Podcasts4Students

I just got done listening to the latest SLJ Podcast . In this podcast, the Tech Chicks, Anna Adams and Helen Mowers, highlight and preview a few of their picks for great podcasts for students. The podcast supplements their December, 2007 School Library Journal article, Listen Up! The Best in Educational Audio. Reading the article and exploring the links provided therein will provide teachers with just a few audio resources that can be used in the classroom. And, did I mention that most podcasts are free.

As well as podcasts, LearnOutLoud includes audio books, mp3 downloads, and videos. So, if you are looking for more resources, here is another tool to help you find appropriate podcasts for use in your classroom. An account is free and downloading the podcast/s can be done via a podcast site, like iTunes, or individually as needed.

VoiceThread

Wow, what a great tool for personal and/or educational use. VoiceThread enables collaborative storytelling.

A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world.

Here's an example of a VoiceThread, What's a VoiceThread Anyway?




I've spent quite a lot of time exploring and viewing many VoiceThreads. And I've listened to this podcast from Teachers Teaching Teachers in which VoiceThread is discussed by the creators and teachers. What's really great are the VoiceThreads posted in the comments section.

Educational uses for VoiceThread abound. Here only a few of the ways it can be used:

• Storytelling, poetry readings, etc. - Poetry Pizzazz
• Individual or group book reports like this one, Hatchet
• Practice using a foreign language - Meine Familie
• Oral commentary about a field trip - Chinese Garden
• Reactions about an event or disaster,
• Tour of ... Summer of 2007
• Art students' works with artist's interpretation and peer comments, Flash Video (Victoria Taylor-Gore uses videos to show her own work, tributes to Vincent VanGogh and Mark Rothko)
• How to whatever... Social Bookmarking
• Summary of an event, activity, concept, etc. - Triangles by Angles
• Time-lapse of a school year (picture for each month, season, etc.) A Year in 12 Pictures
• Explanation of an event, topic, lesson, etc. Plagiarism
• Select a VoiceThread and have students comment/learn how to comment.

I hope you make time to explore this great tool.


Here's a great post by Cheryl Oakes from the TechLearning Blog where she talks about her experiences introducing staff to VoiceThread and includes links to other resources about VoiceThread.

AASL Conference

Here's a link to a a short video highlighting a few events from the AASL 2007 Conference. It might entice you to checkout some of the handouts/recordings that are available from the conference.

Not Missing in Action

Wow, it has been almost a month since I added anything to this blog. After returning from my Texas trip, I just couldn't seem to get caught up with anything! But I haven't been inactive with my Web 2.0 learning, just not blogging about it.

I've been learning how to edit pages on the new WEMTA website. It's quite a bit different from the previous process. One just needs to be setup with a login/password and rights to add/edit particular pages. I was able to figure out how to add and edit content using the online help tutorials. I work on the following pages/areas: Battle of the Books, WEMAtter, Copyright, and the AASL news. I just had the official training on Monday and found that much of the info covered was not new to me. But the trainer did send out a link for a demo site which I can use to see the different ways that content can be added. I have to redo the AASL news section. That was the first area I worked on and I want to do it differently.

I have also been listening to some of the K-12OnlineConference 2007 sessions which I'll talk about in a future post.