Mr. Williamson's Science Blog introduced me to student created podcasts. I started thinking about all the amazing opportunities that podcasting could bring the classroom. I started my research on podcasting over at the Teach Web 2.0 wiki. I learned about the basics from the CommonCraft Vodcast on podcasting.
Next I tried my hand at podcasting. I started by creating an audio tour for the museum my husband and I would be visiting that weekend. The first step was researching the museum and artifacts on display. Next I selected the ones most interesting to me and did additional research on piece. I choose Garage Band to create my audio track, recording the information I had prepared through my research. It was easy to add tracks and images to audio recording. Finally, I published the track iTunes and had create my first podcast. It was so simple I have created half a dozen since for upcoming attractions we will be visiting.
Now that I knew how to create a podcast, the step was learning about ways to incorporate podcasting into the curriculum. This past weekend Classroom 2.0 LIVE hosted a webinar on Podcasting featuring Kevin Honeycutt. This isn't one of their better webinars; skip the first 30 minutes and then dive in. Kevin makes the point that "writing is a social media". Writing is to be read, but in most of our classrooms no one is reading our students' work. Podcasting can change this. The researching, writing, and editing process stays the same, but the end product is published to share with an authentic audience. The audience can be a sister classroom(s), parents, peers, other teachers, friends - the list is endless. The authentic audience creates a higher stake for the students - there is added motivation to write and succeed.
The webinar also discusses ways to effectively set-up podcasting in the classroom, saftey issues, and resouces for creating and publishing podcasts.
I can't wait to find ways to incorporate this into my classroom!
Have your students create podcasts in your class?
What tools did your students use to create the podcasts?
How did you publish the podcasts?
References:
Honeycutt, Keven. (2009, March 21). Podcasting. Classroom 2.0 LIVE Podcast. Podcast retrived from http://live.classroom20.com/1/post/2009/03/podcasting-podstock-and-ning-special-guest-kevin-honeycutt.html
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Laura Kay,
ReplyDeleteMr. Williamson's science blog was amazing. I commend you for taking on this challenge. I may have to try it.
Although I haven't used podcasting with an entire class, I did create a podcast on www.mypodcast.com for some first graders (my daughter included) last year. I wanted to experiment with podcasting as a self-assessment tool so I recorded them as they recited a 100-word poem that they memorized for an upcoming oratory. As a self-assessment tool, it was wonderful. As soon as they heard the playback, they were able to identify the areas that needed improvement.
ReplyDeleteMER -
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that experience. I had never thought of using podcasting as a self-assessment tool.