I am thinking, thinking, thinking about how to use pod casting in my classroom. We have two student computers and I am considering having students record their experiences so that their peers may listen at their leisure in order to demonstrate the use of language.
Lynette

We're Podcasting!

We learned how to make a Podcast today. It is not too difficult! We are using voicethread.com. A voice thread is a visual / auditory presentation. An interesting thing is that people you invite have the opportunity to comment on your presentation by typing text or recording comments. To start a sample Voice thread, I added a photo and a PowerPoint slide. You can upload video or an entire PowerPoint presention. I recorded narration for the slides in the Presentation. We went through the steps of uploading it to our WIKI. I will have to replace that sample with a REAL Voice thread when I figure out what to do.
I wonder if it could be used to allow staff to comment on positioning or something like that. Sometimes during collaboration, we show videos or still photos of children eating or producing sounds or doing a motor movement. At that time we comment verbally on what we are seeing. If the visuals were made available to staff on a Voice Thread everyone could weigh in on their own schedule. Just a thought.

Kateri's Podcasting Adventure

Today we learned about PODcasting ... I had no idea POD stood for Personal On Demand... it gives my ipod a whole new meaning :)

We are using a website called Voicethread. Which allows you to up load pictures / videos/ power points along with comments (verbal and typed) that you add. Then others can look at and add information (more comments, drawings, questions) to the Voicethread. You can even embed the Voicethread into other websites like our wikipages.

To be honest I don't see a whole lot of use of Voicethread for my students (perhaps besides recording a story and sharing it with them) as they cannot type or leave verbal comments yet. I do think that the Voicethreads would be a great way to share information with families. So they can retrieve the information whenever they want/need to and leave comments for each other or questions for me.

Ronlyn's good at getting us all excited about using these new programs!

Cheers!

-Kateri

Say Cheese!

At our last STEP meeting we got and practiced using our new digital cameras. it was nice that the cameras were Canon Powershots cause I have a similar camera at home, and it was brand new. Ronlyn (are instructor) took us through the camera and all of its features (there are things I've never even looked at before at home). It was nice to have the time to practice with support. We also looked at a program called photostory3 that puts the pictures in a sort of slide show where you can at captions, music, voice overs, zooming and all sorts of other edits.

My inevitable conundrum occurs yet again, just how does this work in an Infant/Toddler setting?

Telling the story with photos

We received our Canon digital cameras and had instruction on using Photo Story. Our school already had a few of the cameras and I had used them before. After the camera orientation I was AMAZED at all of the possible settings available to take pictures in different situations. I particularly want to remember the setting to take pictures quickly one after another. It has often seemed to me a live subject will alert upon hearing the shutter. I have thought a picture taken a second after the shutter click would actually be better. Now I have my chance!
We took pictures of each other and the new photo equipment. We practiced putting the photos into Photo Story. The pictures look very artistic when played in Photo Story. It looks like it took alot more time (and talent) to make than it actually does! That can be our little secret!
We are to take pictures to illustrate a lesson. I am trying to figure out what to do!! I better come up with it. Our next session is coming up soon and I have a busy week!
On Monday 3/ 23, we are going to talk about Podcasting. I know nothing about Podcasting so I am quite excited.

Feeling stronger everyday!

I am feeling so much more comfortable with STEP today than I have in a long time! Ronlyn came and worked with us to catch up on our individual WIKIs and bloging. We scheduled our next two sessions so we should be in good shape now! We are starting a new blogging site which you would be reading this on! The network crashed mid -post on this new system but I am sure none of the Chapel Forge Bear Bloggers will let it get us down!