Blog Post 4

Eagles Nest Radio Podcasts

In three radio podcasts by Mrs. Edmison’s 3rd grade class, the students perform a great radio show where the children give a lesson to us about ancient Rome, early explorers and sharks. The students were very well spoken, you could hear them all clearly and they transitioned well from one student to the next by identifying each speaker. I was impressed because the children spoke as if they were stating factual information from memory, not simply reading from a paper. Also, they thanked the shark expert for giving the interview. I was really impressed! One thing I learned was how the use of sound effects can make audio podcasts more interesting.



Langwitches

Silvia Tolisano gives instructions on how she helped 1st graders make a storybook podcast. I think it is outstanding that she and the teacher are introducing 1st graders to this process. Making the books for them to follow along with was a great idea because they are reading, hearing and seeing the words at the same time. Ms. Tolisano also gave step-by-step instructions so you can have your own dinosaur read-along, which will be very interesting to my 1st grader. This video made me realize that I can start introducing my child to technology like this. I hope that she and I can create our own storybook podcasts after I learn how to do it!

Judy Scharf’s Podcast Collection

Ms. Scharf’s website is a life saver! I should’ve read this before even viewing the first podcast. It explains exactly what a podcast is and gives links to Audacity and a YouTube video showing how to make a podcast. The video is a must for newbies like myself. It showed me how to use Audacity. This will be very helpful to us in our group’s upcoming project. She makes it easy for even technologically illiterate teachers to do a podcast with their class by outlining the directions and a time frame, giving tips and topic suggestions, even a grading rubric. Dr. Strange, maybe you should have made this required reading!