Blog Post # 5

Eagle's Nest Radio & Class Blog

I am so impressed with these students! They are only in the third grade and already they are creating podcasts! When I was in third grade, those didn't even exist. In fact, until Thursday, I had never created one myself. It is so amazing to see such young students using technology like this to educate others. The podcast I listened to was on Ancient Rome and included several segments lead by different students who each told a different aspect of Anceint Roman life, from gladiators to architecture. I encourage you all to check out the work of these talented kids!



The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

Before this week, I had really had no experience with a podcast. I knew what they were, but I had never seen any use for them for me personally, much less considered using them as a tool for education. Since making my own podcast with my group this week, I found that they can be very useful tools to spread information. Mr. Dell further proved his point with this blog post and video, in which he provides several reasons why podcasts are helpful in the classroom that I had not considered, specifically the creativity aspect. Like I said, I just recently worked in a group to make my own podcast. Lee, Sheena, and I were all sort of unsure of how to go about the project, but we ended up with a piece with a photo and  intro and outro music. This part of the process was really enjoyable, just fiddling with the program and seeing what we could do with it to make our project more special. I could definitely see using these in classes, like the third graders I mentioned above. It seems like a great way to introduce kids to technology as well as encourage their creativity. 

Practical Principals

This is a podcast done by two principals, Melinda Miller who is an elementary principal near Springfield, Missouri, and Scott Elias who is an assistant principal at a middle school in northern Colorado. The podcast I listened to was from the summer, and the two of them were discussing the things that they as principals and other principals should be doing in the schools and share information back and forth with each other and others. This is a good example of a use for a podcast. If one was an aspiring principal or was one already, this would be extremely helpful because in this podcast they talked a lot about what they were each personally going to do to approach the start of the year.