Adventures in Podcasting

The Odyssey: Highlighting Odysseus

Brittnay Bailey's Podcast

This is going to sound weird, but I never knew how easy and difficult creating a podcast was. Like, the act itself is really simple, all you need is a microphone, but the preparation, figuring out what you want to talk about, finding a quiet place to record, that was much, much harder, and I tip my hat to those who do it regularly, and those who do it effortlessly well. I had a bit of trouble with recording on the PodOmatic site, but downloaded Audacity and everything worked out splendidly(speaking of, I'm looking forward to playing around with that a bit more, looks like good times). I definitely had more problems with figuring out what to talk about, jumping from subject to subject, writing a bit, starting over, and then changing subjects again. I finally settled on sharing my views on the characterization of Odysseus from The Odyssey, as it was my favorite thing to teach last year, and I think there's room to grow.

I can definitely see the benefit and potential Podcasting has in the classroom. It's a great tool for projects, and again makes students' work more public, so there's more at stake than just the teacher reading or listening. It would also be great for teachers to use. While I don't think lecturing in the classroom is the best way to impart knowledge, having a podcast version of short lectures could be beneficial, allowing students to download and listen as they need to, giving the option of rewinding and pausing. It's putting the teacher's knowledge into the students' hands, which is empowering, and could be especially helpful to homebound students that can't make it to the school for one reason or another. I'm quickly figuring out that embedding technology like podcasting into the classroom is the real way to make sure that no child is left behind.

Blogging & Twittering

While I always felt there was a way to turn blogging and twittering into and educational tool, after reading and watching the links provided, I am more confident than ever that the use of such internet tools will increase engagement as well as productivity in the classroom, and have come away with plenty of ideas and ways to incorporate them into my lesson plans (for whenever I get a class again).

There are really so many uses for blogging in the classroom. Whether you have a teacher blog, where the teacher posts and students comment; a classroom blog, where everyone has a fair shake on posting and commenting; individual student blogs; or all of the above, you're creating an online community that will bolster student engagement. While it's impossible to say that every student will now be interested in classwork because you've incorporated the computer and the internet into it, it's fair to say there will be, on average, a greater level of engagement. Today's students are intrinsically drawn to technology, and I think schools should adjust to this new wave of thinking and doing, rather than trying to pull kids back to "how it's always been." I would be very interested in having my class blog daily rather than keeping an in-class journal. I think in the long run it would be much more beneficial to them, as they increase typing and computing skills while understanding and participating in the way information is communicated today. In the absence of having daily access to computers, I believe blog projects would be beneficial, such as those presented here. My favorite parts of that video are that the students involved are relatively young, yet fully participating in this multi-tiered project, and that it incorporates so many different subjects, showing that blogging could be both used and beneficial to any subject available in the schools. And while there are risks in security, I think that's all the more reason to have blogging in school, to have someone really, logically point out the dangers and how to avoid them. Students are going to get online after school anyway, so why not help prepare them for what's out there?

Unlike blogging, which i both took to and could see an educational value for right away, I wasn't sold on the idea of twittering for a long time. It seemed so trivial and pointless, updating your every move so everyone could read, but did anyone really care? Then came Iran's stolen election, and the flood of tweets coming in real time exposing the government and providing an outlet for the rage felt, as well as keeping those not immediately involved up to date on what was going on. After that I understood that Twitter was not solely an "OMG, I just bought the cuuuuutest shoes" provider, but a new way to quickly share news and information happening around the world, and that many interesting and important people (amazingly there ARE people more interesting and important than our movie and TV celebrities) participated on Twitter. And now, thanks to this class, I'm learning and thinking of new ways Twitter could be used in the classroom. I loved the short story idea, and think involving Twitter in the classroom could really be revolutionary. It's become clear over the past few years that this generation is absolutely glued to their cell phones and iPods, so why not turn the toy into a learning tool? Of course along with the new technology will come new rules and regulations for the classroom, but honestly, it's about time we updated the schools to accommodate our students and the way they think and learn.

I've been on Twitter for awhile now, and am following a number of people, some close friends, some education networks, and a few celebrities I find interesting, insightful, or just plain funny. One of the networks I follow is Barak Obama. I don't care if you like him or hate him, the fact that our President twitters is damn cool. Not that he's "new and edgy", but that he understands how he people of his country go about things, and has made himself available to them.

Photo by Samantha Morra
Photo by Stitch