Teachers Teaching Teachers #233 - Bud Hunt and Gail Desler on citing sources, loving Audacity and more - 1.26.11

Post-Show description: 

On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Chris Sloan catch up with two other National Writing Project teachers, Bud Hunt and Gail Desler.

First we talk to Bud about his conversation at this year EduCon 2.3.  We encourage you to follow the links at the bottom of this description from the EduCon site (I hope we did our "linktrubition" correctly here!):

Dr. Remix; or how I learned to stop worrying and love citation
Browse recordings: livestream.com/educon8
Who: Bud Hunt, St. Vrain Valley School District (CO) and Joe Bires, Haddonfield School District (NJ)
Conversation Description:
     This presentation is an extension of a Twitter conversation in response to a keynote presentation at ISTE 2010. One presenter felt that he was witnessing an act of plagiarism, while the other felt he was seeing remix in action. Their constructive disagreement is worth further exploration.
Clearly, there are many differing views on the role of proper use of the work of others. What is the place of citation in the work we are doing with students and others? When should you cite? How? What does a digital citation, or "linktribution" as Alan Levine calls it, look like online?
     Perhaps you never thought about it or perhaps you never considered the issue in its totality. This discussion will raise your awareness of this issue that fundamentally affects us because ideas are at the core of all of our curricula. Through citation, we ask students to connect ideas together and create new ones, but the issue of citation masks the fundamental question of the relationship between ideas and their creators.
Websites:  http://www.budtheteacher.com - http://edtechleadership.com - http://bit.ly/drremix

Next up in the podcast, Gail Desler brings us up to date on here work as a technology integrator in the Elk Grove (CA) Unified School District.  Among other things, Gail describes why she loves Audacity so much, and here's some of how she puts it in her wonderful Edublog, BlogWalker:

     The appeal of  Audacity to students is that they can edit all or just parts of a recording. For the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of observing Teresa Cheung’s 4th graders delve into Audacity to edit their Stories from Heart audio interviews. Once students see how easy it is to zoom in and delete an “er” or “um,” or shorten a pause, or amplify a section that’s too low, or remove background noise, etc., they become active sound editors. I love watching the confidence level of ELLs grow, as they relax, knowing how easy it is to redo words or even a single word until they’re satisfied with the output.
     But more importantly, as Teresa’s students listen, for instance, to Chase’s mother explain how she came to be born by a waterfall, or Devina’s grandmother talk about growing up in Berkeley in the ’50s, or Anthony’s mother talk about her childhood days escaping Laos,  the students take pride in sharing and preserving family stories, cultures, and languages. As the collection builds, so does the celebration of common threads and diversity in Ms. Cheung’s classroom, along with an appreciation for the power of the human voice.

Finally, Paul, Chris, and Susan mull over some of the changes they are planning for Youth Voices. Within days of this post, Bill Fitzgerald and the other "primates" over at FunnyMonkey will have finished a re-launch of Youth Voices on their new Voice Box installation.

The VoiceBox installation profile is designed to simplify the work of groups looking to create or expand their online presence. Groups who could use this site range from media organizations to not-for-profits to schools to advocacy groups. If an organization wants to build a place for their stakeholders to publish, interact, and get more informed, then VoiceBox could support that work.

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.


We are very excited because we hope this re-launch will allow us to work with more students and teachers at Youth Voices.

We hope you enjoy this podcast. Enjoy peaking into the thoughts and plans of five National Writing Project teachers from across the country.

20:52:49 Paul Allison: http://paulallison.tumblr.com/post/2714570001/help-me-to-build-a-more-ex...
20:52:54 Paul Allison: http://playinterrobang.com/missions
20:53:06 Paul Allison: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GnjnqN2ex8sNVia-fnQner0aFKcIinfQHR1i...
20:53:12 Paul Allison: http://twitter.com/#!/educonatsla
20:56:52 Gail Desler: Hi Paul and Susan
21:02:10 Chris Sloan: Hello
21:02:30 Bud Hunt: Hi, Chris!
21:02:46 Chris Sloan: Hi Bud. how's things in CO?
21:03:17 Bud Hunt: They're good, thanks.
21:03:45 Chris Sloan: Hi Gail
21:03:48 Bud Hunt: How're things with you?
21:04:00 Gail Desler: HI Chris
21:04:02 Chris Sloan: Like you probably. Busy but interesting
21:06:22 SusanEttenheim: hi karenszymusiak and tbest! welcome!
21:06:48 Chris Sloan: Hi Karenszymusiak and Miriam. where are you from?
21:06:58 MiriamT: New Zealand :-)
21:07:26 Chris Sloan: Hi, I'm a high school teacher in Utah USA
21:07:34 SusanEttenheim: welcome!
21:08:09 SusanEttenheim: I'm teach in a high school in NYC  - where do you teach and what ages?
21:08:17 Paul Allison: http://twitter.com/#!/educonatsla
21:08:53 karenszymusiak: Ohio
21:09:12 MiriamT: My computer doesn't like this chat window, keeps disappearing every few seconds!
21:09:41 Chris Sloan: What browser are you using Miriam?
21:09:53 SusanEttenheim: karensymusiak what ages and what do you teach?
21:10:14 MiriamT: Firefox 3.6.8
21:10:22 karenszymusiak: I am the principal of an elementary school in Dublin, Ohio.
21:10:42 SusanEttenheim: glad you found us!
21:11:02 SusanEttenheim: please feel free to ask questions/comments and jump in the conversation
21:14:04 Gail Desler: Hi Karen (from California)
21:14:06 Chris Sloan: Where are you from and what do you do Jeff?
21:14:29 jeffmason: tech coordinator at a middle school Pensacola FL
21:14:50 Gail Desler: Hi Jeff
21:15:23 jeffmason: hello Gail
21:15:28 karenszymusiak: Sorry, but must go.  Will be back another time. Enjoy the conversation.
21:16:17 jeffmason: yes, following your tweets as well
21:17:20 Gail Desler: rif?
21:17:37 Chris Sloan: guitar phrasing = riff
21:18:02 Gail Desler: thanks, chris
21:19:04 Paul Allison: http://twitter.com/#!/educonatsla
21:19:13 jeffmason: http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=9258 Dan's post
21:19:53 Chris Sloan: Thanks Jeff
21:20:17 jeffmason: : )
21:20:26 Bud Hunt: Thanks, Jeff - I'm slow in the chat room.
21:20:52 jeffmason: I've attended the last 2 Educon's in P'cola
21:21:23 Bud Hunt: I attended the first one at my daughter's gymnastics class.
21:21:33 Bud Hunt: it made the "free wifi" make sense.
21:22:52 jeffmason: I having a shirt printed with a budtheteacher quote from Educon. "Slay the gatekeepers!"
21:24:44 SusanEttenheim: hi lorna - welcome!
21:25:02 Lorna: Hi Susan and everyone
21:25:15 Lorna: I really like audacity
21:25:42 Lorna: It's eady to use and edit and best of all its Free
21:25:48 Chris Sloan: For sure, a lot of Web 2.0 tools have come and gone, but Audacity still works well
21:25:52 Lorna: *easy
21:27:50 Bud Hunt: What makes Audacity "Web 2.0?" asks a guy who loves Audacity and uses it on all of his computers.
21:28:16 Chris Sloan: I guess it's what you do with it.  It allows my kids to podcast.
21:28:42 SusanEttenheim: hi beaker73 welcome!
21:28:47 SusanEttenheim: where and what do you teach?
21:29:06 SusanEttenheim: who else has audacity stories to share?
21:29:22 beaker73: hi there - i am actually a grad student learning about webcasting sites
21:29:27 Lorna: All my shows are published using Audacity :)
21:29:41 SusanEttenheim: :) yeah audacity
21:29:45 Chris Sloan: Where are you studying beaker73?
21:29:48 SusanEttenheim: and at school?
21:29:54 Lorna: Easy to make podcasts
21:30:52 beaker73: northcentral university - mba with specialization in sport management
21:31:16 Lorna: @beaker73 - you are in the right place
21:31:37 Gail Desler: http://blogs.egusd.net/mscheung
21:31:39 SusanEttenheim: welcome robjaa - where and what do you teach?
21:32:49 beaker73: so this room is designed for general higher education chat or specifically tech?
21:33:07 Gail Desler: K-12 too @beaker73
21:33:10 Lorna: @beaker73 check out the http://webcastacademy.net
21:33:30 SusanEttenheim: hi michael and edmcgovern welcome!
21:33:39 Lorna: usually a tech flavour to the shows
21:33:48 Michael Walker: Thanks!
21:34:10 beaker73: do you find making webcasts for students makes classes more effective?
21:34:21 Lorna: absolutely
21:34:41 SusanEttenheim: where and what do you teach?
21:35:30 SusanEttenheim: hi michael welcome back
21:35:33 SusanEttenheim: :)
21:36:43 Michael Walker: Thanks.
21:36:44 beaker73: I am looking to teach online once I finish my MBA and feel using webcasts would bring much needed life to what can be a boring online experience
21:37:12 Lorna: @beaker73 you are on the right track
21:38:15 Michael Walker: Not hearing sound. Has session started?
21:38:57 Lorna: click on one of the icons on the upper right corner of the page Michael
21:39:10 Gail Desler: VoiceThread = mix of skill & content - Kind of puts VT in a nutshell, susan
21:39:11 Lorna: acivates your audio player
21:39:48 Michael Walker: Thanks!
21:39:51 Lorna: yw
21:45:22 Gail Desler: HI Margaret!
21:45:36 Michael Walker: Some of our teachers have had serious problems with using Voicethread on our network. Upload of images and connecting mic.
21:45:40 SusanEttenheim: hi margaret - can I skype you?
21:45:45 Chris Sloan: Glad you could make it Margaret!
21:46:06 SusanEttenheim: michael - we find that once we work it out, it gets easier
21:46:23 margaretsmn: sorry i'm late
21:46:31 Michael Walker: The issues have been happening over 3 years. Not getting better...
21:46:38 SusanEttenheim:  no prob! can I skype you in?
21:46:47 SusanEttenheim: that's terrible michael
21:46:53 margaretsmn: can't skype right now.
21:46:53 SusanEttenheim: do you know why it's happening?
21:46:59 SusanEttenheim: humm ok
21:47:03 Chris Sloan: I think we'll be having the VoiceThread guys on next week, so you could ask them about it Michael
21:47:11 SusanEttenheim: true!
21:47:18 Michael Walker: Thanks, Chris!
21:50:30 Paul Allison: http://paulallison.tumblr.com/post/2714570001/help-me-to-build-a-more-ex...
21:52:04 Paul Allison: http://playinterrobang.com/missions
21:54:13 margaretsmn: There's a cute silly putty activity.
21:56:41 margaretsmn: I'll check at school tomorrow and cross my fingers that it isn't blocked.  
22:00:52 Lorna: nite all
22:03:58 Gail Desler: Night all
22:04:09 Chris Sloan: talk soon
22:04:22 margaretsmn: G'night. stay warm!