Multimedia Use in the Classroom

Again as I have in many posts, I would like to say I am so glad to be taking this class in the summer where I have actually had time to research some things that are going to be useful to me in the near future. 
The first activity I will be describing, I found on a blog from my Google Reader.  The link is http://educationcloset.com/2011/05/26/great-software-for-kids-and-arts-integration/.  This will take you to the specific blog post that I read.  The multimedia part I found interesting is how she uses Google Earth in her classroom.  (http://www.google.com/earth/index.html)
I have some minor background with this site because my husband is obsessed with it! He is a big deer hunter and is constantly looking at the aerial views of his hunting land and deciding the "path" that the big buck may be taking.   His other love (besides God and our family) is fishing.  He also uses Google Earth for the aerial shots to see where the hidden honey holes are on rivers and lakes he fishes. Even though as an adult I have seen it be very useful, I never really thought about using it in the classroom. 
The author/teacher of this blog uses Google Earth in all subjects.  She uses it for map writing, measurement of streets, and determining how waterways go with the division of land.  This would not be a site I could not just turn the students loose on, but with modeling it can be done.  My first thought would be to make a few "student experts" who have background and possibly experience with different websites and computers.  This would make my job much easier because I can't be everywhere at once. 
To use this in my classroom, I would like to take an aerial shot of downtown Tuscaloosa and have the students draw and write a map on how to get from 2 different places.  I would use a rubric or checklist to grade their map and would include the information being correct as the largest portion of the grade.  I think the students will like how the aerial shots come from a large distance away and zoom all the way in.  Even with all the use of technology, this project reminds me that we still have to expose students to the old fashion ways of doing things as well.  It would be ideal if I could locate a paper copy of downtown Tuscaloosa to demonstrate with or have the students’ double check their work. 
The second one may be complicated to follow, but I will try to make it clear by citing every click I took to get the information. The blog Tech the Plunge (http://jeffthomastech.com/blog/) is another one I am following in Google Reader. On one of his posts titled 7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers I found out about the website Kidblog.org (http://kidblog.org/home.php). I am so excited about this site! It seems extremely user friendly, but more importantly safe!  Their website says that it was set up for teacher to allow them to have complete control of each student's blog, and it doesn't require any student emails.  I have not run into that problem yet, but just the thought of setting up 18 emails seems like it would be a nightmare, so this is definitely a plus! From what I can tell the classroom will have a home page and each student blog will have a link from there.  Each of the student blogs are automatically set up as private and can only be viewed by the teacher and other classmates. 
I think this would be an amazing thing to do in my 3rd grade classroom.  The blogs could be used for a variety of things instead of just one assignment.  One thing could be to have writing prompts during writing time.  Another would be to use it as a reading log and have the students put the title, author, their page number, and how many minutes they read the night before.  I could also have them to do free writes about their plans for the weekend, what their interests are, etc.  Our the great thing is the blog could be used for all of the above ways simultaneously!  The students could blog in the morning when they finish their morning work, during snack time, during writing time, and also from home.  This would be a great way to keep parents even more involved by giving them access.  If I did the reading log this would benefit everyone greatly.  The parents and I can keep track of the child's reading progress and it will also help the students to see where they stand compared to other classmates as well. 
As with everything, I can think of a few cons.  The number one issue would be for the students to have access to that many computers at the same time.  If I wanted to use it for a writing assignment I could always reserve the computer lab.  Another con may be that some students do not like to share their writing with their classmates.  Some posts may be too personal and I would hopefully be able to find ways to keep some posts private where only I could read them.  Now that I am thinking about it, their website said teachers have control of the publishing of all the blogs so I could simply choose not to publish certain ones, yet they would still be there.  A con of keeping the reading log may be that students may get discouraged by comparing their progress with other students. 
I also look forward to reading my classmates blogs on this assignment.  I have enjoyed gaining more tools for my classroom! It ROCKS!!