Labyrinth of Learning 2.0

dk’s Evoca Podcast

Podcasting truly is easy, engaging and fun once you have experimented with it a few times. My former students engaged in multimedia recording activities throughout the school year and they loved the experiences. Seeing the pride in their eyes and the happiness through their smile assured me that it truly was a valuable learning experience for them…which only encouraged me to create more podcasting and vodcasting activities aligned with our curriculum goals.

My Ideas for Podcasting in the Elementary Classroom:

• Creative Story-telling – record student narrating an original story; great for very young students who have not yet developed reading and writing skills
• Build Reading Fluency – record student reading a story passage and then allow the student to listen and critique their recording
• Foreign Language Lab – students listen to a prompt recorded in a foreign language and then respond to that prompt in the same language of study
• Author Studies
• Reporter for a Day
• Fieldtrip Reflections
• Historic Radio Shows
• Book Talks
• Poetry Readings
• Short Story audio recordings
• Reader’s Theatre – a great way to incorporate video as well, thus creating a Vodcast
• Research/Book Reports
• Oral Reports/Presentations – great for students who have a hard time speaking in front of an audience (like I did in school)
• How-to Videos/Tutorials
• Vocabulary Development
• Expert Interviews
• Class Discussions
• Debate
• Test Study Guides

Thing 17 - Intro to Podcasting; Explore some educational podcasts

~~~~~~~~

I have been a podcatcher and a podcaster for over three years now. I subscribe to over fifteen different podcast series using iTunes and often listen to them during my daily commute between school and home. The podcasts I find the most interesting and useful are those that help me to stay in touch with emerging trends and technologies.

Conference Connections, produced by Apple Distinguished Educators, delivers some of the most innovative content from the most exciting workshops, forums and discussions at leading technology conferences across the USA and around the world.

David Pogue, The New York Times personal-technology columnist, reports weekly on new technology in the video series Video: Technology | David Pogue. David Pogue Presents a fun, unbiased look at new technology. His reviews openly point out the things that we have all longed for the world to catch on to in a very humorous and clever way. He has a way of transforming a less than exciting topic like streaming or routers into something hilarious and understandable. Many technology reviews that I have come across have placed me into a sleep induced state of activity, it’s great to finally find one that is unique, interesting and humorous.

While I was teaching in the classroom, before coming to Trinity School to assume my role as an Instructional Technology Specialist, I produced a series of podcasts, entitled HighTech2, with my second grade students. I say that I am a “classroom podcaster” as I always produced episodes that involved and focused on the students in my class. Each and every time it was a very rewarding experience not only for myself, but also for my students and their families. My only regret is not having created them more often with my students.

Over the past few weeks, Mrs. Stafford and I have co-produced a series of student created podcasts entitled TrinityMD. The TrinityMD project was originally developed by Mrs. Stafford as part of a technology infused unit in correlation with the sixth grade TabletPC Program. The focus of this year’s project-based learning unit targeted diseases and disorders that affect the human body. We worked together to publish the series of podcast episodes on our school’s Project Source wikispace. I encourage you to visit the TrinityMD wiki and listen to the student’s final projects. You can view the TrinityMD podcast feed and subscribe to the series here.