Podcasts!?

There are so many ways in which I feel that I could use podcasts in my classroom. First I think using already made podcasts would do well. I think students could pick a "english" podcast, with it being about literature or grammar or something having to do with our course work. Then then could listen to a few of the podcasts and do a project on what they learned from them. They could go into how learning from a podcast was more or less helpful to them then another teaching technique. I think this would be a good way to gage how podcasts would work within a certain class. I also think it would be a good way to introduce the idea of technology to them. The next idea would have me making a podcast. I think I would take my notes for the day or even a project that needs to be introduced to the students and have them listen to my podcast before class. Then I could either ask them to teach me what we were doing that day or I could start them on whatever project we were going to start in the beginning of the class rather than taking the time to explain it. This could be a nice way to show me how many of the students did their homework, how involved they were with said homework and if they got anything useful out of it. It could also be a nice saver of valuable time in the classroom. Finally I would make the students make their own podcasts. I believe it would differ depending on what we were doing in class at that time, but I think it would be an amazing way to have students use and play with technology. I love the idea of students making their own podcasts, it is a way to alter the same old day in day out routine they are used to in school. Also different students can show their strengths which before technology was used in classrooms, a lot of students missed out on. I believe that these ideas of course tweaked and diversified could really be interesting and exciting ways to make my classroom more rich and valuable for my students.

Teaching in the 21st Century

While I love the new direction teaching is now going in, this video brought up a number of points that I worry about as well. Teaching needs to grow as a profession, we need to keep up with what is going on around us because the students will be expecting us to. Schools are trying to do this but they are definitely behind. It is our jobs to use whatever resources we can get our hands on in order to help our students become more learned people. There is also a fine line. We cannot allow technology to take over our classrooms in a negative way. Students have access to to so many resources and so much information they technically can learn a lot of what we teach them without us being there. This scares me a bit, I worry that in a few years we may not be needed anymore. The video shows that it is our job to show them how they can use these resources in a good way that will benefit them in the future. Students may be more informed than ever before, but it will be very hard for them to be able to use this information without our help. Students will always need to be taught, if we do our jobs correctly we will always be needed. Hopefully technology will keep growing in wonderful ways and we will have more exciting things for our students in our classrooms. The 21st century school will be different, but hopefully it will be better.

Computer Anxiety

So as a member of my generation, I am expected to know everything about electronics and to be quite honest I am rather savvy with MOST technology. The problem is that I have been using a Mac since high school and have fallen very far behind in most new computer programs, (since Mac is not compatible with ANYTHING).  I only know how to use Microsoft office programs and paint, that is about it. I am nervous about getting frustrated with these new programs because I am used to being the one people ask when they are having trouble with things. Hopefully I will be able to pick them up easily or at least be humble enough to be patient. But overall I am so excited to learn all of these programs that will help me in my classroom and in the future period. I cannot wait to see all of the fun and exciting things that we do!

-Jenna