First to understand podcasts, I downloaded about 100 podcasts for my student to listen too. They were to choose 2 or 3 and let me know what they thought of them. I shared the podcasts from my i-tunes site. The problem I ran into was that only 5 people can listen to your shared podcasts in one day. So in the future, I plan to pick a few podcasts and listen and critique them as a class. At the beginning of the year the students tell me their interests–I will use this info to choose the podcast topics. (This is what I did this year also).
Next, I had the students listen to my Halloween Story I created. I then presented them with their assignment. My plan for my students was to have them create their own stories. The stories needed to be 3-5 minutes long. Each story needed to include sound/music and four sound effects. Two of the sound effects must be ones that they have created on their own.
All of my students created their own delicious sites and added the deleicous site I created for the class to their network. The students have watched Audacity tutorials placed on our class delicious site in order to better understand Audacity. They also have used the declicious site for the sound effect and music sites that have been tagged. The students spent a class period just getting use to the microphone and how to position it for the best sound. The next class period, they practiced interviewing one of their peers and playing with some of the editing features in audacity. The students then had to come to class with a written story to record. The students have been working hard and are producing some great stories. The stories are all very different. When they are all complete, we will listen to them as a group. The students are having a great time creating their stories. Earlier in the school year each student downloaded Audacity and burned a CD with the program on it (because many of them can only get dial-up connections at home). Many of the students have loaded it on their home computers and prefer to record their stories at home where it is quieter and they feel more comfortable recording. They are then doing the editing in class.
In the future, I may require that the stories they create have a “message” (like don’t drink and drive or please recycle).
I plan to use podcasting in my class for other projects too. Such as Christmas messages, interviews, etc. The seniors will use the blog as a place to pay tribute to their educational years here at the spa when graduation nears. Students who have had my class may attach a podcast of their tribute instead of typing it all.
I will be having the students type a brief description of their stories as a new post and then show them how to attach their story. Be looking for my classes stories starting this week and into next week. Feel free to comment on their stories. If anyone has a class that they would like to have listen to my stories and comment on them, I would love that!