Workshop+Day+Two

media type="custom" key="23584702" Web 2.0 Tools for Social Studies, Day 2: Podcasting/Vodcasting

Objectives: Participants will be able to locate, subscribe to and embed audio and video casts from the internet. Participants will be able to create, publish, and syndicate audio and video recordings.

We will discuss the use of audio and video recordings and distribution over the internet. Recording audio and video is not a new classroom tool. The major development in recent years is the ability to locate and/or disseminate those materials using the internet. Many recordings are available already including TV shows from PBS and Discovery, guided tours of museums and national parks and recordings from the National Archives. How would your students respond to the actual voices of the people they are reading about?
 * 1) Use a search engine to find a podcast with an RSS feed that might apply to a class that you teach. Copy the URL of the RSS feed.
 * 2) Log in to your blog for students
 * 3) Go to “Layout”
 * 4) Click on “Add a Gadget”
 * 5) Scroll down to “Feed.” Click on that and paste in the RSS URL.

NPR has RSS feeds at [] if you are having trouble finding something useful.

Some of the uses for recordings are obvious. Teachers can record lectures and make them available to students for review, or make-up. School broadcasts such as student-produced news or the principal’s weekly address can be distributed to everyone with an internet connection. Here are some other suggestions:
 * Students can produce news reports for current events, researching and writing the stories for broadcast.
 * Students can take on segments of the curriculum, producing lectures on specific topics for their classmates.
 * Students can use their cell phones to interview family members or other adults about their memories of events or culture. The interviews can be edited together and published.

There are lots of audio and video editing software options and you will have to choose the ones that work best for you. To start we’ll skip the editing and just record something simple.

1. Record a short piece of audio using Audacity or any other recording software on your computer, tablet or phone. Save the file. 2. Go to [|www.soundcloud.com] and sign up for a free account. 3. Upload your audio to Soundcloud. 4. Click on “Share.” Copy the “widget” text. 5. Log in to your blog for students. Create a new post. Choose HTML and paste in the widget code. Give your post a title and publish it. 6. Go back to “Layout” and add another gadget. This time, find “Subscription Links” and add it to your page. Now anyone can subscribe to your posts, including your podcasts.

There are other ways to publish audio or video. As you produce more podcasts, you will develop your own workflow.

Go to your professional development blog and create an audio post reflecting on today’s workshop. Are you ready to use the material? How will you use audio or video broadcasting in your classroom or professional practice?