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As the media specialist at my school, I feel it is my job to find resources that will help a teacher in his or her new venture to start podcasting in the classroom. Giving him the article "Podcasting 101" by Kristin Fontichiaro would be an excellent way to explain what is involved in podcasting and the rewards of doing it. I also would show him examples of podcasts tha schools are already doing. I think the best thing for me to do is to have written instructions to hand out to teachers on how to do a podcast, and if several of them want me to do an in-service on how to podcast then this would be the most time efficient way of showing several people how to do it at the same time. Of course, I would still be available via e-mail or in person for questions as needed. My reasons for assisting any teacher who needs help with a new technology such a podcasting are because I feel it is part of my job. If I do not know how to do so something, then I can always find out or try to help that person find out.
Kristin
Kristin
Along with the Technology teacher lead in my school the media staff is working to learn more about podcasts. Many of our classrooms have been shown Radio Willow Web which has been a great motivator for students and teachers alike. The value of podcasts in education is two fold. Not only are they great informational tools for students but students of varying learning styles seem to enjoy and excel at the construction of podcasts. We recently inherited two laptops in our media center which we have set up in a conference room. We invited students (with teacher's permission) to use the laptops at specified times to play around with Audacity. The students love it and the teachers appreciate the enthusiasm and experimentation that the students are given.
We have not created any podcasts at the school in which I am employed, but I think it is about time to change that little problem! As I have learned more about podcasting, all of the wonderful benefits jump out at me and grab my attention.
I believe that podcasting would help the students become more interested in the required curriculum. I know just last week in my classroom, my third graders completed a PowerPoint presentation on Greece. They were thrilled to use technology to learn more about a social studies standard. However, I can't imagine the positive response I would get if they were provided the opportunity to complete a podcast relating to one of our third grade Georgia Performance Standards.
I am hoping that at some point during this school year, our media specialist will learn more about podcasting and it can become something that occurs often at our school instead of something that is not existing at all.
Kristin,
I'm quickly discovering the value in instruction sheets and inservices. I will say though, we had an inservice on United Streaming, and it took some of them at least half the time for teachers to register for a new account. Some teachers may not catch on, but for those who are thirsty for technology education and who have a peaked interest in podcasting, showing them how to use it is a definite bonus in my opinion.
You are right when you say that Media Specialists seem to be the people to see for technology ideas, problems, etc. (For a lot of schools, a technology specialist isn't available on a daily basis). Unfortunately, we don't know everything in the field of technology...but we can find out. Giving an interested teacher a copy of Podcasting 101 is a great idea to get them started. This will give the teacher a chance to see what podcasting is all about, different ideas of using it in the classroom, etc. If the teacher really likes the idea, then you can start finding more information. As pointed out on several of the different posts I've read, teachers just simply don't have time, so this is a great opportunity for us to step in and help.