Since my school is not on the forefront of the technology world, I would be honest with the teacher and let him know that I was excited about this opportunity to learn more and help him teach his students about podcasting. I am one of those learners who needs the actual task in front of me to force me to expand my knowledge and I would start with what I know about podcasting and build on that base. I know there are ample opportunities to access free online educational podcasts, and there are even more ways this tool could be used in our school to teach students not only about podcasts, but to build confidence and enthusiasm for learning.
Interviews with outside professionals could be brought into the classroom, students could record class projects to share, or they could hear music lessons for practicing at home. Our teachers each have blogs where they post homework and current assignments. How much more effective would these be if students, especially those who were absent, could listen to the instruction as well as read it? Like Dr. Bennett did for us when class was canceled!!! Foreign language teachers could use podcasts posted to their blogs for pronunciation drills and those with special needs could repeat lessons and proceed at their own pace. The media specialist could use podcasts for in-service projects so teachers could listen on their own time. They could promote a Book Fair with a walk through tour or new books could be promoted through Book Talks which will help advertise the Media Center. The list goes on for the many ways podcasts can benefit education and the more we can engage students the more their learning will be lifelong. Students who are involved in morning announcements at school are getting a piece of this learning, but this only affects a select few. Getting more students involved takes time and effort, but when you see and hear the results, it's time well spent.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
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Geralyn--You gave some excellent examples of podcasts ideas. My favorite is the in-service meeting from the media specialist so teachers could listen on their own time. Also, if I had to take another foreign language I would need the podcast for those pronunciation drills.
ReplyDeleteMy school is much like your school. We are not a forerunner in technology. In fact, this blog is block by our school filters.
As a media specialist, I would love to share these technology advances with our staff in the high school.
Geralyn,
ReplyDeleteLike you my school is not nearly on the forefront either! :) I like your idea about interviews from outside professionals sounds like a wonderful idea. This would put a whole new concept into career day. Especially with the budget cuts education (and everything else) has been hit with, this would be even more useful. I could imagine that my prinipal would be very appreciative of any ways to get around budget cuts. By having podcasts of a career day would also help the scheduling problem that may arise. Students could watch podcasts of career day in the classroom and have open discussions with their teacher and peers. I really like this idea.
And the Book Fair idea! WOW! That would be perfect. The media specialist could create a book of the day/hour/etc. to showcase. Not only would this help children be more interested in books (which is AWESOME), but also increase sells for the media center! :)
I also like the idea of bringing in other profesionals from around the community to speak on blogging and how it is used outside the world of education. This relates well withthe idea of career day, especially at the high school level. Students would enjoy the process of evaluating information about the different kinds of jobs available. It lets them explore what is out there for them and schools or classrooms could sponsor this by recruiting safe community memebers to participate (local business owners or professionals). Great ideas posted here and I hope to use some of these in the future.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Raina Dupree
Geralyn,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog on podcasting and all the possibilities that there are to apply this technology in the media center and classroom. I like the book fair promo idea. In fact podcasting could be used to promote many of the media center events. Our school does an event called the SuperBowl of Reading and it is a lot of fun. The students bring a book and exchange it and then read together to enjoy reading a book that is a favorite of another student. It gets hard to coordinate the way that the students will switch however. It would be a really great way to introduce podcasting to have the students give a short book talk about their book, how long it is, what genre, etc. Then students could spend some time watching the book talks and could record their "picks" before the switch occurs.
Another event that our school has held has been the Olympic Read-A-Thon where students read different genres as in Olympic events. It would be great to be able to have separate podcasts to familiarize students with the different genres and spotlight some books that are popular for the genre so students have a little direction before coming to the shelves of the media center. A lot of my students keep reading from the same genres (Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew) and podcasts on other genres might just sway them to try something else!
Anyway, these are just some ideas that I thought of as I read your blog...
Linda D.
You included some great ideas in your Podcast blog. I especially like the idea about using podcast to preview a book fair. Often teachers find themselves in a time crunch and this type of activity is not at the top of their list, with a podcast they could view it at a time of their choice rather than a scheduled time.
ReplyDeleteAt my school we have a teacher that uses podcast to lesson demonstrations that she makes available to parents and students. They can use these at home as a review tool or to aid with homework. I thought this was an excellent idea!
The in-service idea was great too. As a literacy coach, I could see myself using that podcast to work with teachers for various staff-development topics. That would again allow them to review materials on their own time and at their own pace.
It is true that teachers do find themselves in a time crunch, and having the students view the bookfair preview podcast would be a great way of promoting the bookfair and saving teachers time.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the comments about this post, I have gained some great ideas on how to use podcasts for classroom instruction. I would love to share these ideas with teachers during an inservice. Many teachers may be reluctant about this technology at first, but once they see the potential for improving parent/ teacher communication they may be more willing to try!
Geralyn, I love the idea of using a podcast to advertise a school bookfair. We recently had a bookfair at my school and while it was quite profitable, it was also quite hectic. Students were only given a few minutes to view the items for sell. Space was limited, only a few students could browse at a time. The bookfair was in a corner of the media center and noise was a constant issue. The bookfair was stressful for students and teachers alike. Your idea allows students to virtually view items and help narrow their search before they even arrive in the media center. Makes perfect sense to me!
ReplyDeleteGeralyn, I think that you have a lot of good ideas for podcasting. I especially like the idea of getting students involved and having them use podcast to do reports. Podcasting is a real world application and I think that educators are at the forefront. We have the opportunity to teach students how to use this technology and possibly give them an advantage over their competition when they enter the workforce or higher education.
ReplyDelete