Having already had some experience with podcasting, although very little, I was excited to work on the small group project in class Monday with the tool. It was so fun, even as teachers, to collaborate in such a way that forced us to be concise, utilize time management skills, and also to use creativity to solve a problem, which for us was finding a way to meld all five of our content areas into one short presentation. I can see that this is a great way for students to learn social/communication skills, to use technology in a non-threatening, fun way, and to help teachers stay on top of things even more than they have been able to in the past.
A couple of ideas I had and heard from others in class were:
1. Use podcasting as a way to record the conversations in small groups, such as literature circles, writing workshops, book clubs, etc. so that you as teacher can keep tabs on the quality of conversation, the participation of group members and make decisions based upon the recordings on how to improve the activities. These conversations can then be edited and used for podcasts that can be published on the Internet, perhaps even a class website, for parents, students, and the world at large to use and enjoy.
2. Use podcasting as a way to make book trailers for the books you might want to assign, or if giving the students a choice, these trailers can be used to give the students a preview from which to make a decision. This would be an easy, fun way for students to take their knowledge of a book they have read and pass it along to other students. They could make a radio show with the book trailers, or simply record the main highlights according to their own experiences. You could use this for assessment as well, and also encourage the students in the art of giving concise information. In the all-too-important world of testing, students now need to be ready to give short, complete answers on On-demand writing tasks and standardized tests. This can only help them prepare.
3. Use podcasting as a way to tackle the ever-increasing problem with make-up work in the classroom by asking students to record themselves reading class notes, and/or giving an overview of the day’s activities. I took this idea even further by thinking that perhaps I could require that each student in the class do the recording 2 times in a 6 week period, to make sure that all class meetings are covered. This would mean that students who are in class can each get a try at using the tool, and those who miss class would be able to catch up on the things they missed, without too much extra time spent on my part. This has to be the best idea yet!! I could even record my own voice during the mini-lessons I may give, transfer it onto our class website as a podcast, and say to the absentees, “here is what we did, listen to it and take notes in you free period or after school.” Awesome.
As far as the chapter in the book goes, I love it that there are several free and accessible options for using podcasting in the classroom. This is a tool that I think can be used in every school by every child, and that makes it very unique in the world of technological applications. So many times we complain about not being able to bring these wonderful technologies to our students due to lack of funding, resources or support, but there is simply no excuse with this one. If I wanted to use Idea #3 above, for example, I already own an MP3 player with recording capabilities that could be used with my own laptop to put this together. And, soooooo many kids have IPods that could be used as well. This can really work, and I am so happy to hear all about it.
1 comment:
Loved your ideas! I was also commenting to Ross, that I had a new idea on the subject: On those days when you know ahead of time you are going to be out, you could record a Podcast of lecture/assignment instructions/etc. for your sub to play for the class. This would really help those subs who are not trained in your content area, and the students would not be missing a day of good instruction.
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