Week 8 - Podcasting

The content covered this week was podcasting. A podcast is a digitally created recording that someone creates and others can listen to. Many podcasts are similar to radio shows, and listeners can subscribe to them. Some podcasts are created purely for entertainment; however others are used as educational tools, such as the recording of college lectures for later listening.

I could use podcasting in my major field (elementary education) by creating podcasts as supplemental lessons for my students. For instance, if a student was struggling with a subject I could create a podcast that would reveiw important concepts for that subject. My students could even request what topics they would like me to review on podcasts, and they could listen to them at home while doing their homework. I could also have students create their own podcasts for projects.

This YouTube video teaches you how to find educational podcasts on iTunes. I chose it because before watching the video I didn't know how to find educational resources on iTunes, or even that they were readily available. These podcasts could definitely be useful in the classroom as a way to supplement lectures.

Week 7 - Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a way to tell a story using tools on your computer and the internet. The tools discussed in class were: PowerPoint, iMovie, Animoto, GoAnimate, Jing, Screen Toaster, Google Earth and Google Lit Trips. These tools can be used to create a number of different things, from fun visual presentations and movies, to stories told by cartoon characters, or trips following the stories of Shakespeare around the world.

Digital storytelling would be an extremely useful tool for my major field (elementary education). There are so many different ways that I would be able to spice up my teaching using these tools. I could create an iMovie on a foreign country for history. I could use GoAnimate as a fun way to review vocabulary words or teach another language. I could show students Google Lit Trips to bring alive whatever book they are reading for class. The possibilities are really just endless, and I am very excited to know about these tools for when I begin my teaching career.

This YouTube video is a digital storytelling example that presents a math problem and explains how to solve it. I chose it because I would like to use digital storytelling in the classroom to explain a math problem to my students. For elementary students, the video would be slower and the math would be easier, but the general idea of bringing a problem to life would be the same.