Web 2.0 SRR

Podcasting is a term I’ve heard frequently, but I had little experience with actually selecting and listening to them. This exercise walked me through the process of sampling podcasts and then adding one to my Google Reader. As with the other Web 2.0 tools I’ve tried, the variety is endless, the convenience of listening to them at any time and in pj’s is a wonderful convenience, and the few I sampled provided food for thought. My first selection was an Education Podcast with John Merrow, called A Principal’s Perspective. Mr. Merrow interviewed the principal of a school in Washington DC, a school system infamous for its many failures. I found the interview candid; the principal said he would fire half his teachers if he could, for incompetence or lack of motivation in doing what needs to be done for students to succeed. It made me think about how our schools fail in general in accountability, and in the commitment of so many teachers to do what is best for the children. I felt there was an unspoken challenge to all educators that makes me want to improve my own practice.
after such a serious topic, I chose one for fun -if grammar can ever be considered a humorous subject. the Top 10 Grammar Myths , on Grammar Girls’ Quick Tips, taught me a thing or five about what is now considered correct grammar. That said, I could never add an ’s’ after using an apostrophe in a word ending in ’s’ to indicate the possessive – no Kansas’s for me. Still, in an age of declining standards of written and oral language, it was refreshing to know that some people do care!
I subscribed to podcasts by David Warlick, and listened to one about a Smart Table. I am in no way a techie, and thought it would be good for the soul to subscribe to something out of my comfort zone, and learn about emerging technology.
After this brief encounter with podcasts, I see an application in school for both learning about a topic, and using it to stimulate group discussion. In my experience in a preschool through grade eight school, students spend a great deal of time listening, writing, and transitioning. Podcasts might be one more efficient way of focusing everyone’s attention on a topic, and getting students to hold a higher level of discussion . The reality is that information seems more real and meaningful to them when it comes through a monitor or headset. So, let’s go with it, and make sure that what they are hearing is “good stuff” that we can use to build lessons, and help students communicate in full and intelligent sentences. That should be as much our goal as the content.