I liked the process of creating the podcast. It took me awhile to think of something I wanted to record that would be "perfect." After I stressed myself out for awhile, I realized that it did not have to be perfect, but I should instead focus on something that would be usable for my classes.
Looking forward to what I will be teaching next quarter I landed on recording a poetic devices podcast. I chose four of the main poetic devices (you could do many more) and talked about their definitions as well as gave examples of each type of poetic device. All in all it was about four minutes long.
Looking back, I think that I would want to script it out a little more. I had a basic outline of what I wanted to say, but a more complete script would be really helpful. I think it would help me go deeper into the subject that I was covering. Not only talking about the definition, but what these poetic devices bring to poetry. It would also help eliminate some of the longer pauses from when I was trying to think of how to transition on to the next topic.
Saving the sudio file and uploading it to media mill was no problem. I have not yet converted it into an actual podcast. I am not sure if I need to do so for what I would use the audio file for. After listening to Pete last night, I think it would be just as good to upload the audio files onto my class ning for my students to listen to. I don't think the technology of the podcast would necessarily be more helpful than that.
I think that I am going to continue to work on creating a lot of audiofiles for use in my poetry class. I think that there are many topics that I could cover. From poetic devices, to poetic form, to analyzing specific poems for both devices and content. I am sure that there are many others as well. I also like the idea of looking at slam poetry and having my students use either garageband or imovie to record themselves. I would have them use garageband if I really wanted them to focus on the emotion and the words. imovie would be useful when covering the delivery method of the poem.
I don't think it will be too hard to engage these students in creating audiofiles/podcasts/vlogs. I think that these students love to work with this type of technology (really they just like to hear the sound of their own voices). As far as evaluating them, I think that I would have to give them some pretty straight-foward guidelines or a rubric for what they had to make sure they had in their projects. Then I would look and give them their due points.
Amy, you wiki sounds great. Sign me up. Sometimes, it feels like you and many of us talking about wikis are really talking about web sites (e.g., for your parents, students links, etc.) But then when you mentioned the wiki with a response question where students post their replies, that sounded more wiki to me.
ReplyDeleteSomething I struggled with when creating my wiki for different books and groups/classes using the same book is wanting it to look Ningish, web site-ish. Pages for X, links for Y, but then organized in a way that 14 students couldn't just type away without some structure. Control freak or "pretty" freak, yes, guilty.
Your idea to have students add their own content/journal questions is critical. I lucked out to encounter it this year and it was really powerful. Students were posting to each other's comments/ideas about each chapter read like popcorn. Much more "organic" than if I posed a question.
Hi Amy,
ReplyDeleteI also have struggled a bit with whether to actually assign a RSS feed to my podcast or make it more widely available than on my class website or wiki. I think that for my purposes, that's all I would need. Potentially, audio recording presentations and directions for students who have been absent is a great idea, but I anticipate many frustrations for myself with this if I don't make those recordings right away. Otherwise it would become more of a chore to do that than it would be to just write down directions.
I have a couple of power points (poetry terms, literary criticism) that I could definitely create podcasts to go along with. I give students handouts of the presentations and they take notes along with me. For students who were gone, it would probably be more helpful for them to be able to listen to some of my descriptions--I always feel like I'm leaving them a bit at sea when I just hand them the handout for a giant presentation. There's generally too much information to sift through on their own.