Haugen’s Tech Tips Blog

In preparing for a podcasting workshop this week, I’ve been collecting new podcasting tutorials.  Some helpful finds:

• How to Podcast: Four Basic Steps – Plan, produce, publish, promote…
• How to Podcast – from Podcasting Tools
• Howstuffworks “How to Create Your Own Podcast”
• Make Your First Podcast
• How to Create Your Own Podcast – A Step-by-Step Tutorial on Podcasting

Most of these tutorials rely on Audacity and the LAME encoder. The workshop I’m leading will use Garage Band and iTunes (part of iLife ‘08), since those tools are the focus of a yearlong series of trainings for the teachers I’m working with.  I’ll post links to those materials at a later date!

Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic

• Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic – For 60 years, RFB&D, a national nonprofit, volunteer organization, has produced accessible educational materials for students with disabilities that make reading standard print difficult or impossible. Titles available in every subject area and grade level from kindergarten through graduate studies.
• Digital Talking Book Player Software Victor Reader Soft – While many people access RFB&D materials on special portable players, HumanWare provides software for Mac and PC which allow students to use their books on a computer as well.

As I approach a new session of my after school publishing program, I decided to use a wiki to see if I could help make the process clearer to students and give them more opportunities to work independently. My Edison Student Publishers Wiki includes information about the program, and tips to help my 3rd-5th grade students:

• Choose a Project – news, reviews, interviews, puzzles, comics, jokes, etc.
• Find News or Information – web sites, people, papers, etc.
• Find Help with Writing – news, poetry, fiction, more
• Find or Make Images – photos, drawings, online tools, more
• Make a Puzzle – links to puzzlemaker, our puzzle starters and more
• Work on Layout – under construction

I’m excited about how this program is evolving and the wonderful, creative work kids can do. I’m new to wikis and I think this may be the first one I’ve done that approaches being useful! I’d love any feedback or suggestions on improving this kind of resource.

With student publishing projects in mind, and my own projects as well, I was recently reminded of one very cool site, Lulu.com , which lets you self-publish your own books in a way that books are produced and shipped ‘as needed.’  I have a dream of putting together many of the resources I’ve developed over the years into just such a book.  One of the appeals of on-demand publishing, I think, is bridging the gap between print and digital tools.  In an on-demand environment, I can more easily update time-sensitive writing, especially on technology topics.  However, that does beg the question of what is a book, when it can change so easily!  So many (fun) new problems to solve!

In response to a query from a teacher on behalf of her first grader who wants to ‘get into publishing,’ here are some links to online sites that encourage or allow students to publish their work online:

• Tips for children publishing on the Internet. | NetAlert – From the Australian government, a helpful set of safety and design tips for any students who would like to publish their creations on the web.
• Young Writer’s Clubhouse – The young writer’s clubhouse gives you tips on how to be a writer, from author Deborah Morris. Join the Critique Group to share poems and stories you’ve written and share feedback with other kid writers.
• KidPub – Read stories other kids have written, or join KidPub (for a fee) to publish your stories online.
• Stone Soup – Read what kids write or submit your own stories to this classy magazine.
• Young Writers Association – this is a local stop for those of us in Eugene, OR.