I’m spending today and tomorrow with teachers in McNairy County Schools. I’m looking forward to them discovering Andrew Churches’ revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and related resources. We’ll also explore ways to effectively integrate a wide variety of digital technologies and Web 2.0 tools with teaching and learning. Watch for us as we venture out into the network. We’ll be using the following tag for everything related to this professional development workshop: mcnairypd (and #mcnairypd on Twitter).
Since writing the post on the sleek online radio Pandora, Clif and I have decided to start a review series of online music applications. Next on the chopping block is the internet jukebox Songza. Again, I will provide my opinion on how the site operates and a quick tutorial of how to get your account up and running.
Songza is a free, flash based, internet jukebox. You decide exactly what songs you want to listen to and then stream the songs from other sites where they are embedded using a minimalist flash player. No costs, no ads, just the music you want to hear. At first you might be a bit discouraged that this is the only pseudo-FAQ that Songza has to offer. However, you will soon realize that it is so simple that it doesn’t really need one. Like many of the items featured on this site, Songza only does one thing, but does it extraordinarily well.
After creating an account (just your basic set-up with e-mail, password, etc) you will see the incredibly simple front page. Using the one outstanding feature, the large centrally located search bar, enter an artist or song and click search. Songza’s cute little loading square will flip around for just a moment and then an extensive list of songs will appear down the left hand side. One thing that I really like about Songza is this right here. You are not given one choice for the song you are trying to find; you are given a whole bunch. Aside from the album version, some may be live versions, acoustics sets, or remixes. In fact, I have already discovered a multitude of covers of songs I have searched for that I may otherwise never have been aware existed. So while you have to actively search out individual songs (that’s why it is a jukebox and not a radio) you still may find new songs.
The interface is one of the easiest imaginable to navigate. After searching for a song and selecting one from the list, clicking on the title will pop up a little compass inspired menu with four options: Play, Share, Rate, and Add to Playlist. Subsequently selecting one of these does exactly what you think they would do. The Share option allows you to link to the song, embed it on a site, send to Twitter, or email to a friend. Rating is used for rating the quality of the recording more so than if whether or not you like the song, like with Pandora. The better the quality rating, the higher that specific song appears in search lists. Rating effectively reduces the amount of time you spend trudging through versions that are of poor quality.
The Playlist is where you will find my only complaint with Songza. Right now, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but I can find no way of creating additional playlists. So while you can save every song you find, they are all lumped together under a single playlist. The small saving grace of this is that you can quickly and easily change the order or your playlist. So you can group your music as you would want to hear it in succession. Aside from sharing individual songs with friends, you can also navigate to someone’s Songza profile page and access their full playlist from there. You can check out my profile and playlist here.
One of the really nifty things about Songza is while a song is playing you have the ability to Watch the Video when it is available, Buy the Song via Google Products or Amazon, or check out the Discography. It should be said that the video sometimes seems like a randomly picked Youtube video, which isn’t always the artist’s actual music video. Viewer beware.
I’ve only just begun playing with Songza and haven’t delved too deeply into sharing and embedding songs. What I see so far I really like (aside from the Playlist issue which I am hoping I am incorrect about). So if recommendation music sites like Rhapsody and Pandora don’t line up with your tastes well enough or you’re just looking to hear “that song” right now, give Songza a try.
Be sure to leave a link to your Songza profile if you comment so we can all share the music. One Love.
Throughout the years many of the preservice and in-service teachers in my classes, workshops, and presentations have requested that I start an email newsletter. They indicate that in addition to this blog they would like to receive occasional emails sharing rich resources related to technology integration. I’m excited to announce that I have answered these requests.
Clif’s Newsletter on Educational Technology focuses on the effective integration of technology with teaching and learning. Subscribers of this free service will receive occasional emails providing valuable resources and information about lesson plans, activities, technologies, research, etc., related to educational technology.
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I’ve added a new feature to Clif’s Notes called 1 Thing. This special section is an area where guest bloggers can communicate “1 thing” they would like to share, suggest, say, demonstrate, etc. about a particular topic. This section will forever be a work in progress, so feel free to suggest guest bloggers and topics anytime. You can easily access this section by clicking on the 1 Thing link in the main menu.
Maggie Tsai, Diigo’s chief ambassador, will be a guest on EdTechTalk this evening and will be taking questions about the latest version of their product. Maggie shared the following information about the event via email.
I’ve been invited to a podcast with a group of educators - since most people there are new to Diigo, I’d like to focus this session on Diigo 101 - the very basics of Diigo ~ how to set up / use diigolet, bookmarking, highlights and explore my “Bookmarks” section. If time permits, we will also touch upon the Groups. We will make it short and sweet.
Ideally, there will be more future sessions that go into intermediate, advanced and special topics of Diigo…
Diigo is a getting a lot of buzz right now and I strongly encourage all (present and future) educators and graduate students to consider participating in this event.
If you’ve spent much time in the blogosphere in the last six months you have likely heard about Twitter. I have mentally been writing this post for about ten days. I want to provide my critical review and share the pros and cons as I see them. I realized that many people have already covered the bulk of this information and I just found it unnecessary for me to fully cover this topic with my own original post. Therefore, here are a few BIG points that I briefly want to make followed by valuable resources to further pursue this topic.
There is value in the networking and real-time interaction that you can get using Twitter. Many educators and academics find this to be an effective strategy for dealing with the isolation that can come from working in the classroom or office. Imagine encountering technical difficulties during your lesson and having a means of receiving assistance within minutes. Consider the ability to receive assistance from others during a teachable moment in which you don’t know the answer to a student’s inquiry. Individuals like @nlowell, @sbrandt, and @room214 have provided me with much needed real-time assistance.
I admit that it is possible for Twitter to be used in non-productive ways. I do not care about the weather, meal plans, funny cat stories, or work schedule of individuals that I do not know (in real life or virtually), but I solve this issue by simply dropping them from my follow list. On the flip side, I don’t mind if individuals that I know/ respect do this. Hearing @mguhlin share about events at work or @berniedodge describe the weather in San Diego helps me know them a bit more and adds an additional layer of community within my online network.
The message to take away is that your experience with Twitter will be what you make it. You should customize and use it on an ongoing basis to meet your specific needs and interests.
Join my Twitter network by using the link in the Navigation menu to the right.
Resources
Here is a great introduction to Twittering.
This video provides a full overview for setting up and using Twitter.
This 3 minute video is an excellent tutorial to help you begin using del.icio.us bookmarks on your own. NOTE: You can use my del.icio.us bookmarks by clicking on the My Bookmarks link in the main menu.
