My trash podcast

Here’s a podcast I made in a workshop today.  It’s a silly story, but it was all made on a PC using Audacity and a song I downloaded from freeplaymusic.com .  You don’t have to have a Mac to make a podcast!

Your homework 2/27

After reviewing several podcasts in today’s session, I hope you have a basic grasp of what podcasting is and an inkling of how you can use it with your students.  You should also know where to look to find podcasts that will work for you.

Your homework (drumroll….)

1. Review the podcasts in my previous blog entries along with ones you find in the various directories we looked at.  You can check out the ones in iTunes, too.
2. Find 2 podcasts that spark ideas about how you can use podcasting with your students.
3. List the name of the podcasts in a comment on this entry, and tell me what you found interesting in them.
4. Come next week with an idea in your head about a podcast you can create in next week’s session.

That is all!

Sample Podcasts

If you want to get started in podcasting, I think the best first step is to begin listening to podcasts that other people are creating. This gives you a feel for what kinds of things you can do in a podcast. Of course, don’t be limited by what others are doing; use their ideas as a foundation, but make sure to add your own ideas as well!

Here are some podcast sources that I particularly like. Check them out and tell me what you think!

Places to find podcasts:
The iTunes Store (Look for the application iTunes on your computer. If you don’t have it, you can download it for free at http://www.apple.com/itunes.)
The Podcast Directory
Podcast Genres on PodcastAlley.com
Podcasts from PBS
NPR: Podcast Directory

General Education Podcasts:
Education Podcast Directories:
The Education Podcast Network
Podcasts by Broward County Public Schools
Podcasts for Educators, Schools, and Colleges

Podcasts on Technology in Education:
Connect Learning, with David Warlick
Geek!Ed! Technology in Education
Bit by Bit

Education-related Podcasts for the Community:
ABSS TechTalk Podcasts
English as a Second Language Podcast

Examples of Single-topic Education-related Podcasts:
Grammar Girl
Tech Time with Mr. S

Podcasts from Elementary Schools:
Room 208
Radio WillowWeb
Patton Podcasts (click on Technology, then Podcast)
Bobby Bucket Podcasts
Kathy Garrison’s Class Podcasts (look under Class Files for Our Class Podcasts)

Podcasts from Middle Schools:
Mabry Online Podcast Central
Famous Mathematicians (look under Class Downloads for Famous Mathematician podcasts)

Podcasts from High Schools:
Mr. Ring’s Science-Minerals

General information on Podcasting

If you understand blogging, you already understand podcasting. Many of the concepts are the same, and the advantages in using blogging with students also apply to podcasting. The biggest difference is that blogging is done using text, while podcasting uses audio and video.

There are 3 basic kinds of podcasts:

• Audio
  • Advantages: small in file size, easy to create and edit, easy to listen to “on the go”
  • Weaknesses: in a visually-oriented society, some find they lack something
• Video
  • Advantages: appeal to visually-oriented people
  • Weaknesses: much larger in file size, much more complicated to edit
• Enhanced
  • Advantages: combine the advantages of both while avoiding the weaknesses of both
  • Weaknesses: limited to iTunes and iPods

Check out these sites to find basic information on what a podcast is and how to create one.

Wikipedia article on podcasting
Podcasting 101
Learning in Hand – Podcasting in Education
K12 Education: Odvard Egil Dyrli on Podcasting
Podcasting Tools
Podcasting, it’s easier than you think

She hit the nail on the head!

Frances Bradburn, Director of Instructional Technology for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, said this in her latest blog entry (you can find it at http://itdivision.blogspot.com/2007/02/i-have-vision-of-school.html):

I have a vision of a school . . .

Some of us are in Facilitative Leadership training this week. Today our assignment is to promote a vision. I thought I’d share my vision with those of you who read this blog.

I have a vision of a school in which:

• Learning takes place 24/7/7, with caring adults present who are passionate about their own learning and can convey that passion to their students;
• High-speed ubiquitous connectivity gives students and teachers opportunities to collaborate with experts and each other from around the world–or in the next classroom;
• Resources are available as needed regardless of format. Students and teachers know when and how to use the most appropriate tool for the assignment;
• Teachers collaborate with the school library media coordinator and technology facilitator to create units of instruction that reflect and validate their students’ knowledge and experiences, yet push them to stretch and grow to reach their highest potential;
• Children are surrounded by a culture of reading and learning that assumes that everyone in the school will be successful, well-read, and a life-long learner;
• Parents are educated side-by-side with their children regardless of education or income level, so that they too are successful life-long learners who stimulate and encourage their children’s learning–and stick around;
• A community reflects the values and success of its schools, attracting business and industry because of its educational priorities and vision, so that everyone in the community has the opportunity to care for their families and live out the American dream.

These are the schools of the 21st Century–education 24/7/7, life-long learning from cradle to grave, a piece of the American dream for all.

Wow! I believe Ms. Bradburn is absolutely correct and beautifully describes where we should be going in our schools. What do you think?

Your blog

Please reply to this post with the address of your blog. Thanks!

Blogging tools

To write blogs:
http://www.wordpress.com/
http://www.blogger.com/start
http://www.bloglines.com/
http://www.typepad.com/
http://www.livejournal.com/

To write education blogs:
http://edublogs.org/

http://learnerblogs.org/

http://www.classblogmeister.com/

To read blogs:
http://www.google.com/reader
http://www.bloglines.com/

Sites about blogs:
http://technorati.com/blogs/
http://www.blogsearchengine.com/
http://search.blogger.com/
http://www.blogarama.com/
http://www.blogpulse.com/

Blogs students should know about:
http://www.blogsafety.com/
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/crunch/ (technically not a blog)

http://digikid.blogsome.com/

Your homework 1/23

Congratulation on surviving our first session together! For your homework:

1. Write 1 comment on any of the posts that I have written in this blog.
2. Take some time to look around in each of the blogs I have listed in the “Blogging in Education theory” post.

• Find a post that you agree with or that you disagree with.
• Highlight the URL for that post and copy it.
• Then, in this post, write a comment with the following:
  • Paste the address of the post you chose.
  • Tell why you chose it.
  • Tell why you agree or disagree with it.

3. Write 1 comment on any comment done by someone in our class (see #1 above).
4. Optional but requested: in the “Blogging in Education theory” post, click on the last link (“A great place to look for more”). Click on the plus sign beside EDTECHS. Look at a few of the blogs listed there. If you find one that you think needs to be added to the main list on the post, write a comment with the name of the blog and why you think it should be added.

This homework is due by the beginning of our next session, Feb. 6.

Blogging in Education theory

http://english4040.blogspot.com/2006/01/blogging-as-good-conversation.html
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Plus ones in my Links section:
2 Cents Worth
learning.now
pedersondesigns
TechLearning blog
We Blog
Weblogg-ed

And a great place to hunt for more:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/shareski

Why blog? Why not face-to-face conversation?

When I taught this course last spring, the question came up – why are we moving away from face-to-face conversation and to something more distant, like blogging? Shouldn’t we be encouraging students to talk with each other more?

I don’t feel that blogging will completely take the place of talking to each other, any more than I feel that online instruction will completely replace face-to-face instruction (but that’s another topic altogether!). Like most things in life, it’s not either/or but both/and. I love the synergy that goes on when people get to talking and the ideas start flowing, and I don’t want to lose that. But, I do see that blogs have some advantages:

1. They broaden the audience. We all know shy people who will never speak up in class, but these same people might be willing to express their thoughts in a blog. Blogs also broaden the audience by opening the conversation up to people who were not in class that day and, possibly, to people in cyberspace.

2. They deepen the response. When engaged in a conversation (like ones I have with y’all), I don’t always have the time to think through what I’m going to say. When I’m writing, however, I think it through more thoroughly and choose my words more carefully.

3. They provide a record. With blogs, you can always go back and read what others said or what you said. I don’t know how many times I’ve pulled up an e-mail I saved in order to refresh my memory. That’s kind of hard to do with a face-to-face conversation – especially if you’re as forgetful as I am!

4. They expand the time. We’re all so pushed with the things we have to cover in our limited time in class. When we can move the discussion outside of class – either in assignments where people are expected to post to a blog or in thoughts we just want them to read or think about – this eases the time crunch a bit. Of course, they may see this as just another homework assignment – but kids get more enthusiastic about blogging than about writing a paper, guaranteed!

If I keep going, I won’t have anything to talk in class! I’ll hush now and let you post your comments.