Haugen’s Tech Tips Blog

• Create Your Own Podcast – A step-by-step tutorial on podcasting from About.com
• Educational Podcasting – Extensive list of podcasting resources, from Gary Stager. Links to tutorials, articles and tools.
• PoducateMe – Practical Solutions for Podcasting in Education
• Gcast – Create your own audio broadcast online, where you can easily record voice messages, mix in your favorite music, and share it all for the world to hear. Includes ‘Podcasting 101′ tutorial.
• Podcasting Toolbox – From Mashable.com, a list of over 70 podcasting tools and resources
• Podsafe Music Network
• Ziepod, Your Podcast Receiver and Player
• Willowdale Elementary – WillowWeb – Web site for Willowdale Elementary, publishers of Radio WillowWeb, a podcast by and for students
• Voices Of The World – Voices Of The World was created by Sharon Tonner to connect children from around the world using their voices rather than the standard text and images and prepare them for their globalised future.
• Voices Of The World – Voices Of The World is a global project uniting children’s voices from around the world, with a different task each month for students to contribute to.
• Student Self-Advocacy | Don Johnston Incorporated – Video podcasts by students who are advocating for the tools they need to address their unique learning styles and needs.

We’ve just had our first of two weekend workshops for students interested in stop motion animation with Legos and other stuff. I worked with 2 students (4th & 5th grade) who helped lead the workshop, and another 5th grader who signed on for tech support. With 14 other 4th and 5th graders as our students, we piled into school on a Saturday to build sets, set up cameras, and snap away as each group of kids patiently moved their Legos and clay one step at a time until their stories were complete. Next weekend, we’ll pop the photos into iPhoto albums and then into iMovie, adjust playback timing, add sound tracks and sound effects, titles and more.

Our goal is to create a DVD with all the movies that we can then copy and give as gifts to friends and family during the holiday season.

When I work with kids in this way, I am always so impressed by their enthusiasm, hard work and creativity, as well as their willingness to work with and help one another.

We have created a wiki for our program, which you can explore at:

edisonanimators.wikispaces.com/

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!

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!

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