Podcasting

Ok, I give up! I like to think of myself as being pretty tech savvy, but this one has me beat. I am not exactly a digital native - I was born just a few years too early for that - but I am familiar and comfortable enough with these tools to be able to figure most new things out just by "playing around" with them for a while, and transferring my knowledge of other technologies to the new ones I am learning. This process has served me well in the past, but not this time.

Create a podcast? Got it! Turn it into an Mp3? Sure! Teach kids the process? Absolutely! Post it on my wiki? No problem! But getting the darn thing into my blog? Not a chance! I'm sure I'm only missing some small little step, but after several frustrating failed attempts, I officially declare myself out-teched. Therefore, no podcast on this blog entry, or any other for the time being. If you'd like to check out the Intro to Moodle podcast I created for my teachers, you'll just have to view/hear it on my wiki. :(

As for podcasting in the classroom, this is one activity that my teachers really ran with last year. Almost any traditional report, presentation, or activity can easily be *tweaked* to take on the form of a podcast instead. I have science teachers who have turned the traditional lab report into an enhanced podcast instead. Students capture their experiment on film, then add background music and record a voice over narration about what is happening during the experiment, as well as their hypothesis and conclusion.

One of my math teachers took the process a bit further. She created an entirely new project called "Adopt an Anchor." Teams of students were each assigned one high school math Assessment Anchor (the concepts which PA uses to create our standardized tests). The students had to explore the math concept in their anchor, and then create a podcast to teach it to their peers. The podcast included an explanation of the Anchor, a sample problem, and step-by-step directions for solving it. Each of her students received a copy of all of the podcasts, which should be a valuable resource for them as they progress through their high school math classes.

These projects address many of the NETS for Students, including Creativity and Innovation, Communication and Collaboration, and Technology Operations and Concepts.