This is a video, obtained from www.teachertube.com, that more thoroughly and expertly explains podcasting than I could ever hope to. This is in the first set of training materials that I would offer to a questing teacher, the other things being links to pages such as the following, with simple definitions:http://www.ehow.com/how_5116110_make-podcast.html
Speaking to the blogging prompt given by our class, my first step after hearing the teacher’s concerns about beginning a podcast for his class would be to gather the necessary equipment. At my current school, it is just simply not there. So, I would need to procure a USB microphone and download the appropriate software (Audacity would be the clear choice, due to quality of the software as well as its cost), either to the teacher’s computer or to one or more of the computers in my media center. Financially speaking, it might be possible to ask the front office or search within my own budget to purchase these items, but I would also be willing to seek out other sources of funding, such as local grants and/or sponsorships from businesses. (I might even want to wait a bit to monitor if the success of the teacher would be followed by an increase in other requests of the same ilk, so that I could seek funding for multiple pieces of equipment.)
I would also ask the teacher if he would be willing to give me a week or so to test the podcasting waters myself, to ensure that any information I gave him would be current and able to be replicated successfully. It wouldn’t do to rely on information I had obtained during Master’s classes (ahem, Erin) a few semesters ago, only to be providing broken links and a general feeling of frustration. After experiencing success (or success on the heels of failure), I would then return to the teacher and offer to give him a tutorial so that he could begin the podcasts with assistance, progressing to independence as soon as possible.
The reasoning behind my choosing this course of action is because I feel all teacher requests are valuable; I am to serve the students of the school, but I also have a duty to serve the teachers and to be a leader in areas directly relevant to the education of teachers and students. If I don’t know much about podcasting, it falls to me to learn more so that I can pass on that knowledge in a “train the trainer” fashion that is so popular in school systems today (the difference being that I would be training myself in order to train another....whew). Also, my time is too valuable and spread among too many different teachers and students for a single teacher to depend heavily on me for an activity that he initiated and wishes to continue; if, truly, the podcasts are of value (and my instructions and support was sufficient), the teacher will be intrinsically motivated to continue doing the podcasts on his own rather than marching up to the media center with ten students and begging me to help him record "just one more" podcast. :-) Moreover, there simply isn’t enough time (or motivation) in the schedule of the average technology specialist to take for mini-lessons on technology integration, so the only contact person in the school (and perhaps the school system) for inquiries such as this is me.
In terms of ways that podcasting could be integrated into my current teaching situation, I am in LOVE with the thought, posted on the first Podcasting 101 article from Kristin Fontichiaro, of using a podcast to pre-record an audio version to supplement a written test; so many of my students desperately need the help, but they are reluctant to come to the back table or come to my classroom for a little peace and quiet while we read aloud (even though the other students clamor to get my attention so I might “decide” to call them, too). It is simply too embarrassing for them, even if the reality is that nobody really even cares who is being read to. However, when those same students, some of whose handwriting is too awful to complete assignments with, are given a small word processor to type their writing work samples on, they feel important and independent, fielding questions from peers without disabilities on when it will be “their turn” to use the word processor.
Another idea I got from searching through the provided resources is creating a media center wiki upon which podcasts, RSS feeds, and the like might be posted to create a safe place for students to encounter these applications. I liked seeing the Twitter feeds and YouTube links for book-related information on the Beverly Elementary Media Center wiki—the students are interested in and want to understand more about these types of tools, and to present them in a protected sort of online environment seems appropriate until the students are of an age where they are more equipped to navigate these tools intelligently.
I look forward to all replies to this blog post.Erin Dorman (a.k.a. the Masked Librarian....)
