Podcasting is a great tool for educators. Imagine the engagement of students when the teacher says, "Get out your iPods ..." How fun! I previewed the Merriam-Webster online 'Word of the Day'. Today's word is 'ponderous' meaning 'of very great weight'. I think this would be a great way to incorporate vocabulary -- one word at a time! Teachers could even utilize the SAT word list in the same way and have students create their own 'SAT word of the day podcasts'. How cute! The vocabulary those students would be exposed to would be beneficial and hopefully retained.
I decided to subscribe to 'mathgrad' through iTunes. I listened to a podcast about 'Scale, Size, and 100-foot Insects'. It was about 10 minutes and it was long! Luckily I enjoy the content, but I can see where visuals are the key. He kind of lost me along the way -- I am a visual learner! Now I know why math is best taught with visuals! =) That is one of the downsides with some podcasts -- they are just audio -- no visual. Something to think about ... I could see a teacher assigning a podcast to listen to and have students write a reflection on their blog or wiki about what they learned.
After that long math podcast, I subscribed to 60-Second Science. Now that is what I am talking about! Quick, informational, interesting, and easy! I put that one on my Google Reader. It has various topics and a new one for each weekday. I am looking forward to what I learn through this one! Did you know that a later school start time could lead to better students? Check out the podcast about it.
Podcasting is a great educational tool. Now I just need some class sets of iPods ... =) Interestingly enough, I bet many of our students already have one -- we can utilize theirs! I think it would be great to start my own podcast. Just imagine -- my tips and ideas on a podcast for other teachers to hear -- I wonder if anyone would subscribe .... =)
I love the 60 second science. I could see this being used as a daily warmup with a short blog post after!!
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