Blog Reflection #6

  This week, I created my very first podcast.  While it was only a short podcast, I can see this being a very vital tool in the future of education.  After I read the article, and did some thinking, I believe that we as educators need to familiarize ourselves with podcasting.  I like that the article discussed the positive and negative sides of podcasts that invole lectures for reviews.  I personally can see both sides of this issue.  I have had professors that blow through material so fast that it is hard to take notes, and keep up with what they are discussing.  Being able to have a podcast of the lecture to review while studying for tests was very helpful in that situation.  I can however, see how this type of podcast could get abused as well, especially at the college level.  Students know that the lecture is available via podcast, so they may decide to just skip the actual face-to-face lecture, causing them to miss key information that may not be mentioned or brought up by peers in the pre-recorded lecture.
  My favorite idea for podcasting that was mentioned in this article was introducing supplement course material through podcasts.  I found this to be very interesting because I can remember in junior high and high school trying to work through math problems, and thinking "man I wish I could see some more problems worked out."  By creating a podcast that works through some sample homework problems, I think we can help our students.  They can access the podcast while at home working on their homework if they are stuck, or if they just need the visual aide there to help refresh their mind. I was not so sure about having students create their own podcasts, but I could see it being a good tool for things such as book reports, or even science projects.
  I think that podcasting is going to be very helpful for education in the future.  There are so many possibilities to use podcasts in positive ways to help students.  It is just another tool to give students so that they may reference course material, lectures, or even here their peers if they need help with an assignment.  I believe that their are endless possibilities for podcasting in education.  I would like to think that one day I will be able to create podcasts to help my students.  I want to teach math or science, and I can think of numerous ways to use podcasts in my classroom.  For instance, if I taught math, I could create a class web page that students could access.  I could then create podcasts that showed me working through more sample problems so that students could access this at home.  This would just be another way for them to see more problems being worked out, and hearing explanations for the steps to the problems at home instead of trying to remember what I said during first period on Monday morning.  If I taught science, I think that I would try to have to students create their own podcasts for science projects.  It would be a way to not only teach students about science, but also let them use their creativity while learning. I want to find ways to incorporate technology into my classroom, and I think that podcasting is a good source of technology to start with!