I subscribed to 3 podcasts, but my favorite is "The Teachers' Podcast - The New Generation of Ed. Tech Professional Development" hosted by Dr. Kathy King and Mark Gura. In these podcasts, the hosts share the latest and greatest for educators using free web tools. I listened to 2 episodes and really liked the one telling about the tool "voice thread" which can take a Powerpoint to a new level by using audio. It seems that the format is similar to a Wiki, in that it can be critiqued and edited, but I am looking forward to exploring that - perhaps it is the answer to the Powerpoint marriage with student audio? And there are many past episodes to explore!
I preferred using the Itunes system because I am familiar with it. Although I have a PC laptop, our family desktop is a MAC, and I also have an Ipod Touch, so I already had an Itunes account - although I had never explored the podcast selections before. So, I downloaded the Itunes software onto my laptop for this assignment. I really liked the visual displays for the Itunes podcast selections. In my opinion, they were much more appealing and better organized than the selection lists on Podcast Alley. Also, with Podcast Alley, they provided a link to download their aggregator and didn't include links to any others that are popular. I thought they could have included options for a couple of the other most popular ones. I agree with the tutorial that Itunes is the easiest method to use when suscribing to podcasts.
The field is changing so rapidly, I think educators need an inservice at least every other year to keep on top of the latest and greatest tools available.
So many podcasts and so little time! Now let me go check out voice thread! :-)
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Voice Thread is a worthy tool, in that it allows peer comments, in 5 ways:computer microphone, telephone, text, audio file (MP3/WAV), and webcam video. They even offer a educational version, whcih will bear more exploring.
ReplyDeleteBut, alas, no marriage for student audio and a PowerPoint presentation! Yet...I'm still looking!
Diane, I agree with you that technology changes so quickly that we need an annual in-service just to keep up. We will probably have to encourage each other to brave this new world too. Maybe regular talks on this subject during our monthly meetings would help.
ReplyDelete"The Teachers' Podcast - The New Generation of Ed. Tech Professional Development" hosted by Dr. Kathy King and Mark Gura"
ReplyDeleteHow intriguing. Thanks for the gift of this resource. I'm going to explore it.