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Emerging Technologies-Podcasting

What's going world? This week for my Computers in Education course, I was supposed to research and get to know what is and how to podcast. More importantly, take a look at how the use of this technology could benefit the educational experience of my classroom. Before this assignment, I had heard of a podcast before, but had NOOO idea how to even begin creating one. Come to find out, they do not seem to be difficult at all to produce or publish. In fact it's so easy, that elementary students in Nebraska publish podcasts for class assignments. Check 'em out!! They are pretty cute and informative at the same time. My personal favorite is WillowCast #31 "Perfectly Presidential".

The only tools you need to create a podcast is a computer with a microphone. Once you have those two things, you will need to download Audacity to your computer. In order to publish these files as MP3's on the internet, you'll also need to get the LAME MP3 Encoder. The Audacity program looks to be pretty fun to play around with. You can import music into your podcast, and mess with the sound to create a highly professional sounding podcast!! Check out the video below for a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a podcast.

Now that we have the program and tools needed to create a podcast, it's time to put it to use in our classrooms. Technology is playing a HUGE role in today's classroom. If you need any proof, just ask a CEO of a chalk board producing company how business is these days hahaha. You can look at the PowerPoint I posted on my last blog to see what role technology is playing in today and tomorrow's classroom. Podcasts, for example, can be used to provide students with a more relaxed and fun way of interacting with each other, the material and you as a teacher. I know in my high school the only interaction we had with those three components was when a teacher would break us into groups to complete a worksheet. With podcasting, students have a chance to truly express themselves by adding their own unique twist to the lesson. It also helps them grasp the material by rewording the text or notes in their own words. For some more tips on how to use podcasting in your classroom and some more benefits it provides, check out this site. Also the video below gives a closer look at how podcasting can make education "hip" and "cool".

If you have any comments or questions about the information provided, please feel free to drop me a line. Constructive criticism is also greatly appreciated. I mean we all want to be the best teacher possible [at least I hope we do ;) ]. Well I'mma jet out of here for now...Catch ya on the flip side....

Future Technology In The Classroom

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: PowerPoint I created looking at some technological tools teacher's may have the benefit of using someday.

Future Technology In The Classroom

View more presentations from guesta495aa5.

IT IS ALIVE!!!

Finally got the blog up and going. Wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but still took some time. For those of you reading this who don't know me, my name is Jake. Most of my information is in my profile, and feel free to check that out at your leisure. I've never posted or kept up with a blog before, so I feel that this is going to be an exciting, interesting, and highly educational experience for me. I created my homepage last night and played around on it for a little bit. I changed the template a couple times til I found one that "looked like me" and still looked professional. My advice to future educators when creating a blog; is to make sure that your template or whatever design you have for a background is professional looking. Your blog can be fun and exciting looking without having beer bongs, pot leaves, and barely dressed models on it to attract your students. This may sound like common sense, but you would be surprised at some of the blogs I saw when trying to find an idea for mine. Well I think that's all for now, and I look forward to blogging the rest of the semester on different technological advances and about life in general. Be sure to check out my powerpoint on the "Future Technology in the Classroom". Until next time...