Blog Post # 4

Podcasting

Why Podcasting?

Podcasting offers creative learning to students in and beyond the classroom. Podcasting enables teachers and their students to communicate with other classrooms around the world. Students are able to go back and explore what they have learned and created in class.

How do we Podcasts?

Here are four example of how a teacher can implement podcasting into his or her classroom: 1.Engage parents by sharing their child's work., 2.Assign collabrative assignments., 3.Keep absent students up-to-date on material they have missed., and 4.Allow students to create podcasts and showcase the work they have created.

Langwitches

Author, Silvia Tolisano, was born in Germany, raised in Argentina, and now teaches in São Paulo. Throughout her career in education, she has been a World Language Teacher, Technology Integration Facilitator, and a Academic Technology Coordinator.

Langwitches - Flat Stanley Podcast

I thought that the Flat Stanley podcast was a wonderful way the teacher let her students explore their imaginations and express their creativity. I loved the vivid details and enthusiasm each student expressed as they brought their journeys to life. The students were asked to choose a location, any location that they would like. After finding their location, students were then asked to research information about that particular location and write their very own script. The podcast allowed students to take a journey around the world through their own imaginations and right from their classroom.

Judy Scharf Podcast Collection

Judy Scharf is a former accountant/programmer who now teaches 7th grade Computer Applications in NY. She says that she loves teaching because, "there is always something new to learn and teach the students." Ms. Scharf's "Podcast Collection" is an excellent source of information for those who are new to podcasting and can be used as a source of information. In her post she explains that a podcast is "a cross between a broadcast and a iPod". Podcasting enables information to be shared worldwide via the internet. Podcasts may be used to relay information on any subject matter, allowing any teacher who attempts podcasting the ability to succeed. She offers tips on how to succeed when making a podcast. Tips to succeed include, making sure you spend enough time learning the software you plan on using to feel comfortable with, giving students a choice of topics, allow students to choose who they would like to work with, have students listen to some exemplary podcasts, a list of criteria for researching, and to allow students plenty of time to complete the project.

Langwitches- Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting

In this blog post Ms. Tolisano focuses on podcasting helping to improve listening, comprehension, and speaking skills. The second graders were each given a part from the story of Purim and recorded the story as a podcast. The trick in this podcast is that the students were recorded out of order. After all students finished recording their parts, they had to edit the podcast and move the clips into the correct order. These exercise allowed students to think critically and work collaboratively to present the story in the correct order. This exercise did not focus on the actually making of the podcast but rather the student's listening, comprehension, collaboration, speaking skills and fluency in the target language.

Information for My Podcast

Although I found all of the posts to be informative and interesting, the most helpful would be Judy Scharf's "Podcasts Collection". This particular post offered suggestions for podcasts topics, suggestions for researching those topics, and helpful tips for succeeding at producing a podcast.