Week 4 Podcasts

There is a wonderful opportunity for professional development using podcasts. Using Robyn Peterson's suggestion, I investigated Chris Betcher at http://chrisbetcher.com/. He is an Australian teacher who is available on itunes as Best of Betchablog or on the web at The Virtual Staffroom.

On the ABC Radio National website, EdPod brings us topical stories every second Thursday with excellent podcast about educational issues.  The current podcasts address two very interesting topics, 'That Does Not Compute: the hidden affliction of dyscalculia' and 'Positive Partnerships at school (Autism spectrum disorders)', two topics that I am particularly interested in.

There are many podcasts available for children. One simply for listening enjoyment would be classic children's books, such as the "Tale of Peter Rabbit' by Beatrix Potter, a selection of fairy tales from The Brothers Grimm, Rudyard Kipling and other authors available as podcasts in itunes at Free Audio Books for Children.

I see no downside to using podcasts for professional development, there are many great resources available and I have only listed a small number I have come across in my investigations.   As a creative tool for students to use, I think that this would be a great application for them to be able to have control over producing for an audience.

The following podcast is a first attempt recording of an original story by a 12 year old student.  The student was thrilled with the idea of recording and publishing a podcast and is working on illustrating her work in the coming weeks.  A movie version is in the pipeline!

Podcast: Episode 1 The Pretty Pink Princess and the Little Loud Dragon, An original story by GG

Recording students reading is an excellent strategy for improving fluency.  By allowing students to record themselves reading, then listen back, they are given the opportunity to identify areas which need improving. This strategy can be used for all levels of reading ability but can be particularly useful for those students with reading difficulties.  For confident readers like GG,  it is an exciting opportunity to publish a piece of work for an authentic audience.