When I become a media specialist, I would sincerely hope that at least one teacher would approach me about podcasting. In that way, I could be honest with this person and explain that though I am no expert in this area, I would certainly be willing to learn as much about it as possible. Having someone with you when you naviagating uncharted waters is always a great help. First, the teacher and I would sit down together and discuss how we would like to approach the possiblity of creating podcasts. How do we learn the information we need to know to be successful? What technical personnel is available to answer any questions we may have?
If no teacher approached me first, then I may even choose a teacher to collaborate with that I thought would be open and responsive to new ideas. We would start out slow by learning one particular skill such as recording our voices and playing them back to see how we could improve the quality of the sound. Later, we could add music and/or sound effects. Then, I think we would try podcasting in the teacher's classroom with the students. We could have the students record the morning announcements or a short book report. Once other teachers have seen what podcasting can do, they may enthusiatically join in as well. The more teachers that begin to use podcasting with their students, the more creative ideas will be developed and implemented within the school. Some useful ways to include podcasting in the school could be:
Students recording their own voice while reading and then playing the audio back to check for fluency and pronunciation.
Students becoming an important historical person and recording a narration telling about a significant historical event involving their person. The student could even pretend to be that person by using first person point of view.
Student doing a recording that explains and narrates their science project.
Students reporting on a current news event.
Two students having a debate about a particular topic. One could take the pro side and the other the con side.
There are many valid and varied possibilities for using podcasting in education. This technology is an exciting new tool that can be used to challenge and enrich the student, the teacher, and the media specialist.
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2 comments:
I am really impressed that you would seek out a teacher to ask to help start the podcasting program. I would be honored if a media specialist came to me with a new technology and asked if I would help start using it in the school. Your future school will find a lot of value in such a proactive media specialist. Not many media specialists would go after a new project. Most do not want to take on novel technologies, and I think it is great that you would initiate the move if no one else did.
To be honest I did not apply podcasting to as many areas as you mention in the last part of your post. I guess I approached it a little less creatively, but you have expressed some intriguing ideas for students to use podcasting. Using some of your suggestions and going even further, if students are taught to be experts at podcasting they could use the form for almost any performance assessment that required them to communicate some ideas or information. I would be thrilled as a teacher to be able to have all of my students’ projects on one page on the internet. I could listen, assess, and grade all at the same time. I knew that podcasting held some great opportunities for education and students, but your post really added to my understanding with new insight. If I were currently in the classroom, I think I would try it for an assessment with a language arts project.
You have so many ideas that I didn't even consider. My favorite is using podcasts to work on fluency and pronunciation with readers. I think that's a great idea. We used to do something similar using cassette tape recorders. Also, did you see Dorina's idea for using podcasts to take virtual field trips? Celeste pointed out that podcasts are already being used at museums and art galleries for self guided tours. The podcast/powerpoint presentation at science fairs and at job fairs is another good utilization of this technology. Paul
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