Saturday's class focused on "Podcasts & Vodcasts." I'm a subscriber to a number of podcasts ("Stuff You Missed in History Class," "On Being," "The Dinner Party," "Father Matt Pennington's Homilies," "Learn Out Loud," and others) so I was more than vaguely familiar with the topic from an audience perspective. What was surprising and exciting about the class was learning to make these kinds of presentations myself. Cheng helped our group address some technical "intricacies," but once we figured out what we were doing, we soared, preparing a series of short presentations around the same topic ... the small town of Animas, NM. In our first (Cheng scaffolded) podcast, Lupita and I hosted a imaginary program on small towns in New Mexico. Our guest for the day, Erica, a resident of Animas, answered questions about the town's size, location, history, economy, and so forth. It was thrilling. From there, we developed another (mostly independent) podcast on "Elephants in Animas." In this segment, Erica asked questions of Lupita and me about the fictional Las Cruces Zoo and how her students in Animas might learn about them via podcasts. From there, we did a call-in vodcast show where listeners (notably "Jonathan" in Albuquerque and "Tex" in El Paso) asked questions about Animas to the host.
Within an hour, we can created a short, linked series that required us to use a broad array of skills, including newly developed ones. Besides having a great deal of fun and simply reveling in the joy of learning, I realized how many skills I needed (and a student would need) to use for this kind of activity -- planning, teamwork, curiosity, developing questions, oral fluency, thinking on the fly, dealing with unforeseen problems/obstacles, making transitions, and more! In the past (i.e., before this class), I would have been very hesitant to try using this kind of technology or any other technology that seemed out of my reach (basically anything beyond a telephone!). However, that hesitancy if quickly fading. In fact, I saw a Learnist (kind of like Pinterest, but for educators) posting this morning called "Transform Your Classroom One Video at a Time." I skipped to #10, which was a Ken Burns-style documentary on the Civil War that a group of 8th graders developed. I'm not sure I'm "there" yet, but I'm definitely feeling excited about the possibilities of all technology in the classroom, including podcasts and vodcasts. Oh, the possibilities!
BTW: In case you're interested, here's the link to the Learnist post mentioned above: http://learni.st/users/art.titzel/boards/12314-transform-your-class-one-video-at-a-time?utm_source=Learnist%2BNew&utm_campaign=58bf1b13a4-Learnist_Digest_26_02_19_2013&utm_medium=email
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Podcasts & Vodcasts ... Oh, the possibilities!
Saturday's class focused on "Podcasts & Vodcasts." I'm a subscriber to a number of podcasts ("Stuff You Missed in History Class," "On Being," "The Dinner Party," "Father Matt Pennington's Homilies," "Learn Out Loud," and others) so I was more than vaguely familiar with the topic from an audience perspective. What was surprising and exciting about the class was learning to make these kinds of presentations myself. Cheng helped our group address some technical "intricacies," but once we figured out what we were doing, we soared, preparing a series of short presentations around the same topic ... the small town of Animas, NM. In our first (Cheng scaffolded) podcast, Lupita and I hosted a imaginary program on small towns in New Mexico. Our guest for the day, Erica, a resident of Animas, answered questions about the town's size, location, history, economy, and so forth. It was thrilling. From there, we developed another (mostly independent) podcast on "Elephants in Animas." In this segment, Erica asked questions of Lupita and me about the fictional Las Cruces Zoo and how her students in Animas might learn about them via podcasts. From there, we did a call-in vodcast show where listeners (notably "Jonathan" in Albuquerque and "Tex" in El Paso) asked questions about Animas to the host.
Within an hour, we can created a short, linked series that required us to use a broad array of skills, including newly developed ones. Besides having a great deal of fun and simply reveling in the joy of learning, I realized how many skills I needed (and a student would need) to use for this kind of activity -- planning, teamwork, curiosity, developing questions, oral fluency, thinking on the fly, dealing with unforeseen problems/obstacles, making transitions, and more! In the past (i.e., before this class), I would have been very hesitant to try using this kind of technology or any other technology that seemed out of my reach (basically anything beyond a telephone!). However, that hesitancy if quickly fading. In fact, I saw a Learnist (kind of like Pinterest, but for educators) posting this morning called "Transform Your Classroom One Video at a Time." I skipped to #10, which was a Ken Burns-style documentary on the Civil War that a group of 8th graders developed. I'm not sure I'm "there" yet, but I'm definitely feeling excited about the possibilities of all technology in the classroom, including podcasts and vodcasts. Oh, the possibilities!
BTW: In case you're interested, here's the link to the Learnist post mentioned above: http://learni.st/users/art.titzel/boards/12314-transform-your-class-one-video-at-a-time?utm_source=Learnist%2BNew&utm_campaign=58bf1b13a4-Learnist_Digest_26_02_19_2013&utm_medium=email
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Hi Roberta,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you enjoyed the class. You are right that podcasting and vodcasting involve a series of skills and talents that we expect our chidlren to develop in school. Podcasting and vodcasting are very rewarding once you master them. By the way, thank you for sharing the website Learnist. I like it very much.