Sunday, February 10, 2013

Blog Assignment #4

black microphone on a yellow background with iPod headphones attached


Podcasting and Education 

For this week's assignment we were asked to looks at some posts on podcasts from Langwitches, a website made by Ms. Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano. Ms. Tolisano teaches her students how to create podcasts, but it is not the mastery of the technology that is emphasized. It's the life skills that can be learned from creating the podcasts themselves. These sessions have taught first graders to be confident, to embrace their creativity, and most of all to have fun in the classroom.

While listening to the podcasts, I was pleasant surprised by the kids' performances. They made their scripts come alive with animated reading voices and fun sound effects. I could tell that they really enjoyed themselves.

From reading these, I learned some valuable tips for our own podcast assignment. While I had planned on writing a script, I had thought just to read from it while recording. Now I'm thinking it might be better to NOT read from the script but to instead memorize what I'm going to say. This way it'll sound more natural. I also took away that I need to be expressive with my voice. No one will want to listen if you're voice is monotone and they aren't entertained on some level.

2 comments:

  1. "I was pleasant surprised..." pleasantly, not pleasant

    Do you think you will be a podcasting teacher?

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  2. Hi there! I think memorizing the script for our project is an awesome idea; it should help with the flow of the podcast. Speaking of flow, I too was surprised by Ms. Silvis Rosenthal Tolisano's class. She was able to make learning fun for her kids which is important in today's classroom. Using technology like this is an exciting experience that the children can learn from while tapping into their imagination. Not only can they learn from podcasting, but some of them can grow from the experience as well because it seems like a great tool for helping children break out of their shell. I have yet to record a podcast, but when I get comfortable using the software I'm sure I would consider using it in my future classroom. Do you think podcasting is good for the classroom?

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