Blog Assignment #5

Podcasting in the Classroom

Link to Podcasting in the Classroom

This video was excellent for the future podcaster. This classroom podcast not only helped me but I can see how the students are far more engaged as well. I am a future social studies teacher so this was very relevant for me since Mr. Dell was doing a podcast for his social studies class. I think when students are speaking things into existence instead of reading them can be very instrumental in their remembrance of the material. The fact that their podcasts were available to their parents was awesome for them to be able to interact with their child's studies. Podbean.com is available for teachers to use to aid them in making podcasts in the classroom.

I saw kids that were totally engaged in their work instead of wandering off into space which can often happen during social studies. During one podcast, Mr. Dell had other teachers read from a book that was part of a lesson. The kids could then hear tone of voice which brings a book to life instead of words just jumbled up on a page. It takes an amount of discipline for a child to be fully engaged into a book and I think this is a wonderful process by which they will enjoy their future readings. Reading is still very relevant but this can help them understand the material better. Podcasting is great learning tool and should be incorporated as needed to reach a higher level of learning.

Education Podcast Network of EPN
Here's a Link to EPN

The Education Podcast Network can be similar to your PLN. This website allows teachers from all over to access podcasts and information involved in them as a way to incorporate it into their class. This is a great way for teachers to get involved outside the classroom and do some studying and learning to get things moving in the world of podcasting. Since podcasting has become very important for teaching lessons to absent or sick students, this is a great way for us to come up with better ideas than we would normally have.

Teachers can collaborate on this website through joint planning to get more ideas. Information that this normally not readily available can be reached at this spot. I have bookmarked this page so that I can use their ideas and hopefully make them my own. This is also a nice tool to be able to interact with other teachers who may have more information and a better knowledge in the area of podcasting.

Judy Scharf Podcast Collection
Link to Judy's Collection

Judy has posted a lesson on how to do podcasts and some ideas that you may need in order to use this special piece of the internet. I wish I would have seen this before I did my podcast a few weeks ago. It gives a lot of information that is very useful before starting a project. She gives a great lesson on how to start the podcast and what sites to get to know such as audacity.com and iTunes. I probably would have had some better ideas before I jumped right into casting. I will use some of her tutorials before my next podcast and this looks like a great interactivity for the students.