KidCast: Learning and Teaching with Podcasting

Recently I had the opportunity to meet Richard Dryfus. Yes...that Richard Dryfus. He was at the MacWorld conference working as a part of the John Lennon Educational Bus. Richard was there working with a group of students and recording content focused on bringing Civics curriculum back to the forefront in American schools. In many districts Civics has been reduced to a single course. In a crowded curriculum continually being driven by testing, what is the case for allocating more time and energy to this subject area. Dryfus argues that there is actually a lot at stake. I have to admit that as I look around at the current political discourse and the superficial, overgeneralized “us v them” thinking that seems to dominate discussions of government, there is a lot of room for improvement. As I listened to him share his thoughts, in the passionate and convincing way that IS Richard Dryfus, i couldn’t help but tie podcasting back into the conversation.

A picture is worth a thousand words... let’s prove it! Learning to describe what we observe in depth is a valuable skill that is connected to seeing and thinking more deeply. This episode will provide you with another great podcasting activity that will develop descriptive observation in your students. We'll use photographs to create a guided visual tour in GarageBand.

This episode focuses on a strategy for developing interview skills among students. Its called speed networking and can be used to help students learn to hear several perspectives and record them for use in an investigative podcast.

In this episode, we talk with Bernie Dodge, creator of the WebQuest instructional design strategy to take a look at where it came from, its current status in classrooms, and where it might be headed in the future.

With over 150 entries from countries all over the world, this year's KidCast awards were brought together some really impressive student and teacher achievements in podcasting. I'm very proud of the work that each entry brought to their shows. Not only do this years entries represent academic and technical excellence, but they also will serve as examples of for thousands of other students and teachers who are just beginning to explore podcasting. The judging for this year's contest was conducted by six judges who are educators and experienced podcasters. Listening critically to this many shows was a big big job and I'm very thankful to everyone who assisted. I also want to give a special thank you to Humble Daisy - maker of Profcast and Atomic Learning for their generous support of this year's contest. Here are the results: * Professional Development Cheryl Davis, Miramonte High School - Orinda, CA Gone Google * Instructional Podcast Frank Falotico Hartman Podcasters of Hartman Elementary – Elwood City, PA Concept Library * Documentary Victoria Monacelli - Harding Middle School - Philadelphia, PA The Holocaust * Sound Seeing Tour Mary Lehman - Stony Brook Elementary School – York, PA * Talk Show (Video) Matt Rasgorshek - Studio66 – Westside High School, District 66 – Omaha, NE (Audio) James Pippen - Wuerzburg Elementary School - Wuerzburg, Germany * Drama Frank Fitzpatrick - Ward Elementary School – Richmond, VA “Give Me Liberty, or Let Me Sleep!” * Where in the World Kelly Bauer – Manzano Day School – Albuquerque, NM * Best in Show Linda Huryta and Sarah Haver Radio Willow Web – Willowdale Elementary School – Millard, NE Honorable Mention - Steve Katz CDS News - Country Day School - Escazu, Costa Rica Honorable Mention – Paul Fuller Podkids Australia – Orange Grove Primary School - Perth, Australia

This week's show features an update on the KidCast Awards - we had over 150 submissions! These represent some really excellent work by teachers and students. I'm looking forward to sharing the results with you soon. Check back after May 15th for results. This episode was recorded using Ubercaster, a full featured podcast studio that offers some great work flows and creative options for podcasters. It takes some serious horse power and a lot of preparation (which is actually a great thing!) Ubercasters gets you to think about podcasting as a performance as much as a production. You can download a demo at ubercaster.com Mothers day is just around the corner, so I decided to throw in a little podsafe music, "Mother", from Kevin Reeves. There has been a bit of a backlash lately toward the iPod. I think most of it is drummed up media hype, but it is important to address these kinds of concerns by engaging administrators and teachers about how to address cheating and appropriate use through effective classroom management not knee jerk generalizations. I end this episode with a sound seeing tour from Massacre Canyon in south west Nebraska. I love discovering cool little piece of history like this and it gave me an excellent change to bring out the iPod and do a soundseeing tour.

Kidcast for April 17, 2007 Still time to get involved in the 2007 Kidcast Awards - plenty of entries have come in, but not in every category. Still looking for more drama and sound seeing tour entries. Sponsors - special thanks to our platinum sponsor Humble Daisy: makers of ProfCast. Our other sponsor is Atomic Learning. ----- Its a very exciting time...watching all this great work fly in...knowing all the creative and constructive energy that goes into it. Thank you to all the vangards out there who are making podcasting happen in your classrooms. -------- The 2nd Edition of KidCast Podcasting in the Classroom....FINISHED IT! - GarageBand's Podcasting Studio - Video Podcasting (including Video Cue Pro) - more ideas about student voice and the fundamentals of podcasting -It is available online at ftcpublishing.com - they have some great bundles - and they can even sell your district a license so that you can reproduce it for staff development within your district. CURRENTLY working on a companion to that book that is a resource and activity book for classroom podcasts - it has over 50 ideas, strategies and Activities "KidCast: Creative Podcasting" - Look for this title out later this spring. ------------ I went down to FLorida last week to speak on a panel at the Technology adn Learning, Tech Forum 2007 Orlando. I spoke with David Warlick and Ginger Jewell about new technologies that are changing education. We took a really fun round robin approach to chiming in with exmples and ideas about collaboration, student publishing and creation, and immersive simulations and games. I popped my iPod on the table and recorded - most of the session - i'll post it as a separate show. --------- Ubercaster - a new tool that i'm going to review soon. - go check it out, mac users. I'd be interested in what you think about this. --------- Videos from dallas' beyond 4 walls keynote are back up... update your feed (or resubscribe) to get them -------- Podcasting and ELL - Allison Wimmer, who is an amazing foreign language teacher has a request for us - she's doing some research and is looking for resources and ideas about blogging, podcasting and ELL. Email her at wimalim@gmail.com ==== Two Minute SoapBox is a new collaborative podcast for teachers about teaching produced....you guessed it...by teachers. Make a short recording and email it to me at dschmit@intelligenic.com or just call (309)401-9353 and leave a posting as a voice mail. ----

Calling all student and educator podcasters! We are sponsoring a podcasting contest again this year! Although the structure has changed slightly we are still focused on the same goal - recognizing quality podcasting efforts from around the world. Please share this information to educators who are producing podcasts as a part of their professional work. This year we are dividing our contest into categories that focus on specific types of educational podcasting. They are: Student Categories Documentary (i.e. research findings, biography, exposé) Talk Show (i.e. discussion, analysis) Drama (i.e. radio plays that teach) Sound Seeing Tour (i.e. descriptive language to introduce a place or objects) Where in the World (best new episode of Where in the World) Best in Show - This award recognizes the student podcast which exemplifies the qualities we value most in podcasts: learning, research, creativity, quality media production, and sustainability. Teacher Categories Professional Development (i.e. teacher reflection, tips, strategies, research summaries) Instructional Materials ( i.e. study guide, process guides, guided learning) For more details please see: http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/?page_id=90

Photo Story is available as a free download from the Microsoft website. According to the software maker, “Photo Story helps you to create exciting video stories by adding panning and zooming effects to your pictures. Use Photo Story to record narration for your pictures, and add titles and background musicto your story. You can also share your story in a variety of ways. Overall, I was a little underwhelmed by Photo Story. The process is fairly straightforward, with options to edit photos, set panning and zooming on photos, add effects, add music and record narration. Recording narration was easy,but editing and creative choices seem a little limited. I used my Samson CO1U microphone. There were a few issues in getting the program to recognize my microphone, but after a few tweaks (!) it worked. The output of Photo Story leaves us trapped inside Microsoft-land - WMV. Luckily there is a freeware application that can help us - Jodix Jodix can easily convert a variety of different media formats into an iPod compatible format. For podcasters working with software limited to exporting to Windows Media formats, this is an essential piece of software.

I'm back! After a very busy February traveling all over the place sharing ideas and strategies for podcasting and integrating technology. I'll have some notes from the Texas trip as well as some information about a few really useful websites for podcasting educators.

KidCast: Episode 37 - Interactive Podcasting

Administrators are in a unique position to catalyze new technologies like podcasting within the district. This week's show will focus on some tips for talking to your adminstrator about podcasting. First up - What is the wishlist that teachers might give to an administrator regarding podcasting. In other words, if you are an adminstrator who wants to build capacity for podcasting in your school&ˆere are some places to start: Identify the great communicators in your building Give them a mission Invest in a mobile podcast station Secure some server space Make your acceptable use policy - podcast ready Assign the content tasks to content people and the technical tasks to technical people Use your position to promote and encourage the development of your school content network Next up, if you are heading to your administrator to ask for assistance in getting podcasting moving in your school, here are some key points to think about: Understand the things that are important to administrators Focus on student outcomes Describe technology needs - stay focused on low threshold applications and supports Begin thinking of your school as a network of content experts Begin thinking of your school community as a potential audience Describe a plan for sustainability The big picture is what is important in your initial conversations. Offer to help your adminstrator produce a podcast discussing news and achievements within your school. That will help them see, first hand, the equipment you will need and how it might be used.

KidCast: Epsode 35 - South Australia - Building Capacity for Web 2.0 Learning

Part 1 - Earlier this month I had the privilege of speaking at the Beyond 4 Walls Podcasting Conference in Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Texas. It was great to see so many people excited about the possibilities of podcasting in learning environments and to receive such an enthusiastic response from them. Thanks to Maria Henderson of Apple Computer and the technology team at Carrollton-Farmers Branch for inviting me to share the day with their participants. Special thanks to Richard Sands of the Technology Services Division at Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD for taping the presentation and making it available.

Part 1 - Earlier this month I had the privilege of speaking at the Beyond 4 Walls Podcasting Conference in Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Texas. It was great to see so many people excited about the possibilities of podcasting in learning environments and to receive such an enthusiastic response from them. Thanks to Maria Henderson of Apple Computer and the technology team at Carrollton-Farmers Branch for inviting me to share the day with their participants. Special thanks to Richard Sands of the Technology Services Division at Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD for taping the presentation and making it available.