Introductions!

[Sue Palmer]

Please share a bit about yourself and your interest and/or work in educational podcasting!

[Lorna Costantini]

HI My name is Lorna Costantinit. I am a former school board trustee for the Niagara Catholic District School Board and recently facilitated a parent involvement project Student Learning a Parent Focus. In 2001, I chaired a working group for the Ontario Ministry of Education promoting the use of Information communication technology in the classroom. I'm passionate about connecting parents and schools in supporting student achievement. You can find my podcast series at Parents as Partners and the live webcast Parents as Partners at edtechtalk.com/live

[Sue Palmer]

Thanks for joining this Lorna. You already know I am a fan. I look forward to all you have to offer to podcasters and those interested in giving it a try! I hope this will become a great resource and support group. We can accomplish much more if we share!

Sue

[Sue Palmer]

Hi Everyone!

I guess I should introduce myself as well. My name is Sue Palmer and I am a secondary teacher who has been podcasting for about a year to help my at risk students get through standardized tests needed to graduate. My site is www.masterymaze.com and my podcasts can also be found in iTunes as MasteryCast. I believe that educators need to creatively meet the needs of today's students. I found that using my students technology, allowing them to listen to me as well as the junk, has saved at least a few from dropping out, and many now feel that they have hope! It has and continues to be worth the time and effort!. I look forward to working with all of you to learn more, share, and lighten the load through collaboration. I believe that podcasting , and using iPods and similar technology can change the nature of education for many. If you share my vision, or are simply interested in learning more about podcasting and the use of the tech in education, I hope you will join us. Thanks!

Sue Palmer

[Paul]

Hello all,

My name is Paul Martin and I currently teach at Erie Community College, a SUNY Junior College in Western NY. I have taught English Language Arts in high school and middle school prior to this and am working on my Public Relations Management Masters Degree. As Sue knows from working in the same schoolhouse for a few years, I am very interested in incorporating technology and learning. Podcasting is 'low budget playdo' as far as I am concerned and a great tool.

I take a slightly different twist on the podcasting tool because my main focus is to use the low cost, access, and ease of use of digital audio to create hands on learning opportunities for students. An example is the 'commercial contest' I used in my middle school class. Students were given the chance to write a script for a :30 second public service announcement on drowsy driving (inspired by our School Resource Officer - SRO). They were given a sheet of specific elements (statistics, guidelines on word choice/appropriateness...) that had to be considered for the script and then they were allowed to perform their scripts for the class. We had a vote to decide the 'winner' of the script contest (student votes worth 1 full vote, SRO and Teacher VOTE counting as 1.5) and the winning script team was allowed to produce their script with the help of the rest of the class. Everyone was involved in the final project from voicing characters, researching data, creating sound effects, editing and engineering...the works.

For me, this tool is really digital playdo for the students to stretch and experiment with in order to learn the elements of the ELA content area from a position of empowerment. I know there are various teaching ideologies and our peers will talk about teacher centered/student centered...but I think with the use of technology such as that used for podcasting and digital audio recording, if used ethically and responsibily, we can create a class that is 'learning centered' so that everyone in the room shares a goal instead of focusing on who is 'in charge' so to speak.

[Paul Hardt]

Hello! The power of Podcasting interests me. I'm here to learn. I've been in education for 28 years. I have taught 5th grade, been a technology director and webmaster. In addition I've been involved with writing and producing television documentaries and local origination programming since 1980. I try to bring these experiences into the classroom. I have produced video for education for over 25 years.

[Sue Palmer]

We are glad you are here. I just created my first short video clip with some students which we are sending to a local stations for a promo they are holding for cool things going on in schools. We used Adobe Premier and it was very similar to Camtasia Studio which I use for my work. Perhaps you could start a group for videocasts for the more advanced or those interested in video? It was easier than I ever thought it would be.

Thanks for being here. Sue

[Frieda Foxworth]

Hi! I was a 5th grade teacher for the last 14 years. This year I am a technology integration specialist. I have a lot to learn as a newbie! I'm just beginning to do some podcasting with students. My most recent blog post was about this: http://friedafoxworth.edublogs.org/

[Jagdeep Singh Pannu]

Hello! I work with authorGEN Technologies. We provide presentation software and web-based services for teachers and learners. This community is particularly interesting to me because one of our products - authorSTREAM can be used for making multimedia podcasts with PowerPoint. I want to share some great presentations, which educators have uploaded to authorSTREAM.

[Sue Palmer]

Thanks for the info! I use Camtasia Studio for the podcasts I create and have on my site, www.masterymaze.com. I like the screencast aspect as it records the animation in the powerpoint. Are you aware of other options such as this as well? We are always looking for new ways to create podcasts and presentations. Camtasia is a cost program, and out of reach of some users.

Sue