Websites complete... onto Podcasts and Vidcasts!

     Is it normal to be completely obsessed with tweaking and maintaining a web-site?  I have had a great week making sure my website was in tip top shape.  No human error allowed, after-all, my students deserve the best!!  

     Now, it is time to move onto the amazing creation of the PODCAST and VIDCAST!

This is somewhat a new adventure for me.  I have been the recipient of both podcast and vidcast instruction, but to create such a production is a new adventure.  I am excited to record lessons for once without typing.  This may revolutionize my classroom, who knows.  After recording our first micro-lesson, our team was absolutely thrilled at the success.  This is a creation that will be long remembered.  Our team (pod) is creating a lesson that most children would find beneficial while learning their times tables in grade school.  The podcast will be an amazing asset to lessons which are in need of repetitive practice.  We have chosen to record the times tables with melodies.  This is a common method used in the classroom, but to record this for a podcast would make it possible for repetitive practice with accurate help and eliminate the guesswork while at home.  

     One of the most amazing things about the pod and vid-casts, is the help they offer students with learning disabilities.  Children who are ill for long periods of time would still be able to maintain some form of formal education with this technology.  Children with hearing problems or even language barriers could be helped with the ability to go back and catch what they need.  I would like to find out how much this is used in the blind schools for instruction at home.  This is something I will keep in mind for my classroom in the future.

     It takes a bit of bravery to record our voices.  Hopefully we will get used to it quick enough, because the benefits far outweigh the worries.  As we make this a routine, it could become a digital library of  information that could be recorded to help students for years to come.  I could see it used for instruction, stories, repetitive exercises, reminders, and the clarification of new concepts.  I'm sure this list will grow and I look forward to increasing my expectations as we expand on the possibilities.

 

Video:  To Blog or Not to Blog?

     For children to be excited about learning we need to find avenues of intrigue.  Children are intrigued with technology.  This is an amazing benefit to our society.  Children are reading more than ever. They are learning hand eye coordination and accessing educational lessons in a way that facilitates learning in their free time.   For children to blog and learn  about communication, literacy, ownership, sharing, collaboration, discussion, empowerment, interaction, motivation, participation, engagement (adorable pic), excitement, conversation, creativity, reflection, while extending the walls of the classroom, giving students a voice, and audience, and learning environment, while open 24/7, in addition to giving them the digital skills for their futures, we can embrace the message, "Write to learn, Blog to learn".  It is what we desire.  It is what children desire.  We are fortunate to have such a tool that brings the intrigue of the children and the desires of adults together.  This is the time, technology is the way, and our future is why.