I'll start with the pros, since, in my opinion, they far out way the cons.
I have recently had a chance to podcast in my on line masters technology class. Hearing everybody's voice made the learning experience more intimate. I was able to connect better with my classmates and get a better idea of what they are like, giving more of a personal touch.
Podcasting also offers a clear understanding of tone and emphasis on feeling and comprehension. For example, if students are working on a group project and reading passages of a book via podcast are necessary, students struggling with meaning or sentence structure can hear how others interpret the passage and gain a better understanding of what was read.
Podcasting also allows for guest speakers, from remote locations, to engage the class in a lecture offering a richer educational experience.
A con to podcasting is the time and preparation involved. I am not one to be able to put my thoughts into a podcast without having to write them out and edit profusely. Therefore I am often doing double work. The editing process is more involved for me.
If you are a poor public speaker, creating a podcast can be a daunting task. Making sure you sound just right, you don't make too many mistakes reading, and you are able to articulate your words may be more challenging for some. (However, another pro is that you can do as many retakes as necessary to get it right).
Depending on the forum, specifically for me in my grad class, when we were to create a response via podcast, I didn't have the original posting in print to refer back to. I needed to take my own notes about the podcast to create a response back to the professor or colleague. This was somewhat tedious.
Podcasting in my e-learning experience has been great. I am enjoying learning new techniques in which to deliver my lessons to my middle school students. I have had a very positive experience and will continue to podcast in the future.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Saturday, December 9, 2006
It's Not Just a Toy
How do we convince parents and others that an iPod is not just a toy? This may be a difficult task for the very skeptical, but none the less, an important undertaking. Incorporating podcasting into our classrooms can be a very beneficial tool to enhance the learning community. It is our job, as educators, to reach all of our unique and individual learning styles. Not all of our students learn in the same format. Some do great with lectures and note taking. Others do better with video learning tools, while others still, need written and verbal information. But according to all the brain research, children learn best when we incorporate the multiple intelligences. When we include music, kinestetics, visual-spacial, and logical-mathematical, to name a few, we can be sure that all our learners are gaining insight from our teachings.
Why not bring that a step further . . . and really be sure we are reaching everyone? By incorporating iPods and podcasting into our daily teaching practices, we are using a tool that brings the information to another level. For example, students who struggle with hearing impairments and have difficulty concentrating on the lectures or verbal demonstrations, due to outside stimuli beyond any one's control, can take the recorded iPod lecture back their seats and review it over and over again until the information is understood. Another example, students who need constant reminders or reexplanations due to disabilities with attention and concentration, can review the recorded demonstrations at their own pace and stay on task much easier. A final example would include allowing students creativity with making their own podcasting in the subject being discussed. This has the potential of involving cooperative groupings and collaberative work.
So there you have it . . . iPods are not just for listening to music and playing games. What better way to appeal to kids in their education by involving multimedia tools!
Why not bring that a step further . . . and really be sure we are reaching everyone? By incorporating iPods and podcasting into our daily teaching practices, we are using a tool that brings the information to another level. For example, students who struggle with hearing impairments and have difficulty concentrating on the lectures or verbal demonstrations, due to outside stimuli beyond any one's control, can take the recorded iPod lecture back their seats and review it over and over again until the information is understood. Another example, students who need constant reminders or reexplanations due to disabilities with attention and concentration, can review the recorded demonstrations at their own pace and stay on task much easier. A final example would include allowing students creativity with making their own podcasting in the subject being discussed. This has the potential of involving cooperative groupings and collaberative work.
So there you have it . . . iPods are not just for listening to music and playing games. What better way to appeal to kids in their education by involving multimedia tools!
Podcasting for the Hearing Impaired
Classroom lectures have been an obstacle for those who are hearing impaired. Although, recent strides in online multimedia have offered many benefits for learning and teaching. Whether it's face-to-face learning or e-learning, automatic speech recognition can improve the quality of learning through synchronized and captioned multimedia. Specifically, this approach can provide automatic captioning of speech for hearing impaired learners, or for any learner when speech is not available.
Many systems have been developed to record classroom lectures. Many universities have begun providing "course casting," an educational version of podcasting, which allows downloading of lectures onto students' iPods or MP3 players. Automatic Speech Recognition has the potential to provide automatically segmented verbatim captioning for both live and recorded speech for deaf and hard of hearing students. It can also assist students who have difficulties taking notes while trying to lip read the teachers' lectures.
Learning should not exclude anyone, no matter what their disability. Making the educational environment a user friendly experience will ensure that teachers are reaching all their students and creating well rounded and highly qualified individuals.
Many systems have been developed to record classroom lectures. Many universities have begun providing "course casting," an educational version of podcasting, which allows downloading of lectures onto students' iPods or MP3 players. Automatic Speech Recognition has the potential to provide automatically segmented verbatim captioning for both live and recorded speech for deaf and hard of hearing students. It can also assist students who have difficulties taking notes while trying to lip read the teachers' lectures.
Learning should not exclude anyone, no matter what their disability. Making the educational environment a user friendly experience will ensure that teachers are reaching all their students and creating well rounded and highly qualified individuals.
Thursday, December 7, 2006
My Own Assessment
Formative: Giving students an opportunity to express their thoughts about the demonstrations and audio recordings will help me discern the effectiveness of my teaching approaches. Offering students ways to critique and evaluate the system will provide me with valuable feedback that I can use to improve or even change my methodology.
Summative: After the podcasting system has been in place in my teaching practices for one year, I will revisit the system design and re-evaluate my own progress with the usage of the system in addition to student learning outcomes. I will reflect on past years’ tests scores and project assessments and compare them to the present student body. With an increase in student achievement I can continue to practice using the podcasting system and increase my knowledge of what the system has to offer.
Summative: After the podcasting system has been in place in my teaching practices for one year, I will revisit the system design and re-evaluate my own progress with the usage of the system in addition to student learning outcomes. I will reflect on past years’ tests scores and project assessments and compare them to the present student body. With an increase in student achievement I can continue to practice using the podcasting system and increase my knowledge of what the system has to offer.
Podcasting Design
The range of Podcasting’s teaching and learning opportunities is endless and almost a must have for every teacher. Purchasing iPods for my classroom will enable me to reach all learning styles and incorporate innovative and energetic lessons for grades six through eight.
With a podcasting system in place this can diminish a great deal of stress fro our students. For so many students listening may be more appealing and less stressful than reading. Listening may motivate students who do not like reading or who struggle with reading. Students with language barriers may also find listening less difficult.
Podcasting makes course content more attractive to students. Students can play around with the versitility of the system by incorporating music into their podcasts or voice overs.
As noted in another post, podcasting may also be a useful tool for the visually challenged. Audio recording and podcasting of live lectures given in the class, in addition to conversations and lectures at special school events will assist those students who have difficulty visually. Audio recordings of explanations of visual information can deliver all the necessary information.
By incorporating the Podcasting system into my daily teaching routine, I will ensure I reach a multiple of learning styles and engage students in the learning process more easily. Podcasting is a highly motivating teaching practice. Students will more likely pay closer attention and have a higher level of retention. Using the Podcasting system in conjunction with goals and objectives, I can have measurable outcomes of the system to determine how well it is working. Students should have a higher success rate and assessment practices should provide positive feedback.
With a podcasting system in place this can diminish a great deal of stress fro our students. For so many students listening may be more appealing and less stressful than reading. Listening may motivate students who do not like reading or who struggle with reading. Students with language barriers may also find listening less difficult.
Podcasting makes course content more attractive to students. Students can play around with the versitility of the system by incorporating music into their podcasts or voice overs.
As noted in another post, podcasting may also be a useful tool for the visually challenged. Audio recording and podcasting of live lectures given in the class, in addition to conversations and lectures at special school events will assist those students who have difficulty visually. Audio recordings of explanations of visual information can deliver all the necessary information.
By incorporating the Podcasting system into my daily teaching routine, I will ensure I reach a multiple of learning styles and engage students in the learning process more easily. Podcasting is a highly motivating teaching practice. Students will more likely pay closer attention and have a higher level of retention. Using the Podcasting system in conjunction with goals and objectives, I can have measurable outcomes of the system to determine how well it is working. Students should have a higher success rate and assessment practices should provide positive feedback.
Needed Resources
Needed resources:
My curriculum program will be greatly enhanced by the acquisition of iPods for the capabilities of podcasting. My students will have better opportunities for achievement and success with the implementation of podcasting. The podcasting system is easy to store and transport because it can be stored in a traveling bag and easily put on a storage shelf. Below is a more detailed description of the podcasting components.
· iPod: each iPod comes packaged with earphones, cable, dock adapter, case and quick start guide.
· DLO Home Dock Deluxe: this component gives the teacher an opportunity to create video recordings and feeds them into the classroom television systems. The TV could display demonstrations for all students to review.
Most computer systems are equipped with itunes, or some other auditory program which will allow for the podcasting system to be implemented. Budgeting for the iPods will be the biggest expense. My suggestion is to try and purchase the iPod with the vidcasting capabilities. This will be the most cost effective, since technology is already moving in this direction. This also allows for the most differentiated instruction . . . some students need audio, some need visual assistance.
Right now what I've done with podcasting has been done with student's personal iPods. They (or their parents) have come to me asking for assistance. We have been able to incorporate podcasting using their own equipment. The implementation of podcasting has been a wonderful asset to my teaching environment.
My curriculum program will be greatly enhanced by the acquisition of iPods for the capabilities of podcasting. My students will have better opportunities for achievement and success with the implementation of podcasting. The podcasting system is easy to store and transport because it can be stored in a traveling bag and easily put on a storage shelf. Below is a more detailed description of the podcasting components.
· iPod: each iPod comes packaged with earphones, cable, dock adapter, case and quick start guide.
· DLO Home Dock Deluxe: this component gives the teacher an opportunity to create video recordings and feeds them into the classroom television systems. The TV could display demonstrations for all students to review.
Most computer systems are equipped with itunes, or some other auditory program which will allow for the podcasting system to be implemented. Budgeting for the iPods will be the biggest expense. My suggestion is to try and purchase the iPod with the vidcasting capabilities. This will be the most cost effective, since technology is already moving in this direction. This also allows for the most differentiated instruction . . . some students need audio, some need visual assistance.
Right now what I've done with podcasting has been done with student's personal iPods. They (or their parents) have come to me asking for assistance. We have been able to incorporate podcasting using their own equipment. The implementation of podcasting has been a wonderful asset to my teaching environment.
My Methods and Activities for the Podcasting System
In a recent project design for a technology class I took, I incorporated the following information:
Methods/Activities:
My personal goals for implementing the podcasting system into my daily teaching regime is to strengthen teacher demonstration and student retention. The activities or lessons I would incorporate the podcasting system into would be any lecture or oral presentation. My project oriented classroom design also lends itself well to the podcasting system. My students are constantly doing hands-on activities or project-based inquiries. Using the podcasting system will allow me to verbally record my demonstrations, which students can bring back to their stations on the iPods and replay what they may have missed or did not quite understand. For the individuals who need visual cues for reiteration, providing video recordings of my demonstrations will also greatly improve students academic success. Students can return to their stations and, once again, replay the demonstration for reminders.
Another aspect of my class is that student’s work at their own pace. When students are absent, when they fall behind because of complications, or miss class for any number of reasons, it puts them at different steps from other classmates. Incorporating the podcasting audio and video system will assist students who have missed explanations and are severely behind. Replaying the demonstration from a missed class period will give them an opportunity to catch up and get up to speed with the rest of the class. It also makes better use of my time by allowing me to continue and feel secure that those students who have been out will adequately catch up.
Due to the nature of my course, designing a podcasting implementation project helped me to see how I could individualize my teaching to reach every student. Providing differentiated instruction to all my learning styles has enabled me to better teach the information and assess that my students are understanding the information being presented. Another factor to the podcasting system is that my students are more motivated to work and are less ashamed that they don't know all of the information at the end of the demonstration. They know they can fall back on re-listening to the directions/instructions at their own pace. The beauty of the whole system is that nobody needs to know that they didn't "get it." Student's simply put the ear piece in their ear and press play, it's very inconspicuious.
Podcasting has been a wonderful tool in my clsasroom. I wish to continue using this system and all it has to offer.
Methods/Activities:
My personal goals for implementing the podcasting system into my daily teaching regime is to strengthen teacher demonstration and student retention. The activities or lessons I would incorporate the podcasting system into would be any lecture or oral presentation. My project oriented classroom design also lends itself well to the podcasting system. My students are constantly doing hands-on activities or project-based inquiries. Using the podcasting system will allow me to verbally record my demonstrations, which students can bring back to their stations on the iPods and replay what they may have missed or did not quite understand. For the individuals who need visual cues for reiteration, providing video recordings of my demonstrations will also greatly improve students academic success. Students can return to their stations and, once again, replay the demonstration for reminders.
Another aspect of my class is that student’s work at their own pace. When students are absent, when they fall behind because of complications, or miss class for any number of reasons, it puts them at different steps from other classmates. Incorporating the podcasting audio and video system will assist students who have missed explanations and are severely behind. Replaying the demonstration from a missed class period will give them an opportunity to catch up and get up to speed with the rest of the class. It also makes better use of my time by allowing me to continue and feel secure that those students who have been out will adequately catch up.
Due to the nature of my course, designing a podcasting implementation project helped me to see how I could individualize my teaching to reach every student. Providing differentiated instruction to all my learning styles has enabled me to better teach the information and assess that my students are understanding the information being presented. Another factor to the podcasting system is that my students are more motivated to work and are less ashamed that they don't know all of the information at the end of the demonstration. They know they can fall back on re-listening to the directions/instructions at their own pace. The beauty of the whole system is that nobody needs to know that they didn't "get it." Student's simply put the ear piece in their ear and press play, it's very inconspicuious.
Podcasting has been a wonderful tool in my clsasroom. I wish to continue using this system and all it has to offer.
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