We have been learning about many different Web 2.0 tools throughout this semester, both for teacher and student use. However, it is important to take time to think about how to make sure that these tools are being used safely and responsibly. Internet safety "is about more than not publishing children's names and pictures on the Internet or permitting students to access obscene content online...safety is now about responsibility, appropriateness, and common sense as well" (Richardson, 2010, p. 12). Two major aspects of Internet safety are simply interacting with the web and the more interactive task of publishing online. 

When interacting with the web, there is always the potential for students to come across inappropriate content. Some schools and districts try to solve this problem by putting in place various filters and blockers that prevent students from accessing a large amount of inappropriate content. However, this simultaneously prevents students from accessing pertinent and useful information and tools that happen to be lumped together with the bad. It is also not a fool-proof way to avoid this inappropriate content - sometimes the bad stuff has a way of sneaking past these filters, despite best efforts to prevent this from happening. I think it is better to teach students how to seek appropriate information and what to do in the event that they accidentally come across inappropriate content, rather than taking it upon yourself to protect them from everything. Although I do not yet have any children of my own, I believe the same can be said for many things regarding child safety. As the saying goes, give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime. Likewise, if we teach our students how to be responsible members of the Internet community, then they will be much more successful as they grow and become more independent.

When students publish to the web, the first matter of importance is protecting students' privacy. As Richardson (2010) explains, "Most states now have laws that require parents to decide on how much personal information about their children may be published on the school Web site" (p. 13). Our school has a similar form, although we have found that this permission form is not specific enough. Called the "Student Publicity Release Permission Form," it simply gives parents the option to allow or forbid that pictures of their students be published, without specifically stating where they may be published or why. Some parents interpret this to mean that their students' pictures can be published in the yearbook, some parents believe it means their students' pictures can be published in a local newspaper, and even others understand it to mean that their students' pictures can be published to the web. We already have a plan in place next year to make this form more specific and to include the safety precautions that will be in place for each level, e.g. not using students' last names and using pseudonyms for students with unique first names. This can help balance protecting the students' anonymity with the sense of pride and ownership that students feel when they publish to a worldwide audience online (Richardson, 2010, p. 14).

As I stated earlier, I think that teaching students about online responsibility is a better strategy for ensuring Internet safety than trying to take on the task of protecting students behind the scenes. Luckily, there are many resources available that help teachers in this venture. For example, Common Sense Media has created a K-12 curriculum for digital literacy and citizenship, including topics such as Internet safety, privacy and security, relationships and communication, cyberbullying, digital footprint and reputation, self-image and identify, information literacy, and creative credit and copyright. This goes hand-in-hand with a second strategy for keeping students safe on the Internet, which is professional development. In addition to their digital literacy curriculum, Common Sense Media has also created several resources for professional development in the area of Internet safety, including training on their curriculum, a MOOC (massive open online course) for digital citizenship, webinars, in-person trainings, online communities, e.g. Edmodo, and even a certification program. ReadWriteThink has also created professional development materials for Internet safety, including strategy guides, a professional library of resources, meetings and events, and convenient online professional development. Some schools or districts such as mine may also have a subscription to the online professional development powerhouse known as PD 360, which has countless articles, videos, courses, and other resources for Internet safety professional development. Another strategy for teaching Internet safety is parent outreach to help parents and caregivers understand how to discuss these topics with their children and reinforce what is being taught in the schools. Common Sense Media has once again provided materials for parent outreach, as has the FBI, the National PTA, and many other organizations. 


Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Publishers.

Screencasting is a way to capture anything that is happening on your computer screen while adding audio narration. This simple idea can have great implications on teaching and learning, both for students and colleagues. For example, a teacher could use screencasting to easily guide others through an otherwise unfamiliar computer program with a running narrative that describes what is happening and/or how to use that program. This is a major step up from the countless screen-shots-with-annotations-tutorials I have seen over the years, both because of how easy screencasts are to create and how easy they are to consume. In some ways it is also better than an in-person demonstration of computer-based tools and software because it can reach a much wider audience at any time, rather than a small, live audience at a particular time. In this way, screencasting is much like podcasting. 

As a music teacher, screencasting can prove to be very helpful for introducing various tools to other music teachers in remote locations, i.e. different school buildings. It could also be helpful for guiding students through tasks within a particular application. In this way, screencasting can be used to aid pacing and differentiation. For example, if a project contained several steps both on and off the computer, students could watch a screencast of the computer-based tasks without having to wait for the rest of the class to be ready for a demonstration at the same time. Teachers can also create screencasts of various resources within a Webquest to help students navigate through the those resources. Because of its ease of use, students could create their own screencasts as well, perhaps to explain a computer-based project they created or to help other students with a particular tool they enjoy. There are also other ways to use screencasting beyond just the computer screen. In this blog post, Richard Byrne explains how he created a screencast from his iPad. This can open up even more possibilities of guiding students and colleagues through various instructional apps as well. 

There are many websites and applications that can facilitate screncasting, but the two I used were Jing and Screencast-o-Matic. Both make screencasting very simple, but I think Screencast-o-Matic has a slight edge over Jing. First, it can be used directly from their website without the need to download an application (however, the Jing application is free). Second, it allows users to easily turn their screencasts into embeddable videos, rather than just embeddable links. I used Screencast-o-Matic to create the following demonstration of a program called Finale Notepad to guide my students through setting up their first document. 

My first experience with Google Docs came a few years ago when I was a co-maid of honor for my best friend's wedding. The other maid of honor established a few spreadsheets and documents to keep track of guest list information, reception ideas, etc. Every time she, the bride, or I would need to make a change, we didn't have to worry about finding the most recent version of the document, because Google Docs automatically saves any changes in real time, even if more than one person is working on the document simultaneously. The first time the bride and I were simultaneously working on a document and saw her making changes in real time on my computer screen, I was blown away! I had to call her to make sure I wasn't making it up in my head! Since then I have created and shared several Google Docs in different formats (spreadsheets, presentations, word documents, etc.) both for professional and personal purposes. I sometimes convert my documents to Google Docs simply to have access to them on two different computers, without having to keep emailing attachments to myself. 

Although I am familiar with Google Docs, I have not yet used them with my students. One of the easiest and most useful ways to incorporate Google Docs with my classroom teaching is to create a form. I could design a form to act as an assessment, in which each student enters in his/her name and responses to various questions. The responses are then represented in a spreadsheet that generates results for the whole class. With 700+ students, this would make data analysis a much more efficient process. Another idea is to have students use Google Docs to collaborate on a report. I could create and share documents with small groups of students, assign each group a topic, e.g. different composers, and monitor their collaboration. This would be especially effective for out-of-classroom use, as we only have 45 minutes per week for Music class. If the students could collaborate on a music report outside of the classroom, we would be better equipped to maximize in-class instructional time. This report could be in the form of a word document or a presentation. I have created and embedded an example below. 

Wikipedia defines online social networks as web-based platforms to build social networks or social relations among people who share interests, activities, backgrounds, real-life connections, or other connections. This is different from other tools with various social features (tagging, sharing, commenting, etc.) in that it allows two parties to establish or define a connection. For example, Twitter allows for one-way connection in which the follower and followee do not necessarily know each other or establish an ongoing two-way communication. With social networks, however, "friends" share mutual benefits of two-way communication and linking to each other's networks. 

Different social networks can be used for different purposes. Facebook, perhaps the most well-known and widely used social network, allows its users to establish connections for both personal and professional purposes. LinkedIn allows professionals to establish and maintain a network of colleagues and other professionals. Edmodo allows educators to connect with each other, and even more usefully, with their students. 

I have had an Edmodo profile for a year or so to establish connections with fellow teachers, but I have not yet used it to connect with my students. Although it is approved for classroom use in Fulton County, my school is still hesitant to take the next step. Some administrators, teachers, and parents are worried that Edmodo could be used as a platform for online bullying. However, the same can be said for many of the other tools we have learned about this semester. I believe if our school is to move forward with 21st century teaching and learning, we must find a way to tackle these issues from a teaching standpoint. 

Luckily, Edmodo makes it very easy to assure this type of problem will not be a problem at all. The site provides an option for the teacher to receive a notification the instant that a new comment is created, allowing teachers to keep track of student activity. Students' names are tied to everything they post, so there is no anonymous posting. While teachers and students can exchange one-on-one messages, this private messaging feature is disabled for student-to-student communication. Additionally, parents are invited to join to keep a "bird's eye view" on the class activities - they can see the posts from the teacher and their own student. All of this accountability would make it very foolish for a student to attempt to abuse Edmodo as a platform for bullying. 

Assuming my school changes its policy and allows students and teachers to connect online using Edmodo, I can think of many ways it could benefit my classroom. In an earlier post I mentioned that I would love to harness the power of Web 2.0 tools to get my General Music students thinking about music beyond our weekly 45 minutes together. Edmodo would clearly fall into this category. I could post assignments, discussion topics, surveys, videos, etc. to get students actively connecting their learning outside the classroom. Edmodo has several free and paid apps that could be useful for student learning as well. For example, I found their free flashcard app to be very interesting - teachers or students can customize their own sets of flashcards to study vocabulary terms right on the Edmodo site. Edmodo allows teachers the ability to create groups for whole classes and also for small groups to facilitate differentiation. For even more ideas, I enjoyed this blog post from Richard Byrne in which he lists 15 classroom uses for Edmodo. To implement Edmodo in our school, there are several built-in training guides and startup materials, including quick guides, permission slips, codes of conduct, parent letters, training videos, and more. Below is an example of a training video that shows teachers how to assure safety and digital citizenship within their student groups.

There is another "social network" aimed at educators called Classroom 2.0. As its name implies, it is certainly part of the user-content-driven Web 2.0. However, according to the definition above, I would not consider this site to be a true social network. Instead, it is something of an educational resource with social aspects to it. Users can post discussion topics in the forum, join groups based on similar interests to share resources, tag discussions to certain topics, and follow other users. It is this last feature that makes it more of a social resource site rather than a social networking site. Users do not necessarily have to connect both ways in order to share resources. Additionally, it does not seem that this site can be used to connect teachers with their students. That said, there is a great deal of resources that can be found on this site, and the social aspects of tagging, groups, and following make it easy to find and keep track of that information. 

The day YouTube was unblocked in my county was one of the happiest days of my teaching career. For my Music classes, there are so many YouTube videos of interesting performances, unique instruments, music games, and other educational materials that is it almost mind-boggling. In fact, I keep a running list of "Cool Videos" on my classroom website for my students to check out at home. 

I often incorporate YouTube clips in my teaching. Sometimes I will start at the "Music Links" page on my class website as a launching point, and also as a mini advertisement for my website. Other times, however, I use Zamzar to download a video file version of my favorite YouTube videos, which can have its benefits over viewing videos on the Web. First, it is a safeguard against unexpected network connectivity issues. Second, it lets me show the video without the risk of showing inappropriate comments or links to inappropriate "related" videos. 

In a previous blog post, I discussed the benefits of classroom podcasting. Likewise, I think there could be many uses for and benefits of posting video of my students' in-class performances on YouTube. I have taken videos of my students with the intention of posting them to YouTube and embedding them in my class blog. However, there are a few obstacles that make video production a little more difficult than podcasting. For example, not every student in our school has a signed publicity release. For students who do not have this signed release, I will sometimes ask them to be my "production assistant" and help with various off-camera tasks. Second, I do not have the necessary equipment to make quality videos. I sometimes use my iPhone camera to record videos, but without a tripod or external microphone, these videos sometimes turn out with very poor quality. As of now, I have not posted any in-class videos of my students to the Web. 

Our assignment this week was to find videos that relate to our teaching content and/or professional learning interests, videos that teach "how to" do something, and videos that are just fun, nostalgic or interesting to you. What is funny is that I watch videos in all three of these categories on a daily basis. I have been known to engage in a seemingly endless cycle of linking to "related videos" and finding interesting and entertaining materials for hours on end. The video below is one that I shared with my students when I was introducing the concept of singing in a round, which I found after one such period of YouTube surfing.

Podcasting is simply the amateur creation and publishing of radio (Richardson, 2010, p. 112). There are two major differences between podcasts and what we consider traditional radio broadcasts. The first is that podcasts can be created by amateurs and professionals alike, whereas radio broadcasts are specifically created by professionals (DJs, radio talk show hosts, etc.). The second is that podcasts can be consumed at any time, rather than at a specific air time. For example, if a classroom wants to make a podcast in which they describe their science fair projects, they can post it to a website to be retrieved later rather than having an audience tune in to a broadcast in a given time slot. That podcasts can be retrieved by anyone at any time has huge implications on the potential audience size of otherwise humble recordings.

My first experience with podcasts was on a road trip with a friend about four years ago. As we were preparing for the trip, I asked what kind of music she'd like to listen to, with a fair warning that I sing along with pretty much anything. We were driving from Atlanta to St. Louis, and the prospect of dealing with my singing for 8+ hours was not one she was particularly excited about. She suggested we download a few podcasts to break up the time. We both loved the radio shows "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!" and "This American Life," but we were driving on a day when the shows weren't going to be broadcast on the radio. She went to iTunes, searched for and subscribed to the podcast of the shows, and downloaded the two or three most recent episodes. We were off, and I was amazed. It was so easy!

As a Music teacher and avid music lover, I have used iTunes and have had three different iPods since 2004, starting with a first generation version that predated the clickwheel. However, before that road trip experience, I had never clicked the "Podcasts" tab in the iTunes store. I had heard of podcasts, but I didn't really understand what they were or how to access them. Within a few minutes, my friend taught me that iTunes makes it incredibly easy to search for, subscribe to, download, and enjoy podcasts by people from all walks of life. 

I have recently begun incorporating podcasting into my classroom teaching. As a Music teacher, it makes perfect sense to use podcasting to share my students' performances, both big and small. I also love that I don't have to worry about which students do or do not have signed publicity release forms, since there are no identifying names or images. To create a recording, I use my iPhone's Voice Memo app to record my students, then I upload the recording to my computer. To turn the recording into a shareable podcast, I upload the recording onto website called Audioboo, and the site generates an html code that I easily copy and embed in a post on my classroom blog.

Audioboo is incredibly user friendly, and has an option for making recordings on the spot or uploading a previously created file. The option for making recordings directly from the website is one that I am considering having my students try out. This feature on Audioboo would make it very easy for my students to record themselves, e.g. to discuss what they learned in class that day. Audioboo is free to use and allows for an unlimited number of recordings, or "boos," but the free version only allows for a maximum of three minutes in length per podcast. In addition, Audioboo has links for RSS feeds and iTunes podcasting subscriptions. With the touch of a button, my students and parents can subscribe to my class podcasts via my profile page on the Audioboo website. Most recently, I have purchased an external USB microphone called the Blue Snowball for higher quality sound recording, and I am eagerly awaiting its delivery so I can start playing with it!

Here are two examples of my Audioboo podcasts that I have posted onto my classroom blog. The one on top is the first podcast I published on my blog back in December, in which I introduce the concept of podcasting and explain the ways I intend to use it in the classroom. The second is an in-class-performance-turned-podcast. 

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Publishers.