Friday, October 1, 2010

Podcasting

The rise of podcasting in schools has been a grassroots occurence. Depending on what school you look at, podcasting -- if present at all -- may be introduced by teachers, administrators, students, media specialists, or technology specialists. At Willowdale Elementary in Omaha, Nebraska, the technology specialist Tony Vincent introduced podcasting and has taken upon himself much of the work of spreading the innovation and guiding the quality of the podcasts produced. At Beverly Elementary School in Birmingham, MI, the media specialist Kristin Fontichiaro podcasts (herself) and hosts a Podcasting Club for 4th graders. The podcast is disseminated through a blog. At other schools, no one is podcasting. So, imagine a teacher approaches you and asks you if you can help him to start up a podcast for his class (something like Radio WilloWeb). In truth, you may know little about podcasting. So, how do you respond to the teacher? Do you tell him farewell and good luck? Do you tell him you don't know much, but you're willing to find out? What is your role? What are the reasons behind how you choose to respond to this teacher?

As a media specialist, I would be thrilled that there were teachers (or at least a teacher) who were interested in letting students use technology in such an open way! I certainly wouldn't send him away. In fact, I would offer collaboration and assistance any way I could. As a first step, I would ask him what his goals were with using podcasting. Is he wanting them to be done as a performance assessment at the end of units? Hopefully, if he is using WilloWeb as a model, he wants the students to be in full control of the podcast. I would encourage him to have a clear idea of what is being measured or assessed before the production begins. I would work with him to develop a rubric and list of must-haves for students. I think having all this information laid out and well planned would make a presentation to the principal much easier. I think the next step would be researching the hosting and determining the best value for the money. Then, we should go visit the principal to figure out where that money would come from. If the teacher wanted media money, I would suggest making a podcasting club to open it to other grade levels. As far as actually making the podcasts, I would suggest Audacity because it is software already provided to us by the county. I would send him to the Audacity Tutorial for Podcasters from the information we got from Dr. Cooper. I think this is a helpful tool for someone who doesn't know much about the software or podcasting in general (I would have to watch the tutorial videos with him). I might suggest a media lesson incorporating the use of Audicity and creating podcasts. By doing this, it leaves more time for him to focus on the content of the presentations in the classroom. I would also offer to come to the classroom or computer lab to provide assistance when students are creating the podcasts. I can only imagine how overwhelming it would be for both him and the students the first time around. I would encourage students in the class and in other classes to use the podcasts as learning tools. The students could use the Podcast Evaluation form or another version of it to help the teacher and I guide our next steps. Why would I respond with so much enthusiasm  and support? Well, it's easy... First, I love the use of technology in the classroom. I think that it is a wonderful that the teacher is willing to take the time and effort to involve the students rather than just using technology to present to them, which is what is seen most often at the elementary level. Second, from all I've seen, read, and heard from media specialists you have to jump on any opportunity to collaborate that you can! If a teacher comes to me for help and collaboration, I want to do all I can to foster that relationship and build on it for future activities.

7 comments:

  1. Podcasting is a great way for students (and teachers) to share information with others. A way that those that are interested in podcasting could get started would be to work on recording their information. You can take each step a little at a time. Many mp3 players come with devices that allow you to record someone's story. Editing and posting the recording to share with others can be taught later. I think we should encourage our students to become involved in the process as much as possible. Most aspects to podcasting are relatively simple, we just need to take them one step at a time. Awesome suggestions about how to get the teacher started and the programs we could use!
    - Jana

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  2. The last point that you made about collaboration is very important. If you have an opportunity to collaborate, you must jump on it and this is a wonderful way to get in the classroom and work directly with the students. You could work with the teacher to discuss the various options for podcasting and decide on what standards you are fulfilling. After creating a plan with the teacher, you can work with the students to teach them how to podcast and help through the stages of the project to ensure that the teacher and students feel support.

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  4. I think that we as media specialists must take every opportunity to advance technology within the school. In today's economy, I think it would be wise to discuss the funds which will pay for it, where will they come from and how much will it cost. After the questions are answered, let the collaboration begin! Although I posted the podcast for Dr. Cooper's class, I would not consider myself a good resource for information. I would be learning along side the teacher. I like the idea Jana suggested to take one step at a time. Start small and move forward.

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  5. I think creating a rubric is essential and I'm glad to see you included it in your blog. Advanced students can even help in the creation of a rubric. In fact, they are tougher in a lot of cases than the classroom teacher would be. I also appreciate how you have embraced the concept that we, as media specialists, must be willing to collaborate with classroom teachers. Especially when it comes to using technology.

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  6. Wow! What a well-thought out and well-laid plan! Dr. Putney would be proud of your utilization of concepts for collaborating in the instructional design process! I appreciate how you used "Backwards Design" and began by helping the teacher first identify goals for the podcasting project. Anyway...enough about instructional design... back to technology.
    I did take special interest in your suggestion for using podcasts as performance assessments at the end of a unit or quarter. Over the past few years, our county has been working towards developing performance assessments, corresponding self-assessment rubrics, and grading rubrics for all units in each subject area. None of our performance assessments thus far, however, have encorporated technology. I think podcasts would be an excellent medium for students to "show what they know." Thanks for this reminder to use technology for student engagement and not just for information presentation!

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  7. I strongly agree with your thoughts. A media specialist would be thrilled to have teachers eager to learn and use podcasting in the classroom. Suggestions such as: developing a rubric for a topic, and using a device on what being measured helps create a standard for any project. We need to learn new ways of using technology for our ever changing world.
    http://threemediadivia blogspot.com

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