This week we held our third TechTalk of the new year. TechTalk is a monthly show that focuses on specific digital texts or tools that should be used in your classroom. We view “classrooms” broadly as stretching from Pre-K up through 12th grade and into higher education. The show is meant to provide an easy, approachable overview of a tools, or series of tools, and then some dialogue about the use of these digital texts and tools in the classroom. We try to focus on the specific affordances, opportunities, and challenges of the digital text or tools.

In this episode we focused on Rap Genius and Poetry Genius. More truthfully, this encompasses an entire suite of “text” annotation tools. The community adds and annotates all forms of text from poetry, to rap lyrics, to rock lyrics, to news feeds.

In our work with the #WALKMYWORLD project, Liz Milch and Jeremy Dean reached out to me to figure out exactly what we were doing on their site. I explained a bit about the project, and the ways that PoetryGenius was supporting us. In these discussions Liz explained the EducatorGenius accounts and Educator Forums that were available…and I was promptly “promoted” to this status. After spending just a bit of time I have to say that all of my friends in education should sign on to be an EducatorGenius. The teacher’s guide to Genius is a great resource….as well as the list of classroom projects currently on the site.

You can become a Genius by first signing up for an account…and then email Liz at education@rapgenius.com and let her know that you want to be “educator-ized.”  The primary thing that has me excited is the discussion and commentary from other individuals that are playing with the site. I’ve mentioned several times on this blog that all of you should join, or develop your PLN. I can see the ideas presented, and the sense of community in the Educator Forums as being an early version of the some of the best PLNs that I’m part of.

You can view the video from our meeting this week. I’ll upload the audio later and make it available online. I was joined by Jeremy Dean and Liz Milch from RapGenius. Taji Haley, Greg McVerry, and Peggy Semingson also joined in on the episode.

Enjoy.

Image CC by stashed