The Digital English Classroom

This tool seems really easy to use.  I uploaded a few Word documents and a PowerPoint Jeopardy review and created a document as well.  This would be a great way for teachers to collaborate on particular units of study without the hassle of emailing each document and waiting to make all of the corrections.  Actually, usual teachers just email each other the documents without collaborating at all, so this would be a wonderful way to learn new teaching strategies.  For example, three sophomore English teachers could put together a unit of study on The Tempest by William Shakespeare that includes study guide questions, quizzes, tests, and various multimedia. 

Secondly, teachers could invite students to view a test review document and/or collaborate on their own test reviews. 

Also, it would be a great way for me to work with my substitute when I go on maternity leave J I could email her quizzes and tests from Google Docs to use for a particular unit and have her modify them to fit her teaching needs. 

SAT Vocabulary Builder    (Note:  Video would not embed.  I could not find the “code” button on dashboard as indicated in directions)

When visiting YouTube, I first typed in the word “Shakespeare,” and several interesting videos appeared.  A comical and clever “Who’s on first” sketch seemed to playfully expose Shakespeare’s intriguing language.  Also, several amateur excerpts appeared from some of his plays.  Some very interesting versions of The Tempest, a play we read in 10^th grade, appeared as well.  These could be used in the classrooms to compare/contrast.  Also, students would have fun creating their own versions of the play, and this activity may help them bring the play to life. 

I also observed some parts of Disney’s The Sword in the Stone that could be used while teaching T.H. White’s The Once and Future King.

A favorite site on You Tube was the SAT Vocabulary Builder Lesson.  A narrator reads the words on the screen and provides a sentence for them as well.  Sometimes students really benefit from seeing this on the screen and hearing it from someone else other than their teacher. 

TeacherTube provided more variety for teachers.  I looked at two “How To” videos for how to solve math equations.  One was rather simple and banal while another entitled “Mr. Duey Raps the Fractions” was educational, entertaining, and very useful.  It looked like it was professionally created with lots of visual effects.

For fun, I looked up my actress/friend from New York City, Sarah DiMuro, and watched her demo reel and other pieces she debuted in on AMC and The Insider. 

Overall, I think students could really benefit from creating their own You Tube videos, especially to review plays or other texts.  They also can use it as a supplement when writing process essays. 

I really enjoyed this activity and thought it was extremely easy once the account was established. Students could really have fun creating their own podcasts.

How can we make this easily accessible in the classroom in light of the fact that it costs money to use Evoca (I think it said you have to pay after a certain amount of minutes)? Also, I used my headset to do the recording, but do most computers have built in microphones? Overall, I think this would be a wonderful tool.