Journal #4

From Toy to Tool
By Liz Kolb

The article describes how several sites such as Gabcast.com, allow you to use your cell phone to record a message, an interview or a posting for a blog. This will then directly be transferred to your blog and posted.
The article brought up several concerns for what is called “audioblogging”. The first concern is the issue of privacy. Anyone can have access to read blogs that are posted on such sites as Blogger.com. Another issue is that of copyrights. People are not allowed to post music and other copyrighted material on their blog sites. A third issue is that of cost. Many of the sites are free unless an upgrade is desired or unless the cell phone company charges for the call. This is not likely to happen according to the author of the article, but it can.
Another issue that arises, and this is a big one to me, is the issue of controlling the class. Allowing students to bring cell phones to class and use them in class is not a common occurrence in many schools. It may be difficult for teachers to be able to trust that their students will be using the tools appropriately while adhering to the assignment.
One final issue that is discussed in the article is protecting the privacy of the students and monitoring inappropriate posting on the blog or media site. This is something that could be controlled very carefully by having administrative access at all times to these sites and notifications once something new is posted so sites can be continually monitored.
This article is very interesting because it sounds like something that all students would enjoy in participating in. It would be a fun assignment to teach students both about technology and about how to conduct an interview. When I ask myself if I would use something like this to create a similar assignemt I would say yes. I think that though there may be some concerns to an assignment like this, it would be an appropriate time to teach students about the safety of the internet, copyright laws, adhearance to the assignment and other issues that many fifth or sixth graders could learn.
Another question I have for myself is what would hold me back from doing an assignment like this one. I suppose the answer would have to lie in my fears and lack of knowledge about how to fully create an audioblog. It is such a new concept but I think that it would be fun to learn as a class because this is clearly something that is new to all generations and will definitely impact the one we will teach.