Zune in the Classroom - FREE Webinar on March 10th

I have received e-mails in the past about how we have incorporated the Zune MP3 player in my 8th grade American History classroom. I will be discussing our use of the Zune in my classroom on March 10th online at a FREE webinar hosted by Microsoft in Education. This webinar is part of the Tech Teacher Tuesday series.

The webinar will take place on Tuesday, March 10th from 3:00 PM Central Time until 4:00 PM Central Time. The webinar is also recorded and will be available for viewing later as well.

Sign up for this FREE webinar here.

I did a similar webinar in January and really enjoyed interacting with the audience. Please drop in and I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about using Zunes in the classroom.

Free Webinar on Zunes in the Classroom January 6th

Hello. Just wanted to let you know I will be hosting a free Microsoft Tech Tuesday webinar describing how we have been using Zune MP3 players in our classroom at 3:00 PM on Tuesday, January 6,2009. Follow this link to register for the webinar and learn more.

I have been piloting the use of the Zune MP3 player in my classroom for the past two years. In one of my 8th grade American history classes each student has a 4GB Zune MP3 player. I use it to give them StudyCasts, history related podcasts, video and copies of the presentation notes. It has been an exciting project and my students love it. The webinar will be an opportunity for me to describe the project in more depth. This webinar is also scheduled to repeat on March 10, 2009 if you can't make it on Tuesday.

At the end of the webinar one lucky participant will win a 120 GB Zune MP3 player! It could be you. Hope to see some of you on Tuesday. If you have any questions please leave a comment or sent me an e-mail. Thanks.

Podcast #153 - Zune In My Classroom Presentation at 2008 NECC in San Antonio

Microsoft's Kathy Richardson and myself at the Zune section of the Microsoft booth at NECC.

Hello. Today's podcast is the audio from my presentation last week in San Antonio at NECC. I gave my presentation on the second day of the conference at the Microsoft booth and described the Zune pilot I completed with my 8th grade American history students. It was a busy exhibit floor at the time of the presentation and there is a lot of background noise but I think it is still audible.

The Zune pilot I completed at South Valley Junior High School - along with the pilot which took place at Fort Sumner High School in New Mexico - has been featured in an AP story which was picked up by various media outlets including CNN.

Direct link to Speaking of History Podcast #153 - Zune In My Classroom Presentation at 2008 NECC in San Antonio - MP3 Audio - 23:25 Minutes

The presentation is also available in video format thanks to Texas teacher Kyle Stevens of the Final Curve blog who recorded it and posted it to YouTube as two videos. Thanks Kyle for taping and posting the videos. I have embedded the videos below.

Classroom Zune Pilot Project Featured in Newspaper

Our 8th grade classroom Zune Pilot (see the Speaking of History Podcast #132 from February 18, 2008 for more details) was featured in our local newspaper this week - The Liberty Tribune here in Liberty, Missouri.

You can check out the article online here. Thanks to Natalie Shelton for contacting me to write the story and Anna Faltermier for the great photographs.

Podcast #132 - The Student Zune Pilot Project at South Valley Jr. High

Hello. In today's podcast I'll be discussing an exciting new project that will take place in my classroom this semester - a student Zune pilot. Microsoft is providing each of my 25 students in my 3rd period 8th grade American History classroom a 4GB Zune to use during the spring semester. Microsoft donated these Zunes to my school district to test out this program. Our project will start on Tuesday with a parent / student meeting where the students will be given their Zunes.

I have been using different types of digital audio content in my classroom for several years. Three years ago I started to incorporate what I call "StudyCasts" - an audio review that I create and save as an MP3 file that is then posted on the Internet so that students can listen to the review in preparing for an upcoming unit test by listening at home on the Internet, downloading the file to their MP3 player or asking me to burn it to a CD for them. The introduction of the studycast has been successful but I cannot always insure that my students have 100% access to the content. In this Zune project I know that my students will not only have the MP3 device they will also leave my classroom with the content using the Zune social feature which allows me to "beam" content - in the form of audio or pictures - to their players before the leave for the day. The Zune will allow students to listen to content, view images and view video.

Listen to the podcast to learn more about how the pilot will opperate, how we will measure outcomes and how the Zune will be incorporated into the curriculum. I will also be keeping everyone updated on the progress of the Zune pilot throughout the pilot.

Please feel free to leave a comment on the blog post or e-mail directly at speakingofhistory@gmail.com I would be interested in your experiences with a Zune or if you have used the Zune in your classroom with students.

Direct link to Podcast #132 - The Student Zune Pilot at South Valley Jr. High - MP3 audio file - 9:24 minutes