Looking at More Podcast Technology

After deciding on podcast technology as a personal project, I went to YouTube, for a tutorial about podcasting. After searching a few of the clips, they all agreed that I had to download sound mixing software, of which I downloaded Audacity, as well as the LAME MP3 encoder. Here's a link to a tutorial about Audacity. For this week, I'll be toying with soundmixing, testing its functions, as well as finding pieces of literature in the public domain that I can record without incurring the wrath of copyright infringement.

The idea behind this technology is simple enough, but the ramifications in the classroom is unparalleled. Just think for a moment if students were to get excited over podcasting. They would study and practice their lines, just to hear their voices performing. It won't excite everyone to record, but others might find pleasure in editing the podcasts, in encoding them. Plus, future classrooms can inherit or compete against the past in recording better podcasts. The amount of money needed for this project is minimal. All that is really needed is a microphone, the software, and an area to download the MP3 (a class website, maybe?)

Personal Technology Project Proposal

I know I'm a little late in posting this proposal, but here it goes. I am really interested in Librivox and the technology behind it. In my opinion, having students listen to the text while reading raises their level of cognition and awareness. In other words, they will pay more attention while listening. Aside from Librivox, there is another website that provides free podcast downloads of public domain literature. It is called AudioOwl, and it is the site that I use to download podcasts.

My proposal works in two ways. First, I want to use these free podcasts in the classroom, to whet the students appetite to the literature. I know that in my high school, they experimented in giving all students an I-Pod for homework; students could easily place these reading onto their I-Pods and take them home.

However, listening to a podcast is not enough. I think recording a class podcast, recording passages from the books being studied, would make a great class project. I will be looking into podcast technology, and how to upload these recordings onto a class website, or one of the two websites listed above. Wish me luck!

Assignment: Class Website

Here's a link to my experimental class website. It's called Mr. Lemon's Class. I'm having trouble actually embedding gadgets into the website itself. I followed the lessons, but the videos and GoodReads site aren't displaying properly. I'll hopefully get this fixed within the next couple of days.

So far, it's been fun setting up a website; it's something that's always seemed daunting. Granted, it's still a challenge, but I'm enjoying it. Now, if I could only get my gadgets to work....

In Regards to Video Communication

After listening to the latest VoiceThread (which I might add I'm terrible at delaying until the last moment), I enjoyed listening to other's concerns about this technology. In my opinion, video technology is a great way to talk with parents. I know growing up, my parents hated Parent Teachers night, not because they hated my teachers. Rather, the time it took to get to the school and then talk face to face with the teacher was tedious.

Now, teachers have an opportunity to hold these conferences with parents. They can still meet face to face, and there is less hassle. It's a tangent of the e-mail system that I like.