My Podcast & Discussion

Week 4 - Engagement Activity 6

 

My Podcast 

The link below will take you to my Podcast - Mother Hen - Part 2. Don't miss it!

http://5158.podomatic.com/entry/2012-11-22T21_02_50-08_00

Podcast Discussion

  

Podcasting provides students with a modern and exciting way to learn, and to communicate what they have been learning and achieving in school. Families and relatives can stay informed about their children’s education through subscribing to school podcasts, which can also be used as a means through which the school can communicate important information to parents and carers. Also, there is the potential for students to attract a much wider following than those with whom they are familiar, through the internet. Other school children and teachers may be interested in what they are learning, and glean ideas for their own teaching and learning practices. Knowing that their projects are being examined by a wider audience, and being inspired by positive feedback, students may work even harder to find more interesting facts, achieve higher levels of understanding, and stretch the boundaries of their creativity. Children learn to work collaboratively and cooperatively, taking ownership over their productions and learning to problem solve, which utilises higher order thinking skills. To be successful at communicating and accessing knowledge in the twenty-first century, one must be aware of the many different forms of communication. The podcast is growing in popularity due to its ease of use to both access and communicate a wide variety of content. It can be used anywhere, anytime - which suits our busy lives!

Podcasts for the Early Childhood Context

For very young children, a teacher could create a class learning podcast. By uploading educational material for students to access out of school hours, children are provided with the opportunity to consolidate and extend their learning. Such material could include:

 

·                     Kindergarten/Prep Rhymes (for pre-literacy skills)

·                     Kindergarten/Prep Songs (e.g. Heads & Shoulders, Knees & Toes)
·                     Favourite Stories
·                     Number Songs and Rhymes (e.g. Mother Duck Went Out One Day)
·                     Literacy Songs (B-I-N-G-O)
·                     ABC Song
·                     Letter Songs & Stories (e.g. LetterLand, Jolly Phonics)
·                     Fantastic Facts about people, animals, things ...

          
Also, for Years 1-3:

·                     Spelling bees (for grades 1-3)

·                     Quizzes
·                     Problem-solving questions

·            

   
    These could also be utilised within the classroom, with images/photos uploaded to provide a visual component for when a computer or an interactive whiteboard is used.

Computers and whiteboards could also be used to show children educational podcasts sourced from the internet, including those with specific content knowledge, such as podcasts about Grizzly Bears, Marsupials, Photosynthesis etc. Years 2 – 3 students could be encouraged to attempt finding podcasts for themselves on topics of interest, for research purposes.  

In addition to teacher generated or internet podcasts, children could create their own podcasts. While very young children will require teacher assistance, it is still a process that can be discussed and demonstrated so that children are at least exposed to the dialogue/ literacy aspects associated with such technology, which will facilitate later learning of independent technology skills. Young children could contribute by submitting ideas for podcasts, taking photos, and choosing images and artworks, and creating audio recordings for submissions. They could even following teacher instruction to ‘double click here’ and ‘choose this option’ etc.

Suggested topics could include:

·                     What I learned about ... e.g. snails/growing plants/keeping fish

·                     Class Diary
·                     What I want to be when I grow up
·                     My favourite place
·                     My Pet
·                     My Family
·                     Jokes
·                     Class Dictionary - children submit words and create sentences ...
·                     Our Farm Visit
·                     The Firemen's Visit
·                     Mother’s Day greetings – I love my Mummy because ...
·                     Father’s Day greetings – I love my Dad because ...
·                     Easter and Christmas greetings/ performances

     

  Provided children have media releases, they could take part in videos/making movies, creating artworks (e.g. showing procedures), reciting poems, playing instruments, learning a skill from a visiting expert, and so on, which could all be uploaded to their podcast.