Podcasts!

I am late with the post that I should have done last week. I had a horrible migraine Wednesday and Thursday and looking at the computer screen or listening to the podcasts would not have been a wise thing to do since light and sound only make my migraines worse. :(
I started off by listening to the SmartBoard Lessons Pocast, Episode 147: Student Interaction. It is hosted by Ben Hazzard and Joan Badger. This podcast started off kind of off the topic. For about the first three and a half minutes, the hosts discussed Ben's cold and joked around. They discussed Ben's huge ego and his goal of the two hosts one day hosting a morning radio show. They then moved on with discussing some housekeeping issues and contact information for themselves. Ben and Joan then did some more ego boosting. This is already about five minutes into the podcast and they really haven't said anything about the topic of the day. Joan finally started to share some websites that she found or heard about that were interesting but Ben kept interrupting her and being sarcastic. By now, I had already lost interest in this podcast. They were just being silly and wasting time. At almost directly the seven minute mark, Joan eventually tells everyone of a tool (or toy) that does apply to the SmartBoard. There is a website that allows visitors to access a screen that looks like a piece of bubble wrap and then proceed to "pop" the bubbles. I have been to this site a few years ago and it can be addicting if there is truly nothing else for one to be doing. Joan talked about how this can be used on a SmartBoard and how instead of having to reload the site, one can just click on Fresh Sheet and get a new piece of virtual bubble wrap. This is not an educational tool at all unless maybe you count the bubbles. It would be a fun alternative to counting blocks or another object. You could count the bubbles as you pop them. Joan didn't make this connection. I just thought that maybe the bubble wrap could be integrated into the classroom setting. After the bubble wrap segment, they again started with their nonsense yet kept reminding themselves that they were on an educational program and should be discussing how to use a SmartBoard in an educational setting. This podcast is a good example of what not to do on a podcast. Be focused and get to the point within the first ten minutes.
The next podcast that I listened to was Kidcast #56- Questions Make The World Go Round. It is hosted by Dan Schmit. He was doing the podcast from the Thatcher School in California. The Thatcher School is a private, residential high school during the school year and is a conference center for teachers for one month during the summer. The school hosts Teach the Teachers Collaborative which is a series of workshops. With the school being in the almost wilderness, it provides a setting that allows teachers to be out of their usual environment and really think about the topics that they are learning and focus. Mr. Schmit had been working with some science teachers about ways to mix science and technology. One way that the two could work together would be to do podcasts about topics of study. Mr. Schmit said that the teachers had alot of questions for him and he had alot of questions for them. This led him to think about questions. He said that questions make good podcasts. Instead of podcasts just being a way for students to get information about a topic or assignment, students could use podcasts as a way of asking questions with the goal of really getting an answer or reaching a conclusion. Schmit shared "The Question Game". In the Question Game, players may only speak in question form. Questions have to be relative to previous questions. If teachers would record these questions as a podcast, they could then have students and others review them and find the "best question". I don't like the idea of finding the "best question". I don't really believe that any question is any better than another question. Anyway, the game is just a way to get students thinking and asking questions and getting outside sources to comment also. Schmit also talked about asking questions in a pyramid sort of form. Start with very basic questions (who, what, when, where, why). Then move to deeper questions that deal with understanding a topic (If this, then...). Next, ask questions that concern the application of the topic (Is this an example of... OR Is this not an example of...). The fourth group of questions that need to be asked are questions of analysis. These questions will be used to research the topic more in depth. This sounded like the kind of questions that are used to begin a science fair project. The final set of questions that should be asked are questioning the evaluation of the topic (Is this really true? Is this the only case?) If these questions are asked in a podcast the podcast is more fun for the students to do and it also makes the thought process more fun. Schmit said to start with the evaluation question as a jumping off point and then to go back through the other steps starting with the basic questions so that the class will end up with the evaluation question. This podcast was much better than the other podcast. It was short and simple. Schmit also talked briefly about a podcast competition that was being held so that KidCast could have a library of examples of their tools. Schmit did a very good job podcasting. Maybe that's why he wrote a book on podcasting in the classroom.
EdTechTalk was the next podcast that I listened to. EdTechTalk had many teachers all talking with many guests. The topic of this session was Voice Thread. I still have no idea was Voice Thread is after listening to the first ten minutes of this podcast. The hosts kept talking about different books they were reading about the brain. They did have some interesting points about the brain, such as brains working better while the body is moving about and brains work better when the body is comfortable. One speaker said that she tried to teach her class some history facts while they marched around the room and that the students remembered the facts better than they usually would do. Another speaker said that she allows her students to do their work at their desks, on a bean bag chair, etc. so that they are comfortable. This podcast was very confusing and distracting since the main speaker kept randomly speaking to people as they joined the chat room that was the hub of this podcast. She kept thanking them for joining the chat room so that they could help her with the podcast. Also, the sound of her keyboard clicking was very, very distracting. The main speaker, I never caught her name, kept saying how much she loved Voice Thread and how her kids in her classroom already know what Voice Thread is in the third week of school. I am glad that her kids know what Voice Thread is because after nine minutes of this podcast about Voice Thread, I had and still have no clue what Voice Thread is. The presenter seemed to be doing a billion things at one time and was very distracted. After ten minutes of the podcast, the special guests are finally introduced. The special guests are the two creators of Voice Thread. After over ten minutes of this distracted mess, I didn't even care to learn what Voice Thread is.
The last podcast I listened to was This Week in Photography, 051:Three's a Crowd. The title said it was hosted by Alex Lindsay and Scott Bourne. Only Scott hosted this podcast. He did have some guests with him, Steve Simon, Ron Brinkman, and some man named just Aaron. They talked for a while about some new forms of cameras that are available and some retouching software. There is software now that can take a photograph and make facial features "prettier". The guys had a great time with this and joked a lot about what "prettier" really is. They were funny but did have a good point, what is "prettier?". They also talked some about Microsoft's photo software but none of them had ever tried it. They are all Mac users and were very adamant in their loyalty to the Mac system. I wish that they had tried it so that they could have given some real life examples about problems and capabilities of the program. They said that they wanted others to try it and give them feedback. They did a pretty good job with their podcast. I just wish that they would try the software themselves so that they could describe it better than just giving the specifications of it that are on the box.
These podcasts did show some good points and bad points of podcasting and some dos and don'ts of podcasting. These podcasts show the benefits of being well prepared and focused instead of doing several things at once or just kind of winging it. These podcasts also showed the toll that background noise can take on a podcast and how it can distract the listener. I hope that we don't make these same mistakes in our own podcasts.