Podcasting - Week Five and Week Six

Podcasting is a powerful tool for both expressive and receptive educational purposes, as well as enhancing personal life. There are a variety of online resources to assist in the creation of podcasts by students. Likewise, podcasts for all topics are being cataloged on the web for public viewing.

If you are interested in “what is podcasting”, “where to find podcasts”, and “how to podcast”, this is the most comprehensive one stop shop I’ve found available. The intriguing thing about this link is you can download the booklet, listen to a podcast about the booklet, and there is a whole website built around podcasts to support it. Great resource!

• http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/booklet.html

Further, if you are looking for great podcasts for personal and/or educational use, the following sites have great potential.

• www.audible.com - small fee for use; great base of audio books
• www.masterymaze.com - well done podcasts for use in upper grade levels
• www.librivox.com - literature recordings; option to become volunteer recorder
• www.podomatic.com - click on ‘podcasts’ to find a large directory of podcasts.
• www.podcast.com - a personal favorite for finding high quality podcasts

If you want to create your own podcasts, you might check out these tools first.

• www.audacity.sourceforge.net - has come highly recommended on a consistent basis online and within my tech community
• www.podcast.com - has capability for adding podcasts
• www.podomatic.com - create an account and follow steps to create podcasts

Cannot find what you are looking for? Mashable is one site to visit for all that is new on the web. Follow this link to its podcasting toolbox for 70+ podcasts and resources.

• http://mashable.com/2007/07/04/podcasting-toolbox/

In summary, the potential for use of podcasts for educational purposes is incredible! I believe podcast integration will be very unique to each classroom and learning situation. It is the responsibility of the educator to network with others and learn how to maximize use of this very powerful web tool! Good luck!

Teacher Tools - Week Four

This week has been an amazing journey through the cyber-land of Web 2.0. I believe the most important thing this exploration period has done for me is developed more of a comfort level with the online world. I have to admit that I have tried out online tools that I may never have if it weren’t for this class. This isn’t because I didn’t know about them, but I felt I didn’t have enough information and I do worry about privacy issues. This week I have learned that aside from privacy issues, these tools are too “cool” not to try! I now have a file of bookmarks started titled Web 2.0 Productivity Tools. I will be scheduling time in my week to continue exploration of the Wonderful World of the Web!

I found so many tools this week, it’s almost overwhelming. One tool I am utilizing right away with my students is the “create a graph” site. This is a site you can go onto and input information to create different types of simple graphs. Once you input the information, you can change the type of graph to see how your information looks at pretty much the click of a key. If you make a mistake in labeling the wrong axis, you go back and fix it within seconds. These graphs are then printable, but even better, students can e-mail their work to the teacher!

*check out the “create a graph” website at:
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/

*check out my screencast about this website at:
Create_A_Graph_screencast_by_Jenn_Miller

As a teacher, I feel this resource provides an exciting presentation tool for my students to use in their final projects on graphing. It also allows them multiple opportunities to extend their learning as they can manipulate the variables for the graph within seconds, including changing the type of graph they put their data into instantly! They need not even have to print the final graphs out, as they can e-mail them to me for final viewing. Once in the e-mail format, I can even share their product with their family via e-mail.