Inquiry Project Proposal

Rationale

As a tech user, my greatest area of weakness is in audio and video podcasting.  As a teacher-librarian, my greatest weakness is in creating a rich content for my website, Ning (2011) and other online projects.  As a student, my greatest weakness is making headway in getting organized and becoming paperless.   With these combined weaknesses, I am approaching this project with these three roles in my life combined.    I plan to explore and create rich content for my online presences both personally and professionally using: Voicethread (2011), Audacity (2011) and Jing (2011) for media creation, and Diigo(2011), Glogster (2011) and Evernote (2011) for digital information management.

Goals

My goals for this project include the following:

• Being able to complete this course without printing any documents by using bookmarking and note taking tools online like Diigo(2011) and Evernote (2011)
• Adding rich self-created multi-media content to my online presence both personally and professionally  specifically through Jing (2011) and Audacity (2011)
• Garnering a wider audience to my online sites through the tracking of statistics in my followers such as my Twitter(2011) followers and my Klout (2011) score
• Creating a more interactive presence with my online audience by creating non-linear path structures like Glogster(2011) and new comment tools like Voicethread(2011)

I will be working outside of my comfort zone, and each new tool will build on my previous learning in online tools.

Timeline

I plan to give each different online tool one week for learning and experimentation.  I’m beginning with the most necessary tools first, which are for further research and organization.  Next I’ll work on multimedia tools and implement them in my various online sites.  Then I will finalize my evidence and select the best examples of what I’ve tried to demonstrate my understanding of them.  The following table shows in red the self-created timeline goals for this inquiry project.

Evidence of Learning

Voicethread

I was first introduced to Voicethread(2011)  this summer when one of my classmates used it to generate discussion in the form of comments throughout her Voicethread(2011)  presentation.  My idea is to use Voicethread(2011)  as a sort of online booktalk with my students.  However, I think it might also be a nice way to encourage responses on my personal blog, my Wikispaces(2011) and in my Ning(2011). Voicethread is visual, it is interactive and user-friendly.  I’ve never made one so my evidence of learning will be to show two examples:  one that has garnered comments from my online PLN, and one that has garnered comments from my school community.

Audacity

I live in a PC world.  Every board-licensed computer in my library is a PC, and we don’t have any Macs in my home.  Even though I know that Garageband(2011) is a more sophisticated tool for editing audio, I need to become comfortable with doing this on a PC.  I plan to use Audacity(2011)  to create sophisticated podcasts.  I would like to add these to my blog, wikispaces and Nings to make them richer in my own personalization, and also to get more attention.   I have a new online contact, Ben Hazzard, who is my role model for podcasting and pubishing these, although he uses a Mac (2008).  The evidence of my learning will be a podcast that includes voice, music and sound effects.

Jing

Jing(2011) is a screen capture tool that allows you to record your screen movements as well as your voice to create a video.  The best examples I’ve seen of Jing(2011) have been through conferences on education technology specifically for e-learning teachers.  However, since more and more of my communication is being done online as a student, as a librarian and in my Professional Learning Network (PLN), I’d like to be able to use screen capture video to help me with instruction.  Here are some additional uses that I’d like to try from the Jing(2011) homepage.

The evidence of my learning with Jing(2011) will to be to create a personal Jing which I will share on my blog, and a professional Jing(2011) which I will share on my library Googlesite(2011).

Diigo

I have only really been using Google Reader(2011) and Twitter(2011) for about a year.  Maybe it is because I’m a librarian, but I am so hungry for information and reading that I’ve ended up overwhelming myself by the number of things that I want to keep track of.  In my first class of the M.Ed. program this summer, I printed out 900 pages of material to read.  I read everything with a highlighter and then re-typed the quotes I needed into my paper.  More than ever, I can see a real need to streamline my process.  I’m hoping the ability of Diigo(2011) to bookmark, highlight and comment on webdocuments will help me get there.  Apparently Diigo(2011) can also be a collaborative tool for researching in groups.  If I can master being more productive online, then this learning will directly transfer to my staff and students.  The best way I can show you my learning, is with a before and after.  This is my Diigo (2011) library now, before the inquiry project has begun.  It’s empty, void of useful objects save one to give you an idea of the potential.

Glogster

I like symmetry and lists in many areas of my life, but one area that I rarely share is that I love to archive my family and friend’s history in scrapbooks.  On a scrapbook page, I’m not so conscientious of lists and symmetry.  Instead I focus on artistic elements like balance and colour schemes and adding 3-D elements.  I haven’t yet figured out how to do this online.  I hope the visual appeal of Glogster(2011) to help with organization will help me create a more artistic look to my online presence.  I can also see it appealing to the adolescent population of students I work with.  The evidence of my learning will be to add Glogster(2011) to my personal website, which I will link to my inquiry blog, and to add a Glogster(2011) page to my Googlesite.

Evernote

Evernote(2011) is like Diigo(2011) in that it is fundamentally an organization tool, but it allows you to use to keep track of images and syncs with your smartphone.  Personally, I want to create a giant plan for my potager (my decorative vegetable garden) and professionally, I hope that I can recommend this to students as another productivity tool.  For students, a phone is often their only handy tech tool.  I’m hoping that using Evernote(2011) will help them to better build and maintain projects.  Evidence of my learning will again be a before and after shot of my Evernote(2011) library, specifically focused on my potager.

Overall, I suspect that my learning in Diigo(2011) and Evernote(2011) will greatly influence my work with Audacity(2011), Jing(2011), Diigo(2011) and Glogster(2011).  This is the ultimate inquiry project, where as the teacher I can institute a personally-tailored unit plan for my student.  The student is also me, and I get to achieve a level 4 in each area of my own rubric by accomplishing these goals.

References

Audacity [Computer software]. (2011). Retrieved from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Berger, P., & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing web 2.0 tools for learning and teaching in a digital world. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Diigo [Computer software]. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.diigo.com

Evernote [Computer software]. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.evernote.com/

Fontichiaro, K. (2008). Podcasting at school. Westport, CN: Libraries Unlimited.

Garageband [Computer software]. (2011). Apple Inc.

Glogster [Computer software]. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.glogster.com/

Google Reader [Computer software]. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.google.com/‌reader

Googlesite [Computer software]. (2011). Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/

Hazzard, B. (2008). Podcasts. In learning, together. Retrieved from http://benhazzard.com/‌?page_id=4

Jing [Computer software]. (1995-2011). Retrieved from http://www.techsmith.com/‌jing/

Kist, W. (2010). The socially networked classroom: teaching in the new media age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Klout [Computer software]. (2011). Retrieved from http://klout.com

Ning [Computer software]. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.ning.com

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Twitter [Computer software]. (2011). Retrieved from http://twitter.com

Voicethread [Computer software]. (2007-11). Retrieved from http://voicethread.com/

Wikispaces [Computer software]. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.wikispaces.com/