Voicethread and Podcasting

I really enjoyed today in Emerging Technologies. The main reason was because we got plenty of time to work with our groups and also implement what we learned about podcasting for our project. It was FUN!

We used garageband to make our podcast. I had only worked with garageband once before and felt like I was comfortable again after a few tips from Dr. Z. This program is very simple to use. Teachng the staff in my building how to use this program would be a beneficial inservice. Almost all the teachers I know, even the ones hesitant about technology, would find some way they could incorporate podcasts. It is so simple to use. The students would definitely learn quickly and take off with the opportunities. We used Podbean to upload our podcast to the web. Podbean uses wordpress, which allows the creator to make show notes and use RSS to subscribe to your podcast. As Seth D. states on his blog, I am now considering buying a Mac because of some of the outstanding programs, such as garageband, I have been exposed to this week.

In my own classroom, I would like to see podcasts used in a variety of ways. First, I can see test review podcasts created by me being very helpful to students if they were posted on my class website. Book reviews, news reports, and oral reports in science are just a few of the ways I could begin to use podcasts with my students being the creators. A wonderful resource for making podcasts is at Radio WillowWeb. It would be well worth the time to listen to a few of their podcasts and look at their helpful guides!

Podcasting is something as a professional I should make more time to listen to. I appreciate Dr. Z giving us a list of podcasts he recommends about educational technology. I hope to find a few I like and will be able to recommend them to others.

The other half of our day dealt with using voicethread. Theressa and Seth gave an excellent demonstration to use and we also contacted Vinnie Vtrotny through Skype. He was able to tell us about some of the projects his school has done with Voicethread and gave us some helpful hints for using in our own classrooms. It will be important to remember that a teacher can set up a set of students with their gmail account and then create individual accounts in Voicethread or have a “throw away” gmail account for students to all use to get into Voicethread. I can see myself using this technology for digital storytelling and recording memories with fieldtrip pictures. We will be using this technology for our group project assignment, which will give us all a better understanding of Voicethread and probably spark additional ways to use it in the classroom.