Saturday June 17, 2006
Podcasting
Description
The New Oxford American Dictionary defines podcast as ?a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player.? It?s a digital audio file that?s created, shared, and heard.
Findings
Most podcasts are a creative mix of voice, music, and sounds. Podcasts can include video or photos and range in length from a few minutes to several hours. Now you can subscribe to a podcast service instead of having to access the Web. A plus if podcasts is that they are portable and can reside on MP3 players to go anywhere. The author of the article Podcasting 101 For k-12 Librarians, Esther Kreider Eash, designs, implements, and supports a model for libraries to help integrate information and technology resources with curriculum. Some examples of how podcasts are used as follows: Promoting the library ? library book talks, reading incentive programs. Reading and book promotions, Using student products to share learning ? informative and entertaining culminations of studies (interviews, dramatizations, readings of book passages), Sharing school news - disseminate information and increase community involvement and advertise upcoming events, Providing professional development ? on-demand tutorials, presentations by outside professionals. Eash provides eight steps to creating a podcast.
- Gather the required hardware and software.
- Decide on the content.
- Practice.
- Record the podcast.
- Test the product.
- Publish the product to share your good work.
- Promote the podcast.
- Evaluate and learn from your mistakes.
Eash states, ?I?m convinced that the real power of podcasting is twofold: It gives learners point-of-need access to information, and it disseminates information in exciting new ways.?
Reflection
While reading this article, I immediately thought of two ways to incorporate podcasting into my profession. I say profession because I see it in a way other than with my students.
Idea #1 Eash mentioned using podcasts for professional development. I am a mentor and work with first and second year teachers. A part of our job is to ?introduce the new teacher to our school?. This means walking around and showing the cafeteria, playground, workroom, etc. However, most teachers are hired in during the summer and take the tour quickly with the principal or on their own. I think it would be neat to provide the new teacher with a MP3 and a map. The teacher could listen to the podcast and follow the map to learn about different parts of the school. I envision a little synopsis given about each area visited. This can?t take the place of actually having the mentor guide the tour, but in cases when the teacher is at the school and the mentor is not, this could be a substitute.
Idea#2 A big objective in our first grade social studies curriculum is to learn about our community. This includes community helpers and school community. Our school is within walking distance of a bank, grocery store, fire station, restaurant, drug store, etc. It would be neat to interview community helpers on our visit. This works much better for first graders than trying to write down the information. In the past, the students have asked questions and I have written the responses. First graders just can?t write that fast, and then there is the issue of spelling. Anyway, this would be a great tool to use to record information from interviews.Posted at 09:57PM Jun 17, 2006 by ALLEN, LYNNE in General | Comments[0]
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