Podcasting

The post is slightly overdue, however I am on podcasting overload at the moment. It has been quite convenient that my podcasting staff development at work has been overlapped with our podcasting unit for Mason.

I have been podcasting with students since the beginning of the year and I finally feel like I have the organization side and the tech side down to a science. Students and I can now crank out a 5 minute podcast in about 30 minutes.

However I am ready to change things up a bit and test out some new ideas with students. Right now a typical podcast with our 3rd graders includes some sort of content showcase (social studies riddles, science poems, writing samples, etc...), a staff member interview, and a trivia question.

What other ideas do you have for a unique, original and appropriate podcast?

We've also had difficulty at Guilford with motivating all students to listen to the podcast once its online. Many students don't have internet access at home either so listening at home is not an option. Any ideas for motivating students and teachers to listen to the podcasts more with their classes?

In Loving Memory

Ok, so this post is not going to have anything to do with technology however I felt it appropriate to leave a tribute to my white laptop baby featured on my blog. Tonight we will be taking her to the vet to be put to sleep. She spent way to little time on this earth and way to little time with us. Last week was her 2 year anniversary of being adopted into our family and what we also called her 6th birthday. Yesterday she was diagnosed with very advanced malignent melanoma. She was the shyest, most timid. but sweetest cat ever and has been a fighter the past few weeks. She's going to be missed by my husband and I but I'm glad I get to see her little face still everytime I come to update my Tech Blog. Thanks for listening to my ramblings...now back to our regularly scheduled blog...

The joys of technology

So I thought I would just post my frustrations today with Pbwiki. Today is the day I am supposed to start the Wiki site with fourth grade. Of course this would be the day that the pbwiki server is down. I keep getting the message "this service is unavailable - please try again later" T-minus 7 minutes until the class is here to do their first round of wiki-ing (is that even a word?).

Plan B is to have them type their first round of information into a Word document and cut and paste later, however that doesn't really showcase the uses and advantages of the wiki this week.

Don't you love how reliable technology is sometimes?

Video Editing 101

The past month or so I have been consumed by video editing 101. I think there are some very innovative and creative ways teachers could be using video technology in the classroom. At the start of this semester I was energized and ready to bring all I had learned from inservice sessions and grad school back to my teachers. I planned to establish a video team of 5 -10 teachers who wanted to work on video projects with their students. This team of teachers lent itself well to my second practicum unit and my plan was to write up and showcase all of the really great final products that were created.

Little did I know what a disaster this training would turn out to be! I too am new to the world of video editing. So coming into this team as a novice does not help. Video editing software is also a headache to use and there is a significant time element involved in tweaking a video project. The finished product is great to see (I am so proud of my PSA I am showcasing it everywhere I can - see above), and it makes me proud of all the hard work that was done. However, is this all worth it for 30 seconds of video?! I had a teacher on my video team who is concerned that since she isn't able to follow up with her students as quick as she'd like they will forget that they even made the videos. It has almost been a month since the their videos were filmed and we are still trying to work with the software.

How do we keep the momentum and energy up when completing a video project that is so tedious? Do you think the time involved is a worthwhile investment once we get the final product? Or should teachers be spending their precious time elsewhere?