"Speaking of History" C4T Summary

"Speaking of History" is a blog by Eric Langhorst, which deals with history, education, and technology. Mr. Langhorst is an 8th grade History teacher in Liberty, Missouri. I have been following his post for the last two weeks.

The first post that I followed was entitled "MSTA 2010- Improving Parent Communication." He first talks about what and how you want to communicate to parents. A few examples of the things to be shared are schedules, grades, and assignments. He goes on to say that these should not only be communicated to parents, but also to principles, students, co-workers, and teachers aides. He also notes, that sending parents study guides and notes can help parents help students. He adds that communication should be both ways and that teachers should ask parents to get involved in teaching opportunities.

I commented on a few key points from his power point presentation. I liked the idea of sending out schedules and assignments in emails and having them online. I think this helps everyone stay organized. I also agree that communication should be available both ways. Parents need ways to talk back to the teacher. Finally I thought it was a great idea to ask parents to get involved in learning opportunities. Variety should always be accepted in learning plans and daily activities.

The second post that I followed was entitled "2010 MSTA- Building your PLN." A PLN is a personal learning network. In this blog Mr. Longhorst, teaches his audience about social networking devices and online tools. He first describes twitter and text talk, as well as why twitter is useful. He then talks about delicious and how it works. Next, he shows Flickr, with examples and how educators can use it in the classroom. He then goes on to explain blogs and even features his as an example. He then talks about video tools, including Skype and You Tube. Podcasts, Google, and Google applications are last on his list of educational tools. Finally he leaves his tips and advice for building your own PLN.

I commented on the aspects of his presentation which were most benificial to me. I appreciated that he had detailed descriptions and picture examples of the learning networks. While I have new accounts in all of the networks for EDM 310, Mr. Langhorst presentation helped me to understand how to use some of them. I also commented on the fact that he included links to all of the social networks he referenced. He made it far more organized and less time consuming than it could have been.

Speaking of History Blog
My Class Blog