Module 5 - Podcasts and Vodcasts and Itunes.. Oh My!

Even though I have been involved in this Web 2.0 course for over a term now, it still amazes me that there is MORE Information Technology available that can be used in the classroom today!

Podcasts and Vodcasts have been around for some time now and are simply audio files and videos respectively. I have downloaded podcasts before via itunes but have never considered using or creating them in the classroom. I think the children would really enjoy creating their own and maybe to some extent, I have done this with them, without realising. I have recorded audio files before using music and their voices to use for educational purposes but have not made these available on the internet. I wonder, is this still classified as a podcast?

Digital Storytelling in the classroom is something that I have been involved in this year with my Kindergarten class. This year we have explored Fairytales in Literacy and as a class we re-told the story of The Little Red Hen. We used photos, pictures, music, microphones and props to re-tell this much loved classic tale and created a digital story that the children loved creating and watching. We also used digital story telling to display some of the activities we have been doing in Kindergarten this year and we shared this with the school and parents at our assembly in Term 2.

Itunes is a fantastic site that I use frequently. I use it personally to download the music I enjoy, but have also used it to find appropriate songs and music for my class. The variety and options are endless and you can almost always find what you are looking for. I know that we are looking at creating an Itunes account at school which will be available for all teachers to use. We would all benefit from this and can also share music and files with each other. The SRC are also looking into buying some ipods for each stage to use, which we could then all use in conjunction with the school's itunes account.