Audio Technology in the Classroom-Week 4 June 14

Learning about the various ways to incorporate audio multimedia in the classroom, I feel optimistic and excited about the opportunities ahead for my students!

Podcasts have the ability to change the way we communicate with our students and our parents. For students, they will be able to access an audio file to enhance the learning environments. Like Mrs. Hobbin mentioned in our weekly introduction, podcasts add a new dimension to lessons. With an audio recording, students can listen to directions or audio that relate to a lesson, but not only can they listen-they can pause, rewind, and replay! I love this because so many times we find ourselves repeating something in an effort for students to not miss out on important information. With a podcast, the teacher can also take on more of a facilitator role and really have the opportunity to observe students and help/modify where needed. I am really excited about also using podcasting to enhance communication with my parents in my classroom! I plan on using podcast to summarize key points of my parent information packet, explaining my homework policy, second grade reading expectations and mini-curriculum explanations. With some people having limited access to Internet, I have to make sure that I also find a way that they can access audio files without the use of internet. My first thought is to have an “open door policy” and to invite parents to come in to school and use computers to access them. As the text mentioned on page 226, podcast would serve as a great way to extend learning outside of the classroom. Like mentioned on page 226, students miss class and using podcasting is a way to allow students to access information they missed in class.  To create podcasts, I can use Audacity from my school computer, but garageband from my home computer. For my parents to access them, they’ll need a computer, but since that can be an issue, hopefully by inviting them into the school to access podcasts would help ease the pain for that. As far as I know, most computers have a video playing application or one could be downloaded from the internet.

Interactive Read-Alouds…..my favorite!!! This is something that I’ve already used and absolutely plan to continue. I currently use Tumblebooks to access picture books that are read aloud by various authors. When I have my laptop in my classroom, I like to put it in my literacy centers. When it’s in the reading center, students love to access tumblebooks. My students cheer when we have a few extra minutes at the end of the day and I tell them we are going to watch a Tumblebook. My students can even access these from home, which parents have said so many positive things about. One parent even said that with books being so expensive, Tumblebooks was a great way that they could still read a variety of books without it costing. You must have a computer with sound to access these.

Short audio clips has also been something that I like to incorporate into my Smart Notebook lessons or PowerPoints. I feel like I can better reach my multiple intelligences in my classroom as well as adding something new to a generally color/object/text page.  When I teach the sound science unit, I like to open it with a “mystery sound” quiz where I play a variety of about twenty sounds and students have to listen then write what it is down. They talk about this activity for days afterwards!

Luckily with most of these audio options, I can use my classroom as the doorway for opportunity! In my classroom, I can model for students how to use these and provide some hands-on time for my students to get experience. My computer lab teacher is also amazing so I have confidence that I could collaborate with her to give my students more opportunities to use the new technology.

According to information found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer, computers can range from the mid-hundreds to the mid-thousands. Most likely, when you purchase the computer, the audio technology comes along with it, so the main purchase would be the computer.

The most useful profession podcast that I found was Scholastic Professional. What I like most about Scholastic Professional is the variety of topics the podcasts cover. Found at http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/scholasticprofessional/authors/podcasts.htm, teachers can access podcast from Scholastic authors such as Ruth Culham, a leading author in writing instruction books. Topics on the website from writing instruction to student thinking research. I also like that the podcasts are not too lengthy, but very information rich! I listened to the podcast from Ruth Culham where she discussed teaching writing. It was about a 3-minute podcast. She compared grasping the concept of teaching writing to grasping a handful of fog-virtually impossible! Ruth also spoke of writing as a thinking skill for students, which can be challenging. 

I personally am a huge Scholastic Teachers fan and I receive their daily posts on Facebook. They always are offering great articles about classroom issues as well as introducing new strategies or tools from the classroom. The most recent tool that I highly recommend is the Book Wizard-an online tool that will provide you with the reading level for any book you have in your classroom library! http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do  Check it out! This will be my first project for volunteers this year!