10-Rep Learning ~ Teague's Tech Treks

Learning Technology & Tech Observations by Dr. Helen Teague

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Back to School~Incorporate Podcasts

BacktoSchoolAs you return to school, consider tranferring your printed resources into podcasts.

Here is a podcast by Tremaine Jackson and  Deborah Tarsiewicz explaining the growing popularity of the genre, Steampunk novels. What I like is the transferability of your hardcopy texts to Web 2.0 tools such as Podcasts. As explained in a previous post on podcasts, I like Pod-0-Matic, a free podcast conversion utility.

Give a listen:

Some uses for Podcasts:
website greeting for parents
daily/weekly class annoucement on your website or blog
student projects –poem recitations, stories, biographies, summaries of novels, historical periods, current event
weekly “TeacherTalk” diaglogue starring you and a colleague

General Tips for Podcasts:
keep language concise, direct, and lively
keep podcasts short…less than 4 minutes
add texture with music, sound effects

Great source for Podcasts:
Library of Congress–my personal favorite
Scientific American
iTunes
Podcast Alley
PodOMatic

click here to read more about incorporating social media in your classroom (pdf download)

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New Library Releases Podcast

Take a listen at this week’s latest releases in books and DVD releases coming out today that you can look for at your local public libraries.  Tremain Jackson tells you what titles to be on the lookout for so you can see about checking them out for yourselves as they’re sure to be popular with patrons.

 

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New York Times Bestsellers’ List July 23

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Tech BFFs: PodOMatic

techbff_thumbnail BFF is an acronym for “Best Friend Forever.” These websites and tips are so good that they will become your technology BFFs!

Usually, I avoid big dinner parties like the plague. But a friend invited me to a fundraiser for an organization doing great work so I reluctantly attended. A dinner conversation with Tremain Jackson, Library Director at one of our city libraries introduced me to the instructive potential of Podcasts. He posts frequently to a Podcast channel he created for our library.

Podcasts are a type of digital media consisting of an episodic series of audio, video, PDF, or ePub files subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device. Source

Podcasts are great for use in your classroom learning centers, as a differentiation option for auditory learners and a great Web 2.0 inclusion tool.

The most intuitive (and free!)  application for creating your own podcasts is PodOMatic. With PodOMatic you can create, record, and publish an audio or video podcast without having to install any software on your computer. Most of the time, PodOMatic is allowed by school filters. Here is a great tutorial pdf document from the USF College of Education Laptop Initiative that will walk you through the easy steps to create your first Podcast.

Here is a podcast I created for my online class, “Children’s Authors on the Web: Online Sites that Motivate Students to Write”. This podcast discusses the importance of reading amid so many distractions and the possibility that reading engenders empathy.


Take yourself out to dinner and script your first Podcast tonight…over dessert!!!
Sources used to create the Podcast:
The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time, by David Ulin
13 Ways of Looking at the Novel, by Jane Smiley
Powells Books website: http://www.powells.com/
Background Music: “The Swan” by Claude Debussy

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