Final Thoughts

As another semester winds down it is nice to look back at all the new information and look forward to using it. For me, I only have one class left, and then I'm a certified librarian. I'm really glad I took this class towards the end of the library program - hopefully I'll get a chance to use all these great tools before they're obsolete! I have really enjoyed using a sprinkling of Web 2.0 tools.

Prezi has been on my radar for quite some time, but I haven't had the opportunity to use it. I think it is a fun, easy to use, intuitive presentation tool. I hope my group mates liked the final product as much as I did. That was another unique experience for this particular class. In the 65 online credits I have completed, this was the first group experience. It was both challenging and rewarding. Communication was huge!

The podcast was fun to make. So many people have MP3 players these days that the podcast is a simple way to provide a lesson. A video, such as one made from Jing or Camtasia would be a great way to demonstrate computer research for students. The slideshow videos of OneTrueMedia or Audacity are great for student projects. Glogster is a great poster making site. I'm glad it was introduced in the quiz. I have seen this tool in practice students really seem to enjoy this paperless poster concept.

It has been a fun semester. The many projects used both sides of my brain!

Podcast Activity 1

I downloaded and listed to Tech Chicks from the School Library Journal website.

This podcast reviews educational podcasts that are available for students. art history, dance, math, vocabulary, book talk, science podcasts are features in this particular audio file. There are several references to an article in SLJ, which I will definitely be looking for in the archives (Dec 2007). Its amazing how many different, quality podcasts existed in 2007 - let alone today!

The sound of the podcast is very simple and amateur. Which creates a feeling of friendly advice rather than professional production, I like it. It also allows users to realize that podcasts need not be perfect, highly technical pieces, but rather can be made simply as well.

I like that they also include clips from the featured podcasts so that the listener "sees" what they are talking about.

One draw back is that its difficult to remember which podcasts are most appealing. It would really help to have the article to reference and star to remember which sites are most appealing.

Check out Learn Out Loud great site with lots of information (even free stuff!)

Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators

http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/
©2006. Kathleen Schrock. All rights reserved.
What makes a good podcast?

When you listen to a podcast, or when you are making your own, think about these qualities of a well-done podcast.

Your name: Mrs. F.
Date: May 4, 2010
Title of podcast: Tech Chicks: Listen Up!
Feed URL (or URL) of podcast: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=audiocastPlayer&element_id=2140133103&industryid=47162

Creator of podcast: Anna Adam and Helen Mowers

	YES	NO	N/A
1. Did the podcast include content that was useful / relevant for your purpose?	X
2. Were the technical qualities (audio, slides, etc.) acceptable in the production?	X
3. Was a written transcript of the podcast available?		X
4. Was the podcast linked from a site which included subject tags?	X
5. Was the podcast linked from a site which included links to other resources?	X
6. Did the podcast adhere to the copyright guidelines in its use of music, pictures, etc.?	X
7. Was the length of the podcast appropriate for its content? (20 min. or less)	X
8. Was the podcast part of a regularly scheduled series?	X
9. Did the subjects in the podcast have “personality” to keep you interested?	X
10. Did the podcast flow smoothly (introduction, content, summary)?	X
11. Was it obvious how to add the podcast feed to your aggregator? (RSS)		X
12. If the item was an enhanced podcast, did the use of slides enhance the content?			X
13. If the item was an enhanced podcast, was it available in various file formats to allow viewing on various hardware devices?			X

MP3's for School Success!

Growing number of students use MP3 players as a study tool

I really enjoyed this article. Maybe now I'll be a little less quick to judge the teen at the grocery store with ear buds - maybe s/he is learning Spanish!

Podcast - Activity 2 & 3

The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt

For this activity I recorded Mary Howitt's "The Spider and the Fly." I choose this poem because it was very popular with high school students for the Poetry Out Loud contest. And I thought having two characters and a narrator would create a fun audio recording.

I used GarageBand for recording and editing. Thanks Smith School for letting me use your MacBook for this process. First I recorded the spider's part, then the fly's, and then the narration. I kept the parts on different tracks so that I could then manipulate the sound for each track and have different "voices" for each part. I quickly learned that I needed to click the microphone on and then wait before speaking, otherwise the mic cut off the first word or so. Then I edited out the dead space at the beginning and ending of each section.

Next I added a music loop to the background. I "ducked" the music so the volume changes if there is a vocal part. You may notice the music is louder when there is no narration and quieter when there is narration.

Uploading the MP3 file to Blogger required a little research since Blogger only allows links, image or video files. I found that I could create a Google Site and upload the MP3 to it and use the URL to link to this blog. By clicking on the link in the blog the MP3 automatically downloads. This is how I created the link at the very beginning of this post.

However, I wanted an embed feature. So a little more research lead me to divShare. This site allows the account holder to store 5GB of information (audio, video, image, etc) for free. After uploading my MP3 I selected embed and then pasted the HTML code on this blog. This creates the MP3 player on the second line of this blog post.

This was a fun project that I can easily see being used in the library curriculum. Students could create podcasts of school news, new books, interesting tidbits that they researched or to create audio books (or chapters). I could create podcasts to create audiobooks for younger readers, provide lessons (citations, research tools, etc) or library announcements. Grammar Girl is a popular podcast in our HS English classes, the library lessons could follow a similar format.