Contemporary Issues Podcast Reflection

I was actually a bit surprised on how easy it was to setup the podcast. By far the thing that took the most time was finding an article that I wanted to podcast about and to write the script for the podcast. Recording took a little more time than I expected even though I had a written script. The nice thing was that unlike the screencasting using Jing I was able to take multiple takes and piece together chunks of the recording. I really enjoyed the editing and recording portion of this assignment. I had worked with other recording programs before, but this was my first time using Audactiy. In the past I had used Acid Pro which is more aimed at music recording, it was a bit more complex and less user friendly, but had many more features that could be utilized in the editing mode.

Creating and sharing my podcast with peers affects my future teaching in giving me more tools to have under my belt to utilize in the classroom. I think that this assignment was meant to reduce our fears in using technologies that we are unfamiliar with and to open our eyes at how easy learning a new tool is. I find that by just sitting around and playing with many of these tools it makes me want to try others out and inspire new ideas on how we could use them in the classroom. While doing this assignment I go to thinking about some of the ways I could use podcasts and videos in the classroom not just as projects for students but as alternative ways to deliver content. One idea that I would like to use in the future was one that I saw used in a class that has always impressed me. In a past science class the instructor rather than simply having a paper lab manual used videos uploaded to Ipods that students could use as reference during lab. As a student I found this great because before lab you could watch the procedure carried out which was more effective for me than just reading about it in the text. During the lab many students used recording as a reference during lab to conduct procedures. I didn’t use the video aspect during the lab but used the audio reference to direct me as I could conduct the procedure. This was great because you could follow along with the recording as you went. In my future classroom I really want to try using this idea.

My article: Social Networking Belongs in School