Keeping in Touch Podcasts!

So, I was reading chapter 8 from Will Richardson’s book on podcasts. Before reading the chapter, I had heard of podcasts before, but I did not know what they were. Podcasts can be voice recordings or videos recordings that are made by people like you and I on a topic of interest. They are then published to the read/write web for people to see and listen to depending on their interests.

When reading all of this I was not sure of the placement of podcasts in education. As I read on, many examples were given. Examples such as: recording assemblies, lessons taught, oral book reports and science lab experiments. These are just a few examples of the many uses for podcasts in education.

An idea that I had for using podcasts is to have students create them and send them to their parents who may be in the military and serving over in another country. Podcasts would be a great way to keep in touch with those parents who are far off in another country. This would allow their parents to see and hear what their child is doing in school without having to actually be there. Maybe it is the first time their child has been in a play, their first soccer game, their first steps, or first words. Then these brave people serving our country would not have to miss out on their children’s lives and education.

What are your thoughts on this idea? I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas for using podcasts in the classroom.

Using Digital Videos in PE

In my second unit, I plan on teaching my students how to use the flip video camera to create some “how to bowl” videos for the second graders to watch before they come to their bowling event! Now I know that this is going to take some time to do, but I think in the long run it will be valuable to the students as well as a tool for the teacher to use. I think that by having the students create a “how to…” video, you can also use their videos as an assessment tool. By looking at their video you will be able to see if they really have a grasp on what you have taught them. For example, one of my groups will make a video on how to keep score in bowling. You can use this video to see if the students truly understand how to keep score correctly. Also you may find that if their video is correct in explaining how to keep score, you want to use this student-made video for teaching other students how to keep score correctly. This way, the students will have another way of learning how to keep score other than hearing the teacher explain it. Any other ideas?? I would love to hear them!

A Change of Heart on Wikis

After reading about wikis, I have a totally new outlook on them. I had heard of Wikipedia in the past, but really didn’t know what it was until I got into the ITS program. I had never really thought to highly of Wikipedia because of the fact that everyone could put in their “two cents.” I did not trust that the information would be correct. I didn’t take into consideration that “two heads are better than one!” Also, Richardson states that Wikipedia is one of the most accurate sites out there. Which was hard for me to believe. I realized that even though you are not physically with these people as you collaborate, it is still indeed collaboration done asynchronously.

I feel that wikis are a great way for students to collaborate outside of the four walls of the classroom and teacher. In this day and age, we as teachers need to stop pretending that we know everything and know that it is ok for our students to know more than we do, especially in technology.

Blogging Newbie...

Wow, this is my first blog, who would of thought. I have read other blogs before and thought, I will never have a blog. Well there is a first time for everything, and being an ITSer, I didn't really have a choice. I am very excited about having my own blog and collaborating with my fellow colleagues to get ideas of how to use web 2.0 tools in my Physical Education classes.
I think that it would be interesting and beneficial to have our students blog with students from another country and talk about what types of games they play, the types of physical activity they like to engage in and their nutritional habits. The children could exchange popular games that are played in their countries and play them.
I look forward to learning more about blogging and how to use the web 2.o tools.