Dave is from Prince Edward Island in Canada.) In that session, Dave spoke with Alec Couros who was in the audience. Alec is from Regina, Saskatchewan. He created the diagram of the Networked Teacher as part of his doctoral dissertation which was about the Creative Commons. In CogDogBlog's (Alan Levine) session in the afternoon, once again Alec Couros was mentioned and even highlighted in one of the stories of openness that Alan shared. Alec Couros is another Canadian to be proud of. When I think about digital impact and dancer impact emanating from Canada yesterday, it's time to watch the YouTube video of Oh Canada again. (See Dave Cormier Wow blog post.) That's twice yesterday I was bursting my buttons with delight and joy in fellow Canadians' achievements.

I can see that some Canadian dancers and digital pioneers are poised to impress their world. The question is: How can I make a difference in my immediate world with the new web tools that I have learned about in this class? Where will I begin? Who will I begin with first? What will I do?

Early on in learning about all of these Web 2.0 tools, I felt that I was taking part in a dance. Each new tool was a partner in my dance. Some of those partners stepped all over my toes. Some partners were too tall or too short. Some partnerships felt awkward at first. I didn't know where to put my hands or what to say in the conversation. Some partners held me so close that I felt as though I would smother. However, the more often I danced with some of those partners, the more comfortable I became. I anticipated their moves and followed along. I even contributed some swirls and twirls of my own.

(Can you guess which partner matches up with which dance style? For my classmates in this class, you have probably experienced some of the same feelings.)

Just to continue this analogy or metaphor or simile (please help me, you English teachers) a little bit longer: My blog as a dance partner gazes deeply into my eyes and encourages me to be myself. Sometimes I giggle uncontrollably and other times I begin to speak faster and faster as my words torrent out. Sometimes it is a silent dance as I wonder what to say next. I'm waiting for the next words to tumble forth. Then I overhear a conversation from some of the other dancers in the room which sparks a new topic for engaging with my blog partner.

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My Facebook partner (as you may have guessed) is the one that holds me a little too close, too tightly. I feel claustrophobic and just want to get away. However, lots of my family and friends really like Facebook and encourage me to dance with this partner more often. Dancing with Facebook is like a square dance. There are lots of "bow to your partner" and "do-see-do" and "swing your partner". Sometimes I turn in the wrong direction or trip over my feet. I haven't figured out all of the patterns of this dance. Some of the other square dancers are so skilled. Lots of them are wearing fancy square dancing outfits. I just wear my blue jeans or sometimes even my pyjamas. I just can't be bothered to dress up too much for a dance that befuddles me. I creep in to lurk on the sidelines sometimes, just to make sure my family members and friends are still dancing up a storm. Then I rush out the door again.

My Twitter partner was difficult to dance with at first. He was always rushing off to take a quick turn around the floor with someone else. Then he would rush back and try to pick up our dropped conversation. I often forgot what I had been saying. He wasn't very patient. If I talked too long, he would fall asleep (pretty hard to do when you are dancing) or just simply cut me off. I thought this was really rude at first. I wasn't accustomed to having to distill my thoughts (which always ramble on) into short bursts of quality conversations. I far preferred Twitter's brother Blog as a partner. Blog would listen forever as I carried on about my latest bandwagon topic. However, I gradually began to see that Twitter and Blog were alike (at first I couldn't believe that they were brothers). Both of them loved conversations and loved to listen. It's just that Blog listened only to me while Twitter was listening to my conversation and lots of others. Twitter would often repeat (retweet) things that other dance partners had told him. Don't worry, he wasn't revealing any of their confidences. They all knew that Twitter is a blabbermouth. But he's so charming that people can't resist confiding in him. They know he'll tell the next person everything that you have said. Twitter also introduced me to some of his other partners. We sometimes have direct conversations because he helped us to connect with each other. Because Twitter and Blog are brothers, I sometimes share what Twitter has said to me with Blog. Other times I talk about Blog with Twitter. All in all, I really feel comfortable with this brother duo.

Another dance partner that I enjoyed spending time with was Wiki. Wiki actually invited me out to a special dance party. It's called a barn dance. Did you ever read any Louis L'Amou

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r westerns or other stories of the pioneer days in North America? In those stories there were often community dances. Sometimes they took place in barns. Other times the venue was a country school house or a community hall. Everyone in the community harnessed up the horses and jumped into the wagon and trundled off to the dance. Usually the dances took place in the winter time because in a farming community, that is the least busy time of year (no crops being planted or baby animals to care for). No one stayed at home. Everyone, from grandma to the little six-year-old, came to the dance. So Wiki invited me to a barn dance. I wasn't sure what to expect. However, the barn dance was really well organized. They had lots of chairs sitting around the edges. People could sit in those chairs to talk and discuss things. People could request various songs. The band was excellent and could play all styles of music. Sometimes people argued a little over which song to request next. Usually they just decided to play both songs (not at the same time, of course). And the food!! Have you ever been to a fowl supper in a small prairie town? Let me tell you, those people know how to cook. The food was delicious with such a variety. It seemed as though all of the cooks created their best dishes and laid them out on the table for all to enjoy. Some of the cooks were sharing recipes and asking for helpful hints of how to make the best rhubarb pie and how to use up all the zucchini in the garden next year. I think the perogies were my favourite. Wiki told me that they were a community joint endeavor. That day ten people met in one person's kitchen and had a perogie making assembly line. They discussed the recipe ahead of time. Different participants brought different ingredients. Then they cooked up a storm while talking and visiting all the while. I think it was all the energy and love put into those perogies that made them taste so good. All in all, the dancing with Wiki was fun but my favourite part was being welcomed into that close-knit community.

All this dancing has made me tired. Let me sit down to catch my breath. I need to think about all of those partners. And, by the way, did I tell you that because of all I've learned about dancing, I've been asked to teach a dance class? I hardly know what to think. I don't really know a lot about dancing but people are saying, "You know more than we do. Teach us what you've learned. Then we can figure out more steps together." I'm scared. I don't want to hear any cat calls or jeers. What if I trip or fall flat on my face? Oh well, it's no big deal. I just get up, laugh along with my dance class, make a joke about my klutzy ways, and carry on. I never told them I was an expert. (As kolorkid said yesterday in a tweet, "community is a place where you feel safe [to make mistakes] so you can learn".) I'm a few steps ahead of them, that's all. So which dance should I teach them?

Well, all this dancing is making me dizzy and discombobulated. Time to step outside for a breath of fresh air and some icy cold lemonade.

Here's where I shift gears and stop with the dancing analogy. It was fun for me though and helped me t

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o think about some of my reactions and learning curve with many of these Web 2.0 tools. But where do I go from here? I need to pick a tool and select some people to learn about this tool. The tool I have chosen is the Wiki. I have a slight problem with the people I will work with using this tool. During the next school year, I will be a full-time university student. Therefore I do not have a local school or classroom community to work with. I thought about which groups in the community I could connect with using wikis. The wiki I will use is the wiki I created about the Caswell Homes Project. Check out this wiki at http://caswellhomes.wetpaint.com/

Here's a short introduction to the wiki:

Welcome to the Caswell Homes Project. The Caswell neighbourhood is one of the historic areas in the Prairie city of Saskatoon. Caswell Hill began as the farm of Robert Caswell. After Caswell sold land to developers, many homes were built in the area. Mrs. Ruth Elliott's Grade 5 students at Caswell Community School researched the history of 25 of these homes. The homes were built between 1908 and 1929. Homes were either beautiful or very old or had a story to tell.

The research carried out by the students into homeowners, their occupations, and some of the stories of the homes, is just the beginning. Your assistance is needed to add information and create links so that more stories can be told.

Although this project began with 25 homes, other Caswell residents are welcome to add information about their homes as well.

Contact R Elliott for more information about how to assist with this project.

I created this wiki several weeks ago when I was learning about the use of wikis in education. Since that time, I have not had the opportunity to go back and work on this wiki. However, this wiki brings together several of the ideas that I am passionate about. I'm passionate about community, technology, teaching, and history.

1. I love history and especially local history. There are so many untold stories. Often Canadians think that our stories are boring. They aren't. They are delightful and interesting.

For example, Robert Caswell, the farmer who first lived on the land that later became the Caswell Hill neighbourhood, raised cattle on this land. When the Caswell School was first erected in 1910, it w

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as the era of school gardens. Children were taught to plant and nurture gardens at school. Schools even competed for prizes for their school gardens. Well, imagine the furor when Mr. Caswell's cows got into the school garden at the brand-new Caswell School. I'm sure they made short work of the tender lettuce and bean shoots that delighted the students. Shortly thereafter, a fence was built to keep Mr. Caswell's cows out of the school gardens. I love this local history story.

How will we tell these Canadian history stories? Who will tell them? Many of the senior citizens who know the stories best will soon be passing on to their reward. We need to capture those stories for posterity. Then we should put those stories on the internet for the whole world to discover and enjoy. When I first created this Caswell Homes wiki, I invited my mother-in-law (Mom) to type her story about the streetcars of Saskatoon. She did this and later added to her story. I asked my brother-in-law if he remembered the Saskatoon Arena. I added his remembrance to the wiki. (Both streetcars and the Saskatoon Arena are stories arising from one of the Caswell homes.) However, when I asked Mom if other senior citizens in her apartment building would be able to add their stories to the wiki, she said that most of them do not have or use computers. I know that they have stories but would need assistance to give those stories a digital voice.

How could I include these mini-his and her-stories in the Caswell Homes wiki?

2. I love community. I am delighted with my local place in the world. I live in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. It is a beautiful city with a river running through it and so many bridges spanning the river that Saskatoon has the nickname of "Bridge City". The first foot and vehicle bridge was built in 1907 to join the communities of Nutana, Riversdale, and Saskatoon. These three villages amalgamated in 1906 to create the city of Saskatoon. This bridge is still in use today (102 years later) to join the communities on either side of the river in Saskatoon. I see my wiki as a way to join and celebrate community as well. Could those who are digital natives in our public and high schools help give a digital voice to the stories of those who live on the other side of the digital divide? The senior citizens without computers can use those students who have grown up in a world of mouse clicks and texting as a bridge to move their stories out into the virtual world. Along the way, social media can foster personal and inter-generational connections in the real world.

3. I love technology. I love computers. I especially love creating with computers. (Although I must admit that I play Settlers of Catan at http://games.asobrain.com/ for relaxation.) I have come to realize that I will never know all there is to know about computers and technology. However, what I do know, I will seek to use and pass on to others. During this online class from the University of Alberta, I have learned about many Web 2.0 tools. These now become part of my technology tool kit. I can see that even though I will select the wiki tool from this kit, I can also use photo sharing, video sharing, podcasts, multi media (Voice Thread), Twitter, and even Facebook as part of the wiki.

Recently I visited one of the homeowners of one of the Caswell homes that my students researched. Since my last contact with her, she has unearthed some photographs of Dave King who built her house in 1912 or so. She also has some information about him. Those photographs could be scanned and uploaded to the internet using photo sharing. She could make a podcast to talk about what she knows about him. His photo could even be uploaded

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with Voice Thread so that others in the community could talk about him. I have already had contact with another lady who says that her parents' home, just down the street, was also built by Dave King. That homeowner has a very beautiful house but it needs a paint job. When I first met her, she and her husband told me that they would like to paint the house with Painted Lady colours. I had never heard of Painted Lady houses before. They explained to me that in the early years along the eastern sea coast of the United States, houses were painted with several different colours. They showed me a book of Painted Ladies. Their house would look great painted in these colours. At that time, they asked me if my students could colour some pictures of their house using different combinations of colours to help them decide which colours to use. (At first, I was hoping to have my students sketch each house but we did not do this.) Maybe on the wiki, we could have an artist create a drawing of the house. Then we could have a contest in which children could colour the house. (O.K. I know I'm getting carried away again. There are so many possibilities for creating community using technology.)

4. I love teaching. A few years ago, I was visiting my cousin Wally Stinson. He had a laptop that he was learning to use. Wally was a wonderful man (he has since passed away). He was a teacher who was really involved in the sports community. A few times when I went to visit Wally and his wife Elinor, I gave him some tips about using his computer. His children and grandchildren had also given him some pointers. However, he told me repeatedly that I was the best computer teacher he had ever had. Coming from a master teacher like Wally, that was a high compliment.

So where will I find these lovely people that I am going to teach to use a wiki? I don't have a school this year. I guess I'll have to go out into the highways and the byways and compel them to come in. History + Community + Technology + Teaching. Let me think.

I guess I can't force/compel anyone to join me. However I can invite and entice them. I know that senior citizens have many untold stories that will go to their graves with them if they aren't preserved for posterity. I will invite them to tell their stories. I need to make the technology part of it really simple for them. I know

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there are many senior citizens who are volunteers at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon. (My mother-in-law is one of them.) Maybe I will contact the Education Coordinator there to see what we can dream up. (Picture shows interior of a streetcar at the Western Development Museum) Perhaps they would be willing to get the word out to the volunteers. Then I could meet them at the Western Development Museum and make podcasts of some of their stories. However, I want to teach them to use the technology as well. The Saskatoon Public Library has computers for the public to use. They also offer classes for seniors and other adult computer users. I will contact them to partner with them. Maybe I can teach a class for them and invite senior citizens to share their stories. Then I can teach them how to go on the internet to look for their stories. The Saskatoon Public Library also has a Local History Room. I'm going to see whether they would like to be involved. After all, they are in the business of preserving hyperlocal history stories. I have contacts there because my students used their resources to unearth the history of each of the Caswell Homes.

Who else could be part of this wiki community? I know the Saskatoon City Archives manager. I will talk to him. As well, there is the Saskatoon Heritage Committee. They publish a magazine four times a year. Maybe they would like a digital way to tell their stories. I know several people on that committee. I will call them.

This year I will be a student at the University of Saskatchewan. There are several avenues I could run down seeking assistance. Yesterday Alec Couros put me in touch with another Twitter user in Saskatoon, Richard Schwier of the University of Saskatchewan. He works in the educational technology area in the College of Education. I will talk with him about this project. He may have some ways of recruiting student help. I could also offer free classes to education students--perhaps about podcasts or contributing to a wiki. They could help the senior citizens record their stories. (Just a little aside, after the Caswell Homes Project, many of my students and their families grew very interested in Saskatoon history. A side benefit of helping to tell other people's stories is that you begin to value those stories as your own.)

What about the Saskatoon Public School Division, my employer? We have an online learning center. I will get in touch with the leader there. She will have some ideas for me about how to involve our public school students in this project. I think we will receive some media

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attention if all goes as planned. School divisions like that. I'm sure there are elementary and high school teachers who are looking for a project to latch on to. I could volunteer to do some team teaching with the classroom teachers. We have a computer lab downtown in the school board office that could be used if need be. Our high schools have been going through a restructuring and re-envisioning process. I know the man in charge. I will contact him to see where this project may fit in. Actually, while I think about it, why not include the Saskatoon Separate School Divison as well? (The Catholic School system) A few years ago, the city's Heritage Advisory Committee chairman wrote me a letter. He told me that they had reviewed the 400 pages of information from the Caswell Homes project. He commended m

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e for this project and asked if I was willing to work with the public and catholic school systems to teach others how to do a similar project. I was too busy at the time to respond to this request. Maybe this is the year to respond.

Earlier this week, in a discussion post (not in my blog), I talked about "Riffing on a Chord". This is what I like to do in my blog posts. Grab a chord and improvise. Make up a melody and some harmonies to go along with that chord. As I have been writing this post about what comes next in my use and teaching of technology I have been riffing on the chord about the dance. I don't believe that I am an expert dancer with technology or web tools--not like Will Richardson, Alec Couros, or Dave Cormier. Yet I am willing to gather people around me who would like to learn and teach them what I know. So let's keep dancing. Shall we dance?

From Zero to Hero in less than a day

On Friday morning I did not know what a podcast was. I wrote my panicky post about snap or snow peas (in a pod?). Then I got down to business. By 1:00 a.m. I had created a podcast and uploaded it to my blog. I'm really not much of a hero since I had lots of help along the way. So what was the process that I went through to figure out this new web tool.

First of all, I read our textbook (Richardson, 2006) to see what Will had to say. I felt so much better when I realized that a podcast was like a radio show. I understand radio. When I was a little girl living in southern Saskatchewan, my parents had an old radio similar to the one in the picture. (House on the corner image, Flickr) My parents loved to listen to the news, especially on CBC radio. What I liked best was the children's radio show that came on every morning after breakfast. We didn't have a television (my parents didn't think it was good for kids) so I got my media fix by sitting listening to the show with its songs and stories every morning before I went out to play on the swing or see-saw outside. I don't know the name of the show and my parents are both gone so I can't ask them.

A little later, when I was entering my teen years, I discovered that there was music o

Frank Sinatra via last.fm

n the radio (not just the classical stuff my parents listened to). The first song I fell in love with was by Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy "Somethin' Stupid Like I Love You". This song was a hit in 1967. I found a You Tube video of the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdSER1tvPTQ&feature=related

I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that podcasting was "the creation and distribution of amateur radio" (Richardson, 2006, p. 112). As I went through the Trailfire videos, I realized that it was relatively simple--you needed a way to record audio; you needed to change that audio file into an MP3 file; you needed space on a server to store the MP3 file; you needed a blog to post the podcast to; and lastly, it was helpful to have something to say.

Since I usually have something to say, I started thinking about what I should do with my podcasting power. At first I thought that I could sing harmonies with a CD that my sister, Dorothea, had recorded five years ago. However, that day, besides working on this class, I was trying to finish up a project that was four years old. That project was the Caswell Homes project. Over four years ago, I was teaching in a gifted education class at the Caswell Community School. The Caswell Hill neighbourhood is one of the older neighbourhood's in the

Image by PatTorfe via Flickr

city of Saskatoon. As I was driving through the neighbourhood, I noticed once again how beautiful many of the homes were. I thought, "My new Grade five students next year should research some of these beautiful homes". I got a committee of senior citizens together--those who knew a lot about the neighbourhood. With their help, I selected 25 homes (one for each of my students). The homes had to be old or beautiful or have a story to tell. All were built between 1908 and 1929. Gordie Howe lived in one home. A streetcar crashed into one home. An elderly man was murdered in one home. My students used Henderson Directories to discover who had lived in each house throughout its history. Then they uncovered stories related to the houses or someone who had lived in the houses. One student told the story of the Tidy Diaper Service. Another told the story of a homeowner/dairy farmer who watered down his milk with water from his contaminated well. Ten people contracted typhoid fever and he was charged with a crime.

At one point in this entire process, a community member asked me to rewrite the Caswell Hill walking tour using stories from these houses. I never had time to do this.

Last Friday, I was finally going around to all of the houses from this research project to deliver a final report. The report included a database giving all the dates with the homeowners for each house. Students had interviewed community members and neighbours to uncover stories about the houses. The stories for each house were included in the report.

After walking around the neighbourhood to deliver the reports, those stories and the walking tour idea were in my thoughts on Friday evening as I wondered what I could say on a podcast. Blink, the lights went on--why not make a walking tour podcast? In fact, I could see this as something very workable as a real project. Next year, Caswell School is celebrating its 100th Anniversary. Possibly I could organize five mini-walking tours which would fan out from the school. People could download the podcasts for each tour and listen to the podcast at each house. (You can tell that I get carried away with ideas quite often. I figure that, as Howard Hendricks said long ago, "If [I] want somebody else to bleed, [I need] to hemorrhage." [1973, p. 46])

That evening I began working on making a podcast. One difficulty I encountered was that this was the first web tool for which I needed to use new hardware. (I'm not good with the hardware--where to plug things in, etc.) I needed a microphone to hook up to my computer. I called on my husband and my daughter who helped get a microphone working for me. Then I recorded my first podcast and saved it on my hard drive. Richardson (2006) suggested downloading Audacity which I did. On the Audacity site, it suggested downloading Lame to turn my file into an MP3 file. I did all of this but then ran into difficulties uploading my MP3 to the internet. I went to the OurMedia.org site but after filling in the registration form, was left hanging in cyberspace for a long time. I turned to Google for help. When I typed in MP3 and upload, I was given many choices for additional help. I quickly realized that it was difficult if not impossible to upload MP3 or audio podcasts into blogger. It would be easier if I had a blog through wordpress which allows the user to upload podcasts. I came across a very complicated way in which I could attach my podcast to a picture and then upload the podcast as a vodcast or video file. It was very complicated plus I wanted to upload a podcast.

Then, thanks to Adam Taha's YouTube video called How to Upload Your MP3 on your Blogger or Wordpress Step by Step, I was able to upload my podcast directly into my blog. (Once again the collective wisdom of the internet comes through.) Adam recommended using divshare.com (which took the place of OurMedia.org). I was so pleased when my podcast was in place. I inserted two pictures of the houses that I talked about in the podcast and went off to bed (at 2:00 a.m.) delighted and feeling successful.

I can see why Richardson (2006) suggests creating a podcast and uploading it for yourself before asking your students to do it. It can be a very time-consuming and frustrating process. However, in the end, it is very satisfying to be able to create something personal in this way. I am tickled pink with my production.

References:
Hendricks, H. (1973). Say it with love. Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books.
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.