February 7, 2010

Review of Podcasts Resources
How inspiring to view the variety of sites pertaining to podcasts. The first site I explored was the Langwitches Blog. There were some excellent ideas to use in the classroom. The teachers explained what they expected, the directions they gave to students and how they edited many of the podcasts projects. There were many tips and ideas that I found to be useful for my own podcasts. I'd like to learn more on how they found their sound effects. As I explore these sites, I'm sure I'll find more information on sound effects.
I found a wealth of information on the "100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better" site. I will especially refer back to tutorial #28, as it lists programs for editing, programs for beginners and quite a bit of tips for beginning podcasters. The Curriki site is an excellent site for teachers to view a guideline on project podcasts for their students. It includes a classroom timeline of learning activities pertaining to Podcasts, not to mention, benefits, tips, topic suggestions, creating, submitting, grading and rubrics for podcasts. Any teacher who is attempting their first classroom podcasts would well benefit in viewing this site. I found the The Education Podcast Network site to be interesting. It broke down podcasts into elementary, middle and high schools. It also listed specific topics with a variety of links to other sites podcasts. You could basically use this site to search schools and subjects without going all over the web.
Overall, the sites I found the most useful, informative and interesting were the Curriki site and the Langwitches blog. I will definitely go back to these sites as a new podcaster to get information and ideas to use with my own students.

Comments4Kids
First, I was astonished at the amount and quality of the blogs of the students. I was impressed by Ilya's blog review of the book The Demonata: The Demon Thief. He reviewed the book in way that actually made you want more. He made the story interesting. He gave just enough information to leave you asking, "Ok, what now? What happened in the end? Did he save his brother?" The goal was accomplished in that he left you wanting to read the book to find out what happened in the end.
Blogging....what a great tool to allow the world to see the wonderful writing of students in school!