Blog Assignment 4

Langwitches-Podcasting with 1st Grade

According to Langwitches, podcasting is a positive way to relay information to kids. They love that what they are doing can be received by anyone in the world, showing that they really do matter. In these student's podcast, they did a question and answer series from a popular children's book series, The Magic Treehouse. The students were very interested in making the podcasts perfect. If there was even the slightest sound in the background, they told the teacher they wanted to do it over. For the students, it was kind of like they were in acting class, and they enjoyed it tremendously.

I thought that it was cool that the kids began to deconstruct their voices and the way they sounded. I believe that podcasts will help students speak more clearly and even correct speech impediments. The kids seemed to enjoy critiquing their voices to improve. This trait is hard to grasp, but I think podcasts will help. The podcast was so good that sounded like someone from a audio book company compiled it. This teacher did a great job with these kids and I will definitely try and interweave this concept into my curriculum whenever I become an educator.

Flat Stanley Podcast
It is amazing what children can do with technology. In this post, they discuss a podcast that included children from many parts of the world. What brought all of them together? A little piece of paper cut into a person named Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley is used to show the children and explore different parts of the world. The kids research a certain part of the world by reading or looking on the internet so that the kids could learn about different cultures. This concept has been used for many years now, so these classrooms decided to bring in technology and make a podcast. After students researched their location of choice, they would write a script about that place for the podcast and add them all together to form a large podcast.

I think that by using Flat Stanley, the kids have a better chance of remembering geographical and historical information. Also, it is pretty cool that they get to connect with other parts of the world by doing a similar assignment. Kids like to connect with people they do not know from other places. I believe that Flat Stanley will continue to be used for a long time.

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom
For the next generation of learners, technology is all that they know. Podcasting is becoming a major part of the way they learn. It allows for creativity and innovation within the students. Podcasts make the students use higher level thinking skills due to them having to explain concepts and ask questions. It can also be much easier on the teacher. They can record their lecture on a podcast, so that they do not have to repeat it every time that a new class comes in. Also, if a student is out sick, they do not miss any important information and can hear the information when they are feeling up to it.

This video is very informative and covers everything anyone would need to know about podcasts. They prove to be very convienient for teachers and save a lot of time. Students also gain a lot more from them because they have to recall information out loud. If they do not know their information, they could mislead or give someone the wrong idea about a concept. Overall, podcasts are the future of our classrooms and will help students better their brain capacity.