The School Technology Podcast - Episode 002

Here is my most recent podcast, this one is about my opinions on Internet or Cyber Safety.

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The School Technology Podcast - Episode 001

Episode Number One of The School Technology Podcast is done and ready for your enjoyment.

Topics discussed:
The  iPad and battery life and printing.
Did the iPad kill the netbook market?
Is Wikipedia so evil?

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I know that you were all looking forward to episode number 1 of The School Technology Podcast, but it just didn't work out.

I had Darren Atwood, a high school art and technology teacher, from Alberta, Canada and Kristin Tarnas, a fifth grade teacher from Hawaii all connected and being recorded but I was just not happy with the sound quality. I don't know if it was just the distance between us, or the WiFi, or what.

I am going to make a few phone calls this week to see what I can do to improve things and we'll try again next week.

If any of you out there might be able to help, here are our specs: We were all using MacBooks and iChat. I think we were all on WiFi (which might be the culprit) and I used GarageBand to record it all. The problem was that the audio kept dropping, so part of sentences would be missed.

Thank  you for your patience and hopefully you'll be able to hear us next week.

The School Technology Podcast

While up in Canada this past weekend I met up with an old friend (a fellow edtech geek) and we started talking about school technology, of course. After spending hours talking about everything from iPads to student music videos we decided that what we needed was a podcast about all these cool things we were talking about.

So I put the word out on a couple of Nings that I am a member of, asking for people who wanted to be panelists and discuss the world of educational technology. I got back a great response and I have put together some great shows ideas that we will record each Sunday night for the next couple of months.

My goal is to produce a podcast that is about 20 minutes long and has people from all over talking about fresh ideas and news regarding the different technology that we use in our schools -- success stories mostly, but we will talk about some things that haven't works as well.

If you have any ideas for subjects that we could talk about or if you would like to be a panelist, just email me.

Please come back Monday and listen to our first school technology podcast.

Podcasting Students - The Lazy Way

I got quite a few emails about yesterday's blog on students that podcast, it seems that a lot of you want to know how my students podcast everyday.

First of all let me just say that my 5th grade students practically podcast by themselves, I am usually just outside the podcasting studio working at my desk. Here is how it all happens...

The assigned students show up at school 15 minutes early. I assign each student a certain day for two months, this gives them enough time to get past being nervous. So for example, one student might be the host for every Tuesday show and another might be the sound-tech for every Monday show. It only takes two students to do a podcast.

The students come into our studio (a room just off of our media center) and start to get the show ready.

The Host:
This student takes a new fill-in-the-blank script and starts by putting in their name and the sound tech's name. Then they fill in the date, announcements, what the hot lunch of the day is and then the sound tech will look up the lunch recess weather and they fill that in as well. They look up any birthdays and finally they look for a joke in a kid's joke book.

The Sound Tech:
This student sits down to the studio laptop, looks up today's lunchtime weather and starts up a soundboard program. The soundboard is loaded with our sound effects and music tracks (royalty-free music). The student does a quick sound check and the waits to do a rehearsal.

Both students do a rehearsal about 6 minutes before "show time."

The Show:
Just before the show starts the sound tech will start our digital recorder and then signals the host to begin. They do the show, complete with music and sound effects and then bring me the digital recorder as they go off to their first class.

Post Show Production:
I take the digital recorder and copy the MP3 to my computer and upload to our website which is connected to our iTunes account which means the show is listed on iTunes with a few hours of being posted on our website. Done, my time is about three minutes to do all of this. I told you I was a lazy podcaster! Podcasting is one of the easiest pieces of school technology to incorporate into your schools.

To check out our podcasting, go to iTunes and search for KBOB or Bethke Elementary.

Podcasting 10-Year-Olds

Today I had the chance to show off my podcasting 10-year-olds. It was part of a demonstration I was giving on what 4th grade students are capable of doing with current school technology.

So in front of 450 local business leaders my two little podcasters did it. I am telling you, I have never been so proud. They were fearless.

I have been podcasting with my students for the past year. Every day they do a podcast of the school announcements each with a little personal twist of their own style. At first it was difficult to get it all together but then we started to work out the bugs and now the students run the whole show. They have over 1700 subscribers on iTunes -- students from all over the world.

The digital natives of today are so used to seeing the world as a potential audience.

You just wait, it won't be long before they are wanting their own dressing rooms with a star on the door.

If you would like to hear our podcasters, go to iTunes and search for KBOB.