Podcasting for Educators: A Tutorial

So, it's the end of October?! Wow, how time flies. It seems not so long ago that it was the first day of school. With the ending of the month, I decided to take a little stock in what I had accomplished in the first two months of school. When I did this I realized that the three teachers who have their students podcasting their classrooms' newsletters have been doing so for about a month now. They have been sending their students down to my office where I record them, edit their performances, put the tracks together, and then upload them to their Gcast accounts.

I thought to myself, "If I am going to take another classroom per grade level on this podcasting adventure, I need to get the three teachers who are currently podcasting trained on how to do this on their own. I thought that I should put together a tutorial webpage (which could also be printed out) for teachers to use, which has step-by-step instructions, links to resources, and plenty of screenshots. So, I created just such a webpage. I also included some audio files so that viewers could also hear the differences in audio files after specific steps in the process. Eventually, (when I get a copy of SnapZ Pro X) I will add some tutorial videos as well.

Podcasting can be a great experience for students and provides them with another publishing genre that can also provide a world-wide audience, giving students greater purpose for their work. Teachers may not jump into podcasting with their students if they are unsure on the "how to's" so I am hoping that this tutorial page will help those well beyond my own district. I know that, for me, I struggled with podcasting, not with the "why" but on the "how". I would have embraced the tutorial that would have gotten me going on this. Now that I know the "how" I want to share it will all that have an interest or is in search of help.

Gliffy: Online Concept Mapping

Yesterday, while at a technology integrators meeting, one of my colleagues asked if there was a free version (Open Source) of something similar to Inspiration®. None of the people in the room knew of any open source application that was as simple to use or had the bells and whistles of the well-known visual learning tool. I did a little surfing around and stumbled upon FreeMind, which is an open source app for concept mapping. I downloaded it and played around with it for a little while. I found it to not be very user-friendly so I looked at what was next on my search list. I was really impressed with what I found next.

My next click sent me to Gliffy. Gliffy is an online diagramming tool. It feels like a desktop application that you download and use, but it isn't. You only need a web browser. It is FREE. You just need to spend all of about 30 seconds registering and you are ready to get started. Not only can you make several different types of diagrams, but you can post them online on a web page, a blog, or a wiki. You can also collaborate with other users. One only needs to email the link to the document to those who need access to it and they can work together. There was also a great little introductory movie about Gliffy that not only displayed what it could do, but was almost like a little tutorial. Let's put it this way, after watching the introductory movie, I was able to create a diagram myself without any further instruction. See image below:


Gliffy is a great example of a Web 2.0 application. Here are the reasons why:

• You do not need to download anything to use it.
• It's FREE
• It does not matter what operating system you use, you just need a computer that has a browser and has a connection to the Internet.
• Collaboration is not only possible but simple.
• Earlier versions of the work are accessible. Every time a diagram is saved, that version becomes available to view and work on.
• Publishing the work on a website, blog, or wiki is easy to do.
  
• It is simple to use.
  

Flash Cards are No Longer Old-School

My own two boys go through a lot of flash cards at home. With one seventh grader and one fifth grader rarely does a week go by when they haven't had to utilize this "old-school" way of memorizing vocabulary or concepts. They seem to get as much studying done in preparing the flash cards themselves as they do while using once they are made. So, I realize the importance of students writing out their own flash cards. Sometimes though, daily schedules just don't allow them to take the time to write out their own study aides. There are also times when students (my children especially) forget their study materials at school in a desk or locker. It was this later predicament that my youngest son and I found ourselves in this past weekend.

My son was to have a test on Tuesday over the first chapter of his science text. Here it was Saturday and he discovers that he did not bring home his text or any study materials. Now I happen to know the title and publishing company of his science text and that the title of the chapter was "Mapping Earth's Surface". So, I set out on an online quest to find materials having to do with this topic that he could use to study. Had I had his text, I am certain it would have provided me with url's to sites with these types of supportive materials. Since I did not have the text, I was at the mercy of Google. I typed in the title of the chapter and found a few interesting things that he could use; a crossword puzzle, a powerpoint presentation with some of the vocabulary, even a movie about making maps. But the site I stumbled upon that really wowed me, (and prompted this posting) was "The Amazing Flash Card Machine". The link I clicked on lead me to a listing of all the sets of science flashcards made previously by other members. Low and behold, there was a set with the same name as the chapter my son needed to study. I selected the title and started the study session. At this point I had my son come over to the computer and sit down. He had a choice of starting with the word and clicking Flip to see the definition, or visa versa. Not only could my son work with these flash cards online, but there was a button to view them in "printer-friendly" HTML. He worked with them online for a while, but then chose to print them out so he could study the vocab anywhere he wanted.

Not only could a user view the flashcard sets made by others, but they can also create their own. This, I think, would be a great resource for teachers to use with their student. Teachers could go into this site, create a set of flash cards for whatever topic they are teaching, and then give the url for the flash cards to their students to use at home. I was so impressed with site that I had to share my finding with a colleague of mine. When she saw it, she immediately thought of how her own sixteen year-old could use this right away on a quiz on the periodic table of elements. We did a little search on the site and found a set about the topic right away.

Before I started writing this post I wondered whether this resource would be considered to be a Web 2.0 tool or not. (not that it has to be to be included on my blog) But, I decided yes, it is, because a user can publish content on the web and share it with other users. So even though flash cards are an "old-school" tool for memorizing things, this resource gives it a modern update without the cost purchasing index cards every other week.

Give this site a try and let me know what you think or ways that teachers/students could utilize it.

Podcasting With Students

So, now that I have figured out the basics of podcasting, I am starting to work with students using this medium. I started with a 4th grade class whose teacher just left on maternity leave. My thought was that she (as well as the parents of her students) could keep up to date with what the class is doing by listening in on the podcast which would consist of an audio version of the classroom newsletter as well as writing pieces that the students read aloud.

As I got going with this project I thought to myself that there should be at least one podcast per grade level, so I got a couple more victims (I mean guinnea pigs). I chose a 6th grade class whose teacher has been doing technology integration with her class for years. I also chose a 5th grade class that has a "brand new" teacher. All of the classes seem VERY excited about their podcast and are eager to be a part of it. Now that I have got them going, I am going to start showing these three teachers how it is done so that they can one day take over and post their own episodes. Once they reach that point I will move on to another three classes so that eventually my goal of "total podcast infiltration" while be acheived, "whooa haa haa haa!" (evil laugh)

Here are the links for the three Podcasts that are currently available for subscription:

• CRES Room 101


• CRES Room 203


• CRES Room 209