Wednesday 20 February 2013

podcast's- more technology for your classroom

I have never really thought about podcast's being used for education purposes. I usually thought sports when I thought podcast's, maybe because that's what I see on TV, and because I am not really acquainted with the use of podcast's and don't know there full potential. I thought it was kind of neat that I was about to do a blog post on podcast's and I actually found a science lesson plan that used a podcast. Interesting how things work.
So to begin I went to my iTunes to check out what was available for my education podcast search, and what do you know, there are thousands and thousands of podcast's on exactly the topic I want, education. I found an interesting one call Teacher's Aid. There was 27 podcast's on a variety of topics. I chose to listen to one entitled "Keeping up with the pace of Technology." They discussed how technology is always changing and its hard for "older" or maybe perhaps "wiser" teachers to adapt to all this change. They start by discussing the challenges, then the variety of guests shared successes they have had with technology, which were many. After, it was discussed where to begin with the use of technology and how to find resources to help you along the way. The first two things that were suggested for helping those of us who are more technologically challenged was to create your own blog of your experiences and to go on twitter and find a hashtag in your field of study and build from there!
I really like the idea of a podcast. I enjoy talk radio in the morning so maybe instead I'll listen to some podcast's on issues or ideas in education, and become more educated?!? Who knows!? I like the fact that some of them are short, they share a snippet of information, some are longer but don't over work the issue. As I mentioned before I was planning a science lesson and as I was researching some ideas for my weather unit and I came across one that was really interesting. The class would record the weather for the week and the different variables and at the end of the week they would do a daily news/weather report and create a podcast. This hit on two of the outcomes for the unit, it included technology and it was something different that I thought was kind of neat. I am sure there are plenty of other ideas out there, and I would really like to explore them, I feel like podcast's could become very incorporated into my classroom. Another idea that just popped into my head was just a daily report about the class, what we have learned etc and post the podcast on a class blog for parents to listen too.....hmmmmm ideas are swirling in my brain right now. Cool. So if you get a chance, check out podcast's (and they don't have to be education related) search something you're interested in, give it a listen and learn more. (So maybe it is education related because you're learning....!)

-LB

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