Podcasts: a new perspective on content

When we think about ways to use podcasts in our classrooms, many teachers immediately jump to the idea that students can still listen to lectures even if they are absent. Pair that with a power point, the students can easily make up missed classes. This is a beneficial technique, especially when teachers use power points as visuals rather than drawing on the white board (there would be no way for students to see that material first hand). However, there are other ways of using podcasts in the classroom.

I thought of a few other ways podcasts can be used, aside from recording our own lectures. The first idea I have is to have students listen to podcasts from other teachers. This way they can gain a new perspective on the material. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, students do not understand our way of explaining the concepts. If we have our students listen to a way someone else explains the concept, the students may understand more readily. New viewpoints can also give a fresh perspective, to help students apply the knowledge they understand to alternate situations. Podcasts are available at sites such as, http://www.learnoutloud.com/contents/LearnOutLoud.com-Podcasts/9/21, http://education.podcast.com/, and http://epnweb.org/index.php?openpod=18#18.

Another way to use podcasts in the classroom is to have students create their own for specific topics. Often, the most effective way to learn is to teach the material to someone else. Through podcasts, students can teach others about the material, and then refer back their recorded podcasts for revision. By the end of the year, there will be a full curriculum of podcasts, and they may be used to help give the following year of classes a new perspective. I think podcasts would be very beneficial when used in education because it gives students a new way to teach other students about a specific concept as well as giving them a different teaching strategy to learn through, rather than reading out of a textbook for a different perspective on the content.

Of course, the biggest issue with podcasts would be getting the students access to them. As the reading discussed, one easy way is to create a blog at wordpress.com and install PodPress plugin (Ovadia 2008). This will allow you to link podcasts to your blog, and allow students to subscribe to the blog so that they can receive notifications when a new podcast is added. I do not think that students will have a rough time with this as they live immersed in technology every day. The biggest problem would probably be gaining access to technology to record lectures. Either a teacher would have to re-do the lectures by the computer with a microphone or find some way of recording effectively in the classroom. Having students record podcasts may be difficult as well, because all students (or most students) would need to have access to a computer with a microphone.

References:

Ovadia, Micah. (2007-2008). PoducateMe. Retrieved from http://www.poducateme.com/.

Resolutions!

This week has been so much better than last week. The behavior issues I was having in my 6th period class have been decreased immensely because one student moved into my 5th period class. I have resolved many of my other stress issues, so I am not as overwhelmed as last week. This one student has been having a lot of trouble in class (he has an IEP and many behavior issues). I do not think that he has done any work for the last month (two of the weeks he was out of school for medical reasons) and he has been slow in making it up. I know the counselors and his special ed teacher are trying to help him get in all of his make-up work. This change I had hoped would help him concentrate better in class because he is genuinely interested in the material (he paid attention and participated in class fairly well before he left school). It has been an immense change for him. He is back to the behviors I saw before he left school. I made sure to positively reinforce his behavior on Monday, and again before class on Tuesday. I am hoping that this change will stick for him so I can help him succeed in my class. However, he needs to be the one to choose to succeed, and I am trying to help him make that choice.

Week of 9/21-9/25

My biggest successes this week was curriculum night. I felt that it went very well. I introduced myself and the class. I went over some of my policies in the class, and talked about what I expect of the students. I got feedback from a couple parents that their students have loved my class so far :). I also was told that my enthusiasm for science was infectious and that one student had never liked science before, but is already excited about my class and science classes beyond it.

My biggest struggle this week was illness, both of my students and myself. I had a great many students absent between one and several days last week. My bio class had an exam and there was a quiz and a lab in my chem class. Then I was sick and missed the day before the exam. It was difficult to get myself back on track and try to get the students back on track. In bio, I had deal with students not being ready to take the exams due to absence and I had to deal with that while the other students were taking the exam. In chem, students knew they needed to make up the quiz, and the one student who could not take the quiz studied on the side. All the students know they need to make up the quiz, lab and exam within one week. Because of my illness, I had difficulty knowing when to stay home. I had only a head cold, but that is enough to get the students and other faculty sick. I felt ill on Monday, and still went to school on Tuesday because it was curriculum night. By the end of the day I realized what a bad decision this was because I was getting more fatigued by the hour. I stayed home Wednesday, and went back on Thursday. I know now, that even with a cold, I should stay home even when I have only a cold. That one day at home helped more than I thought it would.