Podcasting and more...

I think using video clips in the classroom is great! It gets the students excited, gives them another way to understand a concept, and is a great resource for teachers. It’s great to know that there are so many online resources for those teachers brave enough, in some cases, to use them.

The Water Buffalo Video was intriguing. The fact that blog readers took action due to reading each other’s blogs is an interesting and exciting thought. It’s a good example to show that blogging does in fact create community, action, and connectivity. It’s also a good example to show students how blogging can have a bigger purpose. I read some of the comments about the video as far as the other immediate affects this buffalo would have on the family, how the video made someone’s day, etc. It was neat to see how the blogging, then video, led to even further discussion and investigation by readers.

Podcasting…
~With all the ‘things’ teachers need in the classroom that come out of their own pocket money, I think it’s great that podcasting is a free resource available to all, especially one so easy to utilize.
~I love how podcasting can be incorporated into the Reading curriculum, because of its fluency, expression, and delivery assessment uses. It would be great for a student to be able to hear themselves, be able to make changes in their speaking and communicating, and see their progress through the year. (Podcasting is physical proof too for those teachers who need work samples!)
~Another use is its copyright lesson. Along with learning about copyrighting, students can learn about plagiarism in a new sense.
~I love that podcasts can help students be interactive with their peers, their community, and possibly the world. As mentioned in an earlier blog and earlier readings, when students are responsible to a larger audience, they will more-than-likely take more time and care in and have more pride in their work.
~Finally, who wouldn’t want to podcast?! It’s a way to incorporate technology in the classroom, it gets students working collaboratively with their peers, puts them on the Internet as published writers, and they can share it with whomever they choose.

Final Thoughts: Smartboards- could be used to introduce the applications used for creating podcast, along with their other teaching applications!