Sunday, July 6, 2008
Unit 3 Integrating Podcasts and Vodcasts into Your Curriculum
Now that you have discovered the power podcasts and vodcasts, please go to the class blog page and reflect on how you plan on integrating pre-recorded podcasts or vodcasts into your curriculum. Share some of your favorite titles with the class.
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Some of my favorite podcasts and vodcasts were created by Sesame Street, Hooked on Phonics, and National Geographic. I found great songs and videos to reinforce letters and sounds, science topics, and just great visuals to share with my kindergarten students. I could really see using podcasts and vodcasts as a center activity for my students. They love having choices in their centers and perhaps having a list of podcasts they could choose from would encourage them to be more actively involved in their listening centers!
In my Kindergarten classroom we have enjoyed exploring several different podcasts and vodcasts. Our favorite has been Stories to Read, Words to Know Levels A-J. This podcast has been used during our literacy centers this past week for children to echo read and read along. It has helped the children gain confidence in reading aloud in the classroom. Another podcast that I'm excited to introduce my students to is Watch & Learn Reading Rockets. This podcast shows the students and myself several different reading strategies to use when learning to read. I've also taken a look at the Noodle & Doodle, by PBS Kids Sprout. I plan on using this podcast for various arts and crafts in the classroom. I'm actually going to use one of the crafts from this podcast in my science lesson this week. I plan to integrate podcasting into our center groups at least once or twice a week for the listening centers! This is a much cheaper way than purchasing books/cd's to listen to at the listening center.
My first thought when browsing the various Podcasts were my English Language Learning student. I found a multitude of resources that would enhance the learning experience for those students. I also found many Podcasts related to Science/Math. I think that this would benefit my current instructional strategies because I can reach the different types of learners that I have in my classroom. Furthermore, I will share these with my colleagues because the Podcasting world seems "untapped." Through conversations with teaching friends, I have found that we never discuss Podcasting. Ergo, I will share this resource with them- especially because it is a free resource.
I found many resources for the subjects that I teach during the assignment this week. I hope to be able to listen to these over the summer and incorporate many of them into my classroom next year. I found one vodcast (Ecogeeks) I hope to use next week in 5th grade Science, as we talk about biomes of the world. I also found some math podcasts/vodcasts that I hope to use as reinforcement of our curriculum (Brainingcamp and Math Lessons). I found some audio stories to use with my struggling students during center time for fluency modeling and comprehension practice. One vodcast I'm particularly interested in is Learning in Hand, which provides tips for using mobile devices in the classroom. I have a cart of iPads in my classroom that I would like to better utilize, and I am hoping this vodcast has some tricks to do so!
I found several great podcasts and vodcasts that I can use for professional development as I present information to staff on a weekly basis. Some of my favorites are from Reading Rockets and ASCD. I am continually looking for recommendations to give to parents for things that they can do at home with their children or resources available to them to help their children. I found several great resources for them to be able to interact at home with their children and enhance their education. SPLAT! For Kids looks like a lot of fun for students and parents to do some cooking together (measuring, reading technical information, kitchen safety). I will be able to use some of the book review podcasts for my students to listen to as they choose new books to read from the library with podcasts such as Brookline Book Reviews (and there were many other similar ones as well). If I taught in a regular classroom setting, I would use the CNN Student News daily with my class. I think it would be a wonderful way to enhance any Social Studies curriculum. I plan to recommend this one to parents and plan to have my own children watch these vodcasts as well. Lastly, I would like to explore more of the podcasts and vodcasts that support technology integration. I found one specifically for helping teachers use SmartBoard technology. This will be a great way for me to continue my own education as I learn to integrate technology.
I have to admit, I am very shocked by the amount of information that is already available for the teachers of the world! I found several different podcasts on reading fluency and comprehension; which are very important factors while at my current grade level. I loved the creativity that can be pulled into student learning when utilizing these free resources. One of my favorites was Listen to my Baby Monsters! It had children sharing a story they created, but they do not have a story ending. Students are then able to create their own story ending after listening to the podcast. This could be such an interesting activity as students focus on listening skills, writing skills, utilizing their creativity, and a final illustration. You can later focus on the speaking core standard by having students read their story endings to the class. I am personally eager to explore more of the podcasts that offer teachers more avenues of reaching their students, because it’s always wonderful to improve your teaching styles with the use of technology. This has been a very positive learning experience for me this week.
I found helpful podcast that teach me, as a teacher, new ways to make my Physical Education classroom more effective. Listening to podcasts and reflecting upon them and how I might use their suggestions into the classroom is one way I would implement podcast/vodcasts into the classroom. Another way is finding pre-recorded lessons of students (like jump rope and aerobic routines) and teach the students the skill. Once the individual skills are mastered I would put the routine found and project the routine to do as a class (this way the students are seeing their peers perform the same skill and are not always learning from the teacher.) Lastly, another way would be to find health podcast/vodcast and make this homework outside of the classroom to watch. I would later incorporate what they learned from the podcast into the classroom. As a P.E. teacher it is difficult to find ways to incorporate health concepts while still trying to keep them active as much as possible, in the minimal time we have.
I found several resources that provided information on using various sources of technology such as blogs, wikis, and other forms of social media. I plan on integrating these podcasts and video casts into my lectures to explain how students can properly use these tools in my class as well as other classes. The podcasts on teaching techniques will be used to give me ideas on instructional strategies to try in my classroom.
The resource assignment was significantly enlightening. To borrow a phrase from another class member I was very surprised at the "untapped" world of podcasts relevant to my subject area. It is quite apparent that this fountain of information will be of great use to both myself and my students in the future. There were many technique and tutorial type podcasts that were very relevant to my curriculum. MacBreak Studio was one of the favorite resources that I found and it is very specific to the software that I currently use to teach my class. The information here can be used as a refresher for both me and my students from time to time. It can also be used as a great exploratory tool to those more highly self-motivated students to advance themselves. I can see that having this information at hand can help diversify the information that I can get to my students. I plan to use MacBreak Studio along with a few of the other resources I found at the end of this school year as a test for how I can fully implement this avenue for students next year and beyond.
The great thing about podcasts and vodcasts is that they are FREE. Through this class, I have learned that podcasting can be great teaching tool for educators. As a history teacher, I can use podcasting and vodcasting in my classroom to share information with students. Podcasting would be a great supplemental activity as well. For example, I could have students complete assignments at home by listening to podcasts. Using podcasts as a supplemental teaching tool can be an engaging activity for students. This would be a great way to reinforce concepts and “big ideas” in history. Through the iTunes Store, I was basically able to find podcasts on most topics in history. This is also a great way for me to learn more about my content. For example, I subscribed a History of Rome podcast. I have never taught Roman History; therefore, listening to a podcast refreshed my memory on origins of the Roman Empire.
As part of my job, I must created high quality professional development for staff. At various times, staff need specific information, whether it be understanding theory, reviewing current research, learning specific instructional strategies, or reaffirming the direction in which we are headed in meeting our building/district goals. There are a variety of podcasts available for me to share with staff to meet our specific needs. One such podcast is Diane Ravitch on ArtsEdge. Diane Ravitch is an amazing speaker who reaffirms our educational system and the unfortunate implications of political decisions. When the media focuses on the negative aspects of education, Ravitch looks at the positives. TED Talks is a vodcast that can be incorporated in PD as well. The beauty of this is teachers can watch these prior to or after our meetings, which allows for meeting times to be focused on discussions.
After exploring this assignment I have found a variety of podcasts to use in my classroom. I really liked the CNN student news void cast. I think this would be a great vodcast to use in my 5th grade Social Studies classes. Also, I found vodcasts to help my students understand the features associated with Macintosh computers. Storynory is a podcast that would be beneficial in an independent workstation activity.Discovery Channel can also be used independently in workstation activities. I am looking forward to having my students access these podcasts and vodcasts using our classroom iPads and Macintosh computers. I think the use of technology in the classroom motivates students to learn. I would like to have students make their own podcasts to listen to on our classroom fusion pages. The use of podcasts and vodcasts will help to enhance technology in my classroom.
Kim A.
In my 9th grade English class (which I would call quasi-tradigital), there really is no limit to how I could use podcasting and vodcasting. I will first use it to give students a spoken version of our new vocabulary words that includes some thoughts on usage and part of speech. I could also read aloud current reading assignments so that poorer readers could hear it read as they read along. I think I will also give verbal instructions for each assignment.
As for others' podcasts... I could compile lists of podcasts for students to download that would provide background information on current and future units. I think I may even require students to find their own podcasts on certain topics. I can't wait...
This week has been a very eye-opening one for me. I found so many podcasting and vodcasting sites that I was somewhat overwhelmed with the volume and variety of resources out there. As a high school science teacher I was naturally excited to find so many useful series. Broadcasts from Science Friday, How Stuff Works, Discovery and NOVA lead the way in choices for me to incorporate into my regular curriculum. This will also provide a way to infuse more writing into the classes I teach, as I can use prompts from the different installments to spark class discussions and opportunities for the students to produce their own thoughts and reactions to the topics being presented. I also found a wealth of resources for educators. I am on the district professional development committee. So I was thrilled to find things like TEDTalks, Teachers Teaching Teachers, Teachers Improving Learning with Technology (TILT), 21st Century Learning (produced by ASCD), and The Teacher’s Podcast: The New Generation of Ed Tech Professional Development. Many ideas from these podcasts/vodcasts will be relevant and informative to the all the teachers in the district. I can also share the podcasts that I find with my colleagues, so they will be able to listen to them. This will in turn drive them to search for even more resources. I am beginning to get excited about how I can start using podcasts in my classes.
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