EDM 310 Podcasts

WOW what an exciting event was our classroom podcasts. Not only was it adrenalin filled and nerve racking to participate in, it was really fun to actually sit back and listen to the results of these podcasts.

A few thoughts for future podcasters from me would be to keep the talk more like a conversation. Try your best not read off of a note card or paragraphs on a paper. Get to know your team and sit and talk about your topic together so that your conversation will flow naturally. Another idea that I think would help would be for each team to have maybe two practice podcasts first before your actually taping onto the web. I think being able to listen to yourself on a tape recording or video recording several times before the actual taping will enable the student to know how he or she sounds and how the group sounds together. I believe this practice time will allow the podcasts to sound less rehearsed and more like a conversation between future teachers.

I guess just a personal preference would be to change the podcast to a videocast. I am one who likes to see who I am listening to. It's always fun to try to picture what the person looks like that you are listening to, i.e., how many times have you pictured what that radio disc jockey looks like. Well with a videocast you would not have to wonder, because you could see the groups as they spoke, see their body language and it would be much more interactive with the person(s) watching.

With an education major, one required course is a public speaking class. Even if you are not one who likes to speak publicly, there are lessons in this course that help you eliminate some mistakes made often during speaking to an audience. For instance, one thing I have noticed on these podcasts is the use of the word "um", if you can even call it a word. I don't believe it is in the dictionary. The use of this non word and others is very distracting when listening to someone on a podcast. Again, I go back to practicing of these podcasts and/or videocasts to help, if not prevent, but to limit the number of these non words.

All in all, I enjoyed being involved in this first podcast and I believe it will be quite helpful for me to use as a future teacher and to try to stay up-to-date with technology.