I don't know how many of you are familiar with "podcasting." The short story is that podcasts are audio files posted online that you can listen to on a computer, or you can download to a portable device such as an iPod (hence the name "pod"casting). They are kind of like having your own, personal talk-radio show.
There are millions of podcasts online and a fair number of them relate to the educational side of things. Many are adults talking about technology and education issues. The Education Podcast Network is one place to go to find some of these. You might want to listen to a few to get a feel for what they are.
However, how to involve elementary students in podcasting is sometimes hard to imagine. There is a teacher, Bob Sprankle, in Maine who is doing some excellent quality podcasting with his 3rd/4th grade class. Their site, Room 208, has some great podcasts you can listen to. He also has a teacher site, Bit by Bit. If you are wondering what this can sound like, I highly recommend checking out Bob's sites.
I would LOVE to get some podcasting projects going with students in Hilton. If you might be interested, or if you know of another teacher who might be, please let me know. I'm thinking these could be things such as: around the school interviews on a topic, maybe even friendship and/or bullying to tie in with the action research we've been doing; poetry readings; persuasive essay readings on a topic; a reader's theater, maybe even like the old radio serials with a different episode presented each week; or any other type of audio presentation. I'd be happy to work with the teacher and the students, so you wouldn't need to feel like you would have to do this independently. Maybe we can talk about it at our next in-person meeting.
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8 comments:
Hi Lori,
I think I will pass on doing this with my little ones but I will give a heads up to Sean's teacher(Derek)-Sounds like something he would like...you might want to send him some info.
Terri
Lori,
It sounds really interesting. I'd be happy to lend a hand to anyone interested in doing this since I don't have a class of my own.
Terri - That would be great if you wanted to pass the info along to Derek. He's going to be taking a MovieMaker class from me in a few weeks, so he and I could talk about it then.
Jess - I'd love to work with you on this. Why don't we set up a time to get together to talk about details. I think that you are right, it would be best to work in small groups. Timeframe is whatever we want to make it, so whatever works best for you and the kids. I'm pretty flexible in terms of before or after school meetings. Why don't you look at your schedule and then email me?
This sounds really interesting! This can be something to motivate our students. I can see how this would encourage our students to improve their work knowing that there is an "audience" to share it with. Practicing and performing the broadcast will promote fluency and improve public speaking skills. I am not sure if I am ready to take on another project at this point but it might be something to look into in the future.
Linda - I'm excited that you might like to try this. I'm looking forward to working with you on it.
Wendy - Don't worry. There will be time in the future. I don't think this is going away any time soon. I have a few people interested now, so let them be the guinea pigs and we'll work out all the kinks and you can think about trying it out later.
Maria - I'm glad you would like to do this. You might want to listen to the following 2 podcasts.
Room 208 - 3rd/4th gradeLiterature Circles
Listen to the podcast here
Radio WillowWeb - 5th grade - Defining the 6 Traits of Writing
I worked with another teacher (who had done a podcast before) and we produced a class podcast with First and Second graders. It was a great deal of fun for the students and they were proud of their finished product. To get started, we brainstormed topics we could include in our podcast. Some of the topics we came up with were community news, poetry, book review, sports, school spot, weather and jokes, caught in the act of showing IB attitudes, planner (unit) update and science minute. Then we broke the 2 classes up into small groups and gave them each a topic to research or gather information. The groups wrote a script (some with the help of a scribe) and divided up the reading of the script so everyone had a chance to add to the podcast. The end product was exciting to share with parents. I would love to do another podcast before the end of the year. I do not know how to attach a link to share this 2 part podcast, but maybe Lori can help me do that.
Carol
Lori, what sort of podcasts have you had kids make? I've made a few myself for my students to help them study vocabulary but I have always been a little hesitant to take on that big of a project! It would be neat to have the kids tell stories or narrate a book. Sounds exciting!
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