Proofreading with Podcasts

Over at Blogical Minds Mrs. C is trying out a new way to foster better proofreading by the students. The teacher prepared podcasts of their stories as written and posted this on the class blog:

I see your writing as a good start because you have your preliminary ideas on the blog. Now we need to do an initial proofing of your stories. This is something we need to talk about a bit. If you are proof-reading with only your eyes your writing may seem to flow and be OK. I think many times we read it as we are thinking it should sound and don’t always catch errors. What do you think? Sometimes those little bumps and hurdles that the eye does not catch can show up when you proof by reading aloud and listening. Let’s have a little fun today. I am going to do a podcast of each one of your stories. Then you will listen and we’ll all give feedback on this process.

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Memeorandum and Newsmap and?

In the never ending search for more mixes and matches of blogs, RSS and “real” news come two pretty creative (I think) entries to the tool box in Memeorandum and Newsmap.

Let me just say that Memeorandum, which takes ral headlines and displays them above blogger reactions, is especially interesting to me as it’s the first step down the road of bringing blogs and old media together in the “newfangled news tangle” format. I like having the news next to the views; I only wish there was some way that I could select which news items I’m interested in and the bloggers whose opining I’d like to follow. It’s also another step down the RSS as textbook road that David Warlick had (brought here via Jenny, who wants
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Missing out on critical skills

At the beginning of this year I gave a technology survey to a nearby high school class. One of the questions I asked was “When using a website for educational purposes do you have a method for evaluating if the information is reliable, valid, accurate, worthwihile to use? If you do have a method, be as specific as you can. Think of questions you might ask yourself or steps you take.” Here are their answers:

I just read it. Read the rest of this entry »