In chapter 8 Will Richardson jam-packs a lot of multimedia tools, ideas and resources for you to consider to the point where you can easily be overwhelmed. Thus this was definitely not a chapter to read all in one sitting. However, the goal of each of the sub-topics is the same: to get students to invest time and energy to create quality pieces of work for the purpose of publishing the products online.
I love podcasts and the power they give students to tell a variety of stories. Each year I see podcasts popping up in more and more of our 6th grade classes as an option for students to express their understanding and/or mastery of a topic or skill. So much in fact that "How to make a Podcast" has become a necessary part of my computer literacy curriculum that fights to be the first taught each year. Last year we got our first set of "enhanced" podcasts from one of our 6th grade language arts classes published to the web (
click here) and we hope to add more classes in other content areas this year!
Video and screencasting are just like podcasting except you are cranking up the difficulty level a notch or two. When you add video, you are adding a lot more to the process in the form of planning (a.k.a. scripting and storyboarding) filming, editing and rendering. While the time investment is significant, the results can be well worth it and students will be invested - remember how popular YouTube is!
For those of you who are technology integrators, media specialists, or the teacher who everyone turns to for tech. help, screencasting is a great way to provide tutorials and how-to guides for both students and teachers. As the MLTI Tech Lead for my school, each year I would create tutorials and guides for my users on a variety of topics, everything from changing-your-password to saving-to-the-server to backing up your browser bookmarks. Just one problem…NOBODY was opening the documents to read them. No matter how many screenshots I used or how many times I refined my directions or how many funky arrows, circles and squares I added, I would still get flooded with emails and phone calls asking for help. Then, last year I used the screencast tool built-in to Quicktime 10 to make my tutorials and WOW what a difference! That was it, I was sold on screencasts.
In the case of podcasting as well as any digital video production, this is a great time to talk with students about copyright, creative commons resources and citing where you get your digital media from. The reason why my school has yet to be able to publish student iMovies online is because this issue has yet to take a firm hold in our school culture. However, with the integration of podcasts and iMovies entering into more and more classrooms and emerging from more and more assignments we hope to see a change in this for the better.
Resources…My Podcasting UnitDiigo: Book link list for
Podcasting |
Screencast |
Live Streaming
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