Archive for September 2005

Reflections on Podcasting in the Science Classroom

September 30, 2005 by jmmblake.

First of all, why the interest in podcasting in a science classroom? In looking at how students learn, it is important to construct a classroom environment that fosters construction of knowledge and not just doing worksheets. My students struggle with reading and reading comprehension. I complained to a seasoned educator that my kids could not read. He told me to just teach them to read. Well, that maybe what it took 20 years ago when he was in the classroom. My students are part of the mix/mashup culture. They are interested in making science concepts “their own”. Letting my students read about science, do hands-on labs, or watch videos is fine, but they like cutting and pasting the content into a new form. No, it does not replace reading the textbook and having difficult concepts clarified by a certified teacher. It just works.

Our earth science students created their weekly podcast, but the middle school science students did not manage to find the time to create theirs. The earth science podcast is still in the final production phase. Their podcast dialogues are finished, but they needed more time to edit their images for the enhanced podcast. So, it will be Monday before a new episode is ready.

Our next phase of creating podcasts in the classroom is to have the students take on more of the production duties. After creating three podcasts, I am getting the hang of the process and think I can now teach my students how. One thing I have run into is that using my iPod with the iTalk works very good with my students. We tried several microphones in creating our podcasts. We found that this Omnidirectional Boundary Microphone from Radio Shack picked up the students rattling the desk too much.

So, in the future, we will be sticking to the iTalk and iPod. It really makes recording easier. I was able to move around the class without having to drag a laptop. The only disadvantage with the iPod is using it adds steps to the process. Since our goal is to teach the kids to do the process from coming up with an idea for a podcast to being able to show their family how to subscribe to podcasts in the iTunes store and how to use a podcast client like these:

Doppler Radio
Here’s a podcast client that requires the Microsoft .NET framework. It is donateware.

iPodder Lemon
This podcast receiver or podcast client is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It can be used on any MP3 player as well (not just Apple iPods). It is one of the most popular software for podcasting and is donateware.

iPodderX
A Mac-only podcast client. It has a free basic edition and a premium paid edition (US$19.95).

Jager: BlogMatrix
It is a free weblog reader and podcast receiver for Windows, Macintosh OS 10.3 and Linux (Red Hat Fedora). They also have Sparks, just for recording Internet radio broadcasts and/or podcasts.

Nimiq
This is another podcast client (aka RSS Ripper). It supports OPML browsing, multi-threaded downloads and more.

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Mr. Blake’s Class Podcast– Episode 2

September 23, 2005 by jmmblake.

This week, my students focused on the concept of the four phases of matter. This is a fairly abstract concept. Students can not actually see the atoms and there were several misconceptions addressed as we prepared to write the script for the podcast. I tried this week to improve the quality of the sound, but I am still not satisfied with it. I have to buy a mic and a USB preamp. We will need to get a mic boom too. In listening to the podcast, I heard the sound from the students leaning on the fold-up table. We use headphone to monitor external sound, but we missed that sound. We are still waiting for Apple to list our podcasts in the podcasting site on iTunes.

Use this hyperlinked icon to subscribe to the XML feed of our podcast, if you already have a podcast client like iPodder

Our class “Wish List”

Posted in Podcast, Earth Science, Ed Tech | Print | 1 Comment »

Podcasting in My Earth Science Classroom- Links

September 22, 2005 by jmmblake.

I will edit these so they are hyperlinked later…got to run…time for the season premire of ER.

Apple’s guide is the best instruction to follow for the command line approach, but a number of industrious developers have created graphical utilities to make this even easier for a nominal cost (some free).

  • Podcast Enhancer

Here are some other useful links.

  • http://www.mvldesign.com/itunespodcast.html

    • New book from O’reilly

    One more great link on Enhanced Podcasts

    Posted in Podcast, Earth Science, Ed Tech | Print | No Comments »

    Planning Our Class Podcast

    September 20, 2005 by jmmblake.

    This week, we are creating our second podcast in Earth Science. I received on comment from Dave Warlick that my students were every proud of. The smile on their faces was worth a million dollars. Someone they had never heard of had listened to there work. I had one person email me a comment instead of posting to the blog and that was cool. That listener actually presents how to podcast sessions for a major computer company. The constructive feedback from that listener urged my students to speak more loudly during recording. As, that reader reminded me about a feature now available on podcasts called chapters. I have an idea about how to include images and link to documents in Wikipedia. When my student study rocks and mineral, we can photography our own rock samples and podcast about their properties. I hope my students can transition away from less reading of the script to having a conversation about what they are learning. I am just pleased they are excited about the process.

    Looking through my shelves full of ancillary materials, I ran across one activity that might help. I am working on editing the activity so that it works with helping the create greater understanding and depend less on reading word for work what someone else says.

    That so far has been the road block for my students. They are bored just having to read their script. Anyone have any suggestions on how to help students make the switch from readers to thinkers synthesize the information. David calls this digital information literacy. Being able to piece all the information together and decide what sources are authoritative, and accurate. Science is pretty exact by it nature. So, it is important from the facts to be correct.

    Tomorrow, I will have my podcasters to use Inspiration to create a mind map of the Chapter. Then use this as on outline for the podcast’s script. We viewed several video clips on the structure of atoms and their properties. I want them to include these in the Inspiration activities.

    Posted in Podcast, Ed Tech | Print | No Comments »

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