DL Workshops

Blogging, YouTube, and ITunes

This workshop will address the benefits of using Blogging, YouTube, and ITunes U in online courses. We will provide a list of resources as well as web sites where software can be downloaded, along with directions on how to harness these web resources for use in online classes. The goal of this presentation is to provide all the information that online faculty need to get started on Blogging, YouTube and ITunes U for instructional purposes. We will be showing examples of instructional videos uploaded into YouTube and embedded into online classes, podcasts (and enhanced podcasts) in ITunes U and student blogs used for ePortfolio’s. This is a hand-on workshop and all participants will have an opportunity to search for and identify viable instructional video and audio content and embed it into a Blackboard in addition to setting up an instructional Blog.

Part I

Blogging for Instructional Purposes

Blogging is a great way to supplement your online class and get students engaging each other on a variety of topics. I incorporate student Blogs in my 2nd year Photography Courses. It can also be used to keep journals, document activities and projects, post articles, stories and research for you and other students to view and possibly respond to based on the parameters that you set for the course and the blog. Moodle has a built in Blog feature. The following are some examples of my student blogs

“A blog (short for weblog) is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs are defined by their format: a series of entries posted to a single page in reverse-chronological order. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or reflect the purpose of the Web site that hosts the blog. Topics sometimes include brief philosophical musings, commentary on Internet and other social issues, and links to other sites the author favors, especially those that support a point being made on a post.

The author of a blog is often referred to as a blogger. Many blogs syndicate their content to subscribers using RSS, a popular content distribution tool.”

Things to Avoid with Instructional Blogging

Blogging in the Classroom – Instructor Options

The following are some examples of my student ePortfolio Blogs

Chalice Mills – Photo Student

Shannon Ayers – Graduate of Photography Program

Haulin in the Net – K-12 Blogs

Hands-On Time – Blog the Workshop

Let’s create a Blog.

Go to www.wordpress.com – Click sign-up now

Watch this Screen Cast on How to Create Your Own Blog

Once you have created your blog go ahead and post your welcome and I will demonstrate how to upload a picture and other media.

Part II

“A popular Web video sharing site that lets anyone store short videos for private or public viewing. Founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, it was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion. YouTube provides a venue for sharing videos among friends and family as well as a showcase for new and experienced videographers. Featuring videos it considers entertaining, YouTube has become a destination for ambitious videographers, as well as amateurs who fancy making a statement of some kind.

Videos are streamed to users on the YouTube site (www.youtube.com) or via blogs and other Web sites. YouTube provides specific code for playing each video that can be embedded on a Web page of a third-party site.”

You Tube is an amazing video content resource for instructors from all disciplines. Like the internet, there is a lot of mediocre or just plane bad content out there, however there is also a wealth of excellent instructional video that you can embed into your online classes. As online instructors we also must act as editors (facilitators) and search for the very BEST video content on the web then incorporate it into our teaching strategies. Adding video content also enables us to tap into other learning styles (visual & audio)I n our online classes. The main issue over and above finding and embedding viable instructional video content in YouTube or Teacher Tube is to also assess that students are both using it and learning from it. Video clips are a great way to kick off a discussion in the discussion forum or to reinforce the key points from a weeks lesson.

Other Instructional Video Resources

DoFlick (Science and Math Videos)

Teacher Tube

Show some examples of how instructional videos are embedded directly into both Blackboard and Moodle.

Linking video’s vs. embedding (Demonstration)

Click Here for Screencast on HOW TO embed video directly into Blackboard.

Step-by Step on HOW TO create your own YouTube account where you can create your own videos and enhanced podcasts and upload them into YouTube. I do this for almost all my classes. This can be for quick video announcements or more sophisticated productions.

Part III

There are many benefits to being an Itunes U college, however the process and set-up can take from 6 months to a year depending on your IT staff. Having a college specific Itunes U site enables each department and course to have their own folder on Itunes that can store podcasts and enhanced podcasts that students can download to their MP3 players. Itunes has a built in RSS feed so whenever the instructor uploads a new podcast or video podcast it downloads directly to all the students who have subscribed to that instructor’s Itunes U folder.

You can either produce your own instructional media and upload it into Itunes U for your students or if you are NOT an Itunes U college there is a vast amount of viable instructional content that you can download and incorporate (embed) into your course blackboards.

I will demonstrate both ways of doing this and then workshop participants can search for appropriate podcasts in Itunes and save as MP3’s and embed into their classes.

Apple Web Site to apply to be Itunes U College

CCC ITunes U Instructor Upload

ScreenCast for uploading Podcasts to ItunesU

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