Thing #17 Post:
I have a little experience with podcasting, having taken the Audacity course earlier this summer. The hardest part to that, if you want music in the background, is to get a music file that will play. Otherwise, it is super simple. So I think it would be really helpful to have a bank of music that is not copyrighted and is in a format acceptable to a podcast.
But this thing #17 focuses more on subscribing to available podcasts and I really had no previous experience with that. I chose the science podcasts offered on the discovery page, and really liked all of them. The "Dragonfly TV" had podcasts with students actually setting up measurable experiments through inquiry. I think students of any age will benefit from seeing these short podcasts. Our students continue to be weak in their understanding of the scientific process and part of the reason is that is that they do not receive enough variety in their experiences . They are expected to analyze an experimental set up and evaluate whether it is valid. Discussing the content of the podcasts should give them more practice refining this skill."Why? The Science Show for kids podcast" is another I will recommend to students and teachers. These podcasts are in a question/answer format and should enrich student understanding by deepening their background knowledge. I also subscribed to the podcasts from NOVA and Scientific American. I hope to add these to our district science wiki, so teachers can explore them at their convenience. With our standards changing over the next couple of years, it will be an opportunity to add this to our curriculum as lesson options.