The educational podcast I chose to follow is produced by the University of South Florida and is called Technology in K-12 Lesson Plans (Grades 3-5). The podcast provides ideas for innovative technology practices that can be used in lessons plans in a variety of subject areas. The podcast topics range from poetry movies, to caring for your iBooks, to dinosaurs.
Most of the podcasts are short so I checked out a few of them. The first one I watched was a sample piece of work made by children, a poetry movie. The podcast was photographs of teachers in practice set to background music. There was a child's voice reading an inspirational poem. The clip was about a minute long but was very well done. It was clear that the children had rehearsed and planned out how they would read. I really enjoyed this piece and it seemed very doable for a 3-5 classroom. Another podcast was from a third grade teacher describing how her students produced their own podcasts on friendship. It was inspiring to hear another educator talk about how she uses technology in her classroom and how capable her students were after only a short time at using the technologies.
Podcasts are great! There seems to be no shortage of them, and a teacher need only find the good ones and chuck the rest.
ReplyDeleteI have a question for you. How would you incorporate podcasts into your curriculum? I know that there is no shortage of social studies related podcasts, and I would definitely assign them as homework/extra credit. Any other ways you see for potential use in the classroom?
I like the idea of extra credit work relating to podcasts. But I think that kids are ready for podcasts in the classroom beyond using them for extra credit. Podcasts are a great way to reinforce listening comprehension. There are podcasts that are read alouds of popular stories and these can be great for following along or at a listening center in reading. I also think that there is great potential for students to create their own podcasts. With simply a webcam and a microphone (or a Mac computer) children are on their way to podcasting. With a little direction, some room to be creative, and trust that they can figure out the technology, children can use their imaginations to make their own podcasts.
ReplyDeleteAnother potential use that I thought about was just to review the material you have already taught for that week. Spend a few minutes recording your own podcast summing up what went on in class for anyone to look at.
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of students with chronic absence problems during my student-teaching experience. This is a great way to help them stay caught up with what's going on in class.
Excellent, excellent point about the use of podcasting reinforcing listening skills. Also, involving children in the creation of podcasting can be a wonderfully collaborative assignment and really help them demonstrate critical thinking.
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