Podcast Blog: Week One Blog
"Pod" "Casts" in the Classroom!
By: Barry
One creator shapes the technology around us:
The recent death of Apple’s creator and former CEO, Steve Jobs, brings about many blog discussions, podcast presentations and video uploads on YouTube about one of the technology world’s greatest loss. It seems rather fitting that many people found out about the death of Steve Jobs while surfing the net, working on a computer or catching up with friends on the social network site-Facebook.
The world of technology and computing has been advanced with the many products invented and influenced by him under his guidance at Apple. These innovations allowed Jobs to be one of the most respected technology creators allowing the technology to be used so that our lives would be better because of them .He had an aptitude for making technologies useful and fun while transforming commercial products that could be used in ordinary households by ordinary people.
The world of technology and computing has been advanced with the many products invented and influenced by him under his guidance at Apple. These innovations allowed Jobs to be one of the most respected technology creators allowing the technology to be used so that our lives would be better because of them .He had an aptitude for making technologies useful and fun while transforming commercial products that could be used in ordinary households by ordinary people.
Some of the innovations that shaped the technology industry today include:
- The first Apple Computer that revolutionized the classrooms in the early 1980’
- Itunes and the ipod that made music and the Mp3 portable
- Iphone revolutionized the cell phone market with the first touch screen technology
- Apple TV products for home media consumption
- Apple iPad as the first tablet introducing portable computing and media needs
- Help developed the technology for the Podcast
These inventions developed by Apple and Steve Jobs have helped to pave the way for other computer, smartphones, broadcasting and wireless technology developments for future classrooms. These developments have dramatically changed how we communicate, teach, develop lesson plans, and interact socially and professionally as a culture.
One of the many inventions important to the media, broadcasting, business, teaching and learning environments has become known as the Podcast. The term,” Podcast” derives from Mr. Jobs’,” Original iPod” and the term, “Broadcast”. These words -POD and -CAST were combined together to create this useful tool for sharing information with the world around us!
What is a Podcast?
A podcast can be used in any environment but for this particular blog introduction I am describing it in terms of an educational setting. An educational Podcast is an audio and/or video (VODCAST) file that you can create or download from the Internet and listen on any media device including computers, tablets and smartphones. Again, originally it was used on the ipod device created my Steve Jobs because it was one of the first technology devices to allow portability.
What can Podcasts do in the classroom?
Since you can choose your type of podcast downloads many teachers can utilize them in the class to teach certain lessons as an additional source of classroom technology. Podcasts can also be created by your classroom to teach others what you are doing in your lessons and projects with the students (See Link on developing your own podcasts below). This is fairly easy as long as you have the proper technology to record and make an interesting conversation/broadcast about your subject choice.
Since you can choose your type of podcast downloads many teachers can utilize them in the class to teach certain lessons as an additional source of classroom technology. Podcasts can also be created by your classroom to teach others what you are doing in your lessons and projects with the students (See Link on developing your own podcasts below). This is fairly easy as long as you have the proper technology to record and make an interesting conversation/broadcast about your subject choice.
There are many RSS feeds and Podcasting sites that you can use to search the latest subject and interest. The great thing about subscribing to your podcast is that it will always automatically update any new podcasts available to you. However, you can still choose to download any individual podcast that you think you may be able to use in your classroom without subscribing.
Many educational Podcasts can be found for free by doing a topic search in Google and downloading them onto a saved storage device. As podcasts can range in length and information so can the file size so make sure your have enough storage to fully download the complete file!
I have used podcasts with my theatre kids that we created and they absolutely loved the idea of writing and creating their own rather than downloading from some other source. Either way you use podcast in the classroom you are expanding new ideas and using the latest technology to create a fun classroom activity for your group.
Follow this link to learn how to create your own Podcasts that can be used in the classroom:
Classroom Podcast Sample:
Student Podcast Example from Dr. Cooper
Other Podcast Resources:
Podcasting: A Definition
This Wikipedia article gives a good history of the phenomenon and provides helpful links to tools and examples.
This Wikipedia article gives a good history of the phenomenon and provides helpful links to tools and examples.
Educational Podcasting Resources
This list ranges from "What is Podcasting?" to "How Do You Create Podcasts?"
This list ranges from "What is Podcasting?" to "How Do You Create Podcasts?"
Four Minutes on Podcasting
An excellent movie called Four Minutes About Podcasting. It is about what a podcast is and how to get started listening to them.
An excellent movie called Four Minutes About Podcasting. It is about what a podcast is and how to get started listening to them.
How To: Podcasting
A nice overview on podcasting by Engadget. This series of articles provides information on how to find and listen to podcasts as well as how to create them.
A nice overview on podcasting by Engadget. This series of articles provides information on how to find and listen to podcasts as well as how to create them.
Podcasting Tools
A great resource for all things related to podcasting. This site features "how to" articles, tools for creating and managing audio, and links to all the major podcast directories.
A great resource for all things related to podcasting. This site features "how to" articles, tools for creating and managing audio, and links to all the major podcast directories.
I like the Podcasting Tools website you suggest, especially the pages that include links to different directories of podcasts. In the past I have made “pathfinders” for students, which included bibliographies of print resources and links to online resources to help them do research on a particular topic. I think it would be great to include podcasts in these research pathfinders as well. The podcasting directories on this website would be helpful for doing this.
ReplyDelete-Terese Scheiderich
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ReplyDeleteI liked the way that you gave an example of how you have used podcasts as an educator. I am really in the slow lane when it comes to podcasting. For the past two years, I've been somewhat of a hybrid teacher so to speak. At times, I've been the technology teacher and at other times, I've been the in-house troubleshooting person as well as a substitute teacher when classroom teachers have been out. For these reasons, I haven't had much time to incorporate new technology into my classroom. I love the idea of creating podcast with your students but I need to have an authentic reason for creating them other than it's the latest cool thing. I hope in the future I am able to show my students how to make one as I do feel like it's a valuable skill for them to have as they enter high school. Thanks for listing so many great resources.
ReplyDelete- Michelle H.
Today's student is being born in the generation that Steve Jobs helped create with all of his technological advances. Our kids have never known what it is to grow up without an ipod or a cellphone or a computer. They may not always have access to them, but they certainly know what they are and how to use them.
ReplyDeleteAs teachers, we are now in the position of having to market to our students to keep them interested. I agree with Michelle that while the idea of creating a podcast is fascinating, it is also rather time consuming and most teachers need practical reasons to introduce them in the classroom. However, it is my belief that if we are to reach our students, we must redevelop our method of teaching and adapt to the technology that our students have been raised with.
Therefore, the following are practical reasons why utilizing podcasts (and other advanced technology) in the classroom is a necessity.
Such technology will...
1. Get students' attention
2. Appeal to different learning styles
3. Teach them how to use technology in a positive and appropriate manner
4. Give them marketable job skills
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for you comments and sharing your ideas on my podcast blog. I do agree that it is time consuming and that you must have a reason to introduce the podcast to a class. I have used it as a teaching tool for kids to use their voice as I am a theater/chorus teacher.
This gave them a fun project that had a concrete project that they can be proud of in the end. They were able to email and share the podcast with family and friends.
Of course, like all other projects, you can make them as complex as needed. Some do offer more sound and video quality, but students do enjoy to do this.
They will surely be able to teach you some things!
Barry