Thing #15 - 23 Things

I've thought about using podcasts at school and have tried in the past to get students to podcast book reviews but without the activity fitting into a class assignment I haven't been able to get very many participants but I do plan to keep trying. The administrators didn't have a problem with it and I had to work with our technology department so that we could use the programs on the school compuers. We use Audacity (free, very cool program) to record and edit, then I add the files to a webpage or to a blog. I have also offered to help teachers create podcasts and have suggested having students create them, while I haven't had a firm takers on creating actual podcasts our Chinese teacher has worked with me to post audio files for his students to access and I work on a joint project with our Product Design teacher where the students use the same technology to create audio/radio commericials. So even though we haven't taken the full plunge into podcasting we've taken baby steps and I have students and teachers getting more comfortable with the technology. I would love to see our language classes create student podcasts of review or language lessons, our Food for Fitness classes creating healthy eating programs or have our social studies classes do current events or this day in history podcasts. Lots of options out there but it is hard for teachers to find the extra time to fit in new activites.