I am admittedly a technology neophyte but am amazed at its growth, intrigued at its influence, and excited about its future. I am quite willing, even driven, to learn how to become more technology savvy but lack that innate ability to fearlessly maneuver the discipline. I share this as a prelude to a story about a first grade classroom with which I work. This past year the teacher complained that her students were interrupting her guided reading time everyday because they could not seem to work the cassette player in the listening center. The teacher had never had a class that had so much difficulty with this. She realized that none of the students had ever used a cassette player. She decided to purchase an MP3 player and then had her son upload some stories on it. She placed the devise at the listening center, without instruction, and sat back to observe. She was amazed that the first pair of students picked up the MP3, found the title that matched the book on the table and began listening without asking for any assistance. Problem solved.
The point is that there is a generation of students in our elementary schools who are technologically fearless, unlike me, an “experienced” teacher. What happened in the classroom made me realize that we as educators must adjust our way of executing the standards so that we can catch up with these six year olds! If a first grader feels very comfortable with listening to books on MP3s then why not create little mini lessons via Podcasts to upload as well. This would be a great way to differentiate the curriculum to a classroom of students whose aptitudes and abilities are spread out all over the place. The teacher could create small remediation, review or enrichment lessons and assign them to different students to listen and respond to – all at the same time!
In the same way, a Media Specialist could create podcasts with instructions for equipment hook-up and operations, curriculum enrichment, book talks, resource sharing, etc. These could be shared with teachers, students, administration, and media colleagues. I chose to pursue a Media Specialist degree because I love literature, children, and sharing information. I am very excited about the new, 21 Century ways of sharing that information.
To learn more about creating Podcasts, visit some of the following links.
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/podcasting.htm
http://www.podcasting-tools.com/podcasting-101.htm
http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/
http://etec.hawaii.edu/proceedings/2008/Miltenoff2008.pdf
submitted by Diane Brannen
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Diane, your account couldn’t be truer! The student s are indeed fearless; just hand your cell phone to a six year old and your background, font, and ring tones will all be changed within seconds! I also look forward to being a media specialist soon and helping students make 21st Century book reports. Their parents will love it, too! Another way I thought I could use podcasts in my classroom has to do with one of my tasks I often get behind on: having absent students make up spelling tests. With a podcast, each student could take the test whenever he/she wanted. If they wanted to hear a word again or need more time, they can rewind or pause my voice. I think this could be a real time saver. One of the best parts about podcasting is like most technology, it can be shared with co-workers, other media specialists, parents, etc. Whether using someone else’s podcast or making your own the possibilities are endless.
ReplyDeleteDiane,you said it best...."as educators we must adjust our way of executing the standards so that we can catch up". We have 10 ipods (used to have 15) in my high school media center for circulation. Teachers have taken a lot of time creating podcasts and even vodcast for our students,especially the PES students. All of the students that have had the opportunity to use the ipods have had great success. The problem that we have had with ipods are students checking them out and not returning them or students checking them out and downloading inappropriate material on them. My hope is that someone reading this blog can help me come up with a way to better manage our ipods because there are so many wonderful activities available. I,too, am excited about the new 21st century way's of sharing information.
ReplyDeleteAh yes!! The tech savvy 6 yr. old...my son, who is 6, does not care too much about technology. He likes to play games form time to time, but overall he uses his imagination with the things he has at hand. I say that to say that maybe he could do a better job of learning his sight/high frequency words if he could hear them. He uses my old iPod shuffle to listen to some of his favorite tunes....maybe a podcast with a short story, made by my 6 yr. old, could be just what the teacher ordered. :O)
ReplyDeleteKids are truly advanced when it comes to technology. They aren't scared to try anything especially podcast. I am using podcast more and more in the media center. I am having the book fair this week and I created a podcast of me doing a book talk about one of the books at the book fair. I never tell the end of the story and the kids are so eager to read the book on their own. :) I really like the podcast websites that you listed on your blog. Thanks for sharing those sites with us.
ReplyDeleteKids are defintely advanced when it comes to technology these days. I am 24 years old and sometimes the kids know more than I do. It's crazy. I believe that the world has a vast amount of different technology and it should be brought in the classroom. It makes learning more fun for students.
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