EDM 310 - August 30th assignment

In this assignment, we were to take a look at six different podcast and share our thoughts on how informative we thought they may be for educators. The first one I looked at was the SmartBoard Lessons Podcast. On the podcast, I felt like the two hosts did a lot of talking among themselves before ever addressing the main idea. It seemed like I had to listen to them chat for awhile before ever hearing about the true subject matter. After finally getting to it, I learned that they share thoughts on how to make the whiteboard become interactive in your classroom. Their purpose is to help educators create lessons that are engaging for students and makes learning come to life. I really liked Joan's "recess" idea of taking bubble wrap and putting it on the SmartBoard. This had nothing to do with education. However, sometimes students just need something to play with or a break in transitioning between subjects.

KidCast was the next podcast I watched. This podcast seemed to have the most information to share with educators. The speaker was placing emphasis on web conferencing. It is usually hard at a teacher's conference to allow everyone to share ideas and resources. This podcast allows you to do that as a media channel where everyone can participate and contribute. This leads to an excellent professional development plan. By doing this, we can learn from each other. There were three ideas shared that I really liked on this podcast. There were two math and a writing lesson. One math lesson was about taking visual elements and using them to explain word problems. Then, they were recorded and used as assessment. Another math lesson idea was about bringing statistics to life with a "sports show." This simply takes math and puts it into the real world. Students could focus on what they already know about the statistics of an athlete and what they need to do in order to reach a certain goal. This appeals to the audience and they learn from it without even realizing they are learning. The writing explained how to take the concept and write it into a drama form and deliver it which I think is a great re-inforcement for students. I think these are all great ideas on how to make the lessons really come to life.

On the MacBreak Weekly, I never really got anything out of it except the host talking and sharing stories among themselves. Although I did find the Ed Tech talk interesting. It focused on teachers teaching teachers. Here, teachers shared about new things they had learned from recently visited workshops. It was basically a live interactive interview. Teachers could get several new ideas through this podcast and share new ideas with other fellow teachers. I think this is a wonderful way to "connect" learning around the world.

I watched the Photography podcast and learned some about the involvement of photography with education. Although this seems to change over time, it is neat that we can engage photos with technology and use it as a teaching technique. There was also a question and answer time on this podcast where people could get links on publication of photos. I found this podcast interesting and resourceful. It shows how we can embrace photography and make it work for us in any capacity. I found the Connect Learning podcast useful and beneficial for educators. It provided ways to download lessons and links to better serve your educational needs. It was very informative on ways to become a better educator. I thought that all of this podcast were excellent tools in enhancing an educator's professional development plan.