Week 4 - Video didn't kill the radio star

It is approaching Christmas (39 days, 11 hours and 12 minutes from me writing this) and something everyone wants for Christmas, or should is the following:

Top of the list (probably):

• Talking photo album
• Each page can be a different recording

•  Talk time cards
• Drywipe recording cards where they have a limited amount of recording time to keep them focused on the task

• Talking tins
• These little things are so handy for so many different things. Record a message and have them on the table during phonics or on a display to telling passers by what you've been learning about

This is a genuine child in year 3's Christmas list to Father Christmas**
**it isn't

These things though only provide opportunities for speaking, what about the opportunity to listen. Children these days are now encouraged to make Podcasts in class too to share views or discuss certain topics.  

What is a podcast I hear you exclaim? 

Podcasts are recordings in which anyone can discuss any given subject.  Children are using them now to discuss what they are learning in different subjects, read their own poetry aloud, challenge one another on mathematical skills and then they are put online on at Educate or Radio Anywhere which are sites for teaching and learning in schools.  

Lets think about why we podcast now though.  Children undoubtedly love to hear their own voices and this is a piece of work on the internet that they can show to all their friends and family. It's something they can feel proud of and something that will make them feel famous! 

Making one is so easy too.  All you would have to do is record yourself on a dictaphone or some sort of auditory device and then you can upload the file onto the world wide web for others to listen to.  Do take into account your eSafety procedures, don't say names or any personal information as spoken about before and make sure you as a teacher monitor everything that is spoken about in the podcast. Make sure you vet the material going in but also the final product, make sure the language is appropriate and content is too. If you see the audience as the child's peers then you can know who to target.  Learning is at it's best when it is relevant to the child. 

All this talk of sound makes me wonder about imaging!

Digital imaging was our next adventure in ICT this lesson, we learnt how to make stop animations and take photos, play with video cameras, webcams, lots of opportunities to get children engaged in learning and active about it too.  There's a lot of software you can download too, look into 2Create for story making opportunities, Clicker 5 for sentence structuring and Text Teae too. One of the programs we played around with was called PhotoStory3 in which you can easily put photos into a montage with music and effects and will really draw them in as it's personal to them. 

Hope you enjoyed the video. Thank goodness they found me in the end! As long as you stay safe with webcam chats to others and monitor all the children's content then they can learn whilst adapting to the ever changing internet world around them.  Consider webchats on Skype to family members or other schools for International Days? You could set up a webcam to film something over a period of time, film your class and get them to recount their playtime with you in the class. Lots of opportunities just have your wits about you for content and be safe!

Until another day devoted blogee, Megan over and out!