001+Seventh+Session

Seventh Session
Podcasting Part II: Podcasting for professional development. There are a multitude of podcasts that are made by and for teachers. Too many to count, actually. How do you find ones that suit you? It takes some time and patience (or a good impersonation of patience).

Method One: Head to a collective. For example, EdTechTalkis a site where numerous podcasts take place. You can listen live, listen later on the computer, or download episodes to listen to on an mp3 player such as an iPod. Why listen "live" which makes the computer much like a radio show? When you listen live, you can participate in the online chat room. The chat room is a great place to learn even more about the topic at hand since the other folks there are interested in the same topic as you. I have never, not once, seen an inappropriate comment in an education oriented chat room during a podcast.

Other places to look for podcasts of professional interest: iTunes: Most, but not all, podcasts can be downloaded easity via iTunes. Just do a search on your subject and you'll find many podcasts. Quality varies quite a bit. NPR podcasts its news stories on education, neatly organized. Edutopiahas a podcast channel on their website. These are the folks who made several of the High Tech High videos. Read Write Think offers podcasts about books for children and adolescents. These are useful for anyone teaching these ages, not just librarians! Science Update offers a daily podcast, each with a completely different science topic. These podcasts can also be found through iTunes.

Podcasting Part II: Podcasting in the classroom. Your students can be podcasting in less than a period. Videopodcasting takes a little longer. Rule number one: no podcasting without a script! The tool we'll use in class for creating podcasts is Audacity. It's free, easy to use, and very sophisticated. You should have it on your laptop already.

Some sites to get your brain thinking about podcasting: Kidcastingis probably the longest running site, with over 60 episodes. CNN Student News is oriented towards high school and college students.

Bonus activity: What's all the Twitterabout? This video offers a peek, but Twitter for educators is a little different. The buzz in education is having a PLN, a personal learning network. Liz Davis does a great job of explaining a PLN on her blog. Twitter can be a huge part of a PLN. We'll talk!

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