Blog Post # 5

1.  The benefits of podcasting in the classroom by Joe Dale

     I agreed with the benefits that Mr. Dale explains about using podcasting in the classroom.  It's a way to reach you students at home or reach them if they cannot reach you.  If a student has a question about something that was study in the classroom a podcast might help to refresh the memory of that student.  I also liked that he commented on distant learning activities for absent students.  Podcast would be great for students who miss a lot of school due to an illness or family death or some unseen tragedy.  It would give them the same work and learning that the other students get in the classroom.  The last thing that really caught my eye was that parents could see what their child is doing and learning in the classroom.  This would be good because some parents are clueless as to what is going on in the classroom and by having a daily or weekly podcast it gives them a chance to see what the students are learning.  It can also help the extremely strict or worried parents so they know exactly what is going on.  This gave me some great ideas about using podcast in my future classroom.

2.  100 ways to use your iPod to learn and study better

     These few tips and tools really helped me to understand what a podcast is and what it can do.  I really liked the soundwalk because with this you could create a virtual field trip that your students can do at home or during class.  The philosophy talk program that you can find on iTunes and save podcast I really found neat.  This program could help in the classroom by allowing you to find different podcast that you could show your class and save the podcast for later use.  I think that using different podcast by different people could really help in the classroom and there are so many places that you can go to get podcast.  The last thing that I looked into was the Education Podcast Network.  This was a really great site with lots of different podcast.  I liked that it was broken down by different subjects and grade levels.  This would help in preparing  me for using podcast the right way in and out of the classroom.  I could use some of the podcast in my own classroom.  I like that there are different tutorial on using different technology in the classroom for example the SmartBoard.  There is a podcast on how to use the smartboard and I can always go back to that podcast if I have questions.

3.  Judy Scharf Podcast Collection

    I used this website when doing my podcast and it really helped me out.  This website gives you timelines and definition on what podcast are.  I like that it gives you suggestions on what you could do podcast on so that if your just drawing a blank you could come to this site get and idea and get tips to succeed on the same website.  I liked that she had a criteria sheet that she used when giving her students the podcast assignment and it can be used in doing a regular podcast or podcast that we had to do in this class.  I could use this website in my classroom and use the rubrics and information to adapt to my classroom.  I really enjoyed looking through this website and using some of the information in my own podcast.