Kids in schools have things in their ears. Between classes it’s earphones for iPods, MP3 players, CD players, cell phones that play music an video — and of course they try to stretch it into class, too. “If I can listen to my music in class, I won’t make trouble,” they say.
To which I respond, “I don’t deal with terrorists.”
The students are telling teachers something, and most of us are missing the message: We need to get education into their iPods and MP3 players.
For example, Nora’s itec 845 blog wonders about converting podcasts to print, for hearing-impaired students. Do you even have podcasts for classroom use or augmentation? (I wager this blog is a classroom assignment — students are working in areas their teachers don’t know anything about?)
Check out the Education Podcast Network. If your students told you they were getting information from this site, would you know whether it was quality information? Would you even know how to check?
Teachers should be using podcasts to deliver lectures, deliver supplementary material, to discuss homework, and to inform parents about homework and other activities. Are you using podcasts for any of that?
If you don’t think you’re missing the podcast boat, go here and see what some of the possibilities you’re missing really are: Around the Corner. Or, go there just to get ideas.
Hey, what are you waiting for?
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
I do volunteer user support at the edublogs.org collection of WordPress platforms for teachers, learners, and university students. There is a paid version for extra control and assistance, but the free blogs are quite interesting and many teachers have jumped in. The community support is quite good. There is a lot of flexibility that isn’t allowed at WordPress.com for using audio and video.
However, I find that many teachers/administrators have no idea what the Internet is, how computers work, the difference between digital and analog, nor even how to ask themselves first what they want to do and whether a blog (or podcast) is appropriate. “Analog blogs” (paper and pencil) should be the first step to consider.
I don’t think the commercial biggies such as Blackboard or WebCT have done much better.
Often the tech assistance available to schools and school districts is not much better; I see many who treasure their monopoly of knowledge and the power trip and others who get treated like dirt because they aren’t “teachers”.
And administrators who know how to use one thing on a computer aren’t very helpful. At one college, the campus director (a former high school vice-principal) wanted a wireless dormitory, but refused to fix any of the security breaches I pointed out (no firewall, etc.) or to allow the full use of software packages.
There also seems to be an underlying assumption of mystery and magical thinking– computers ought to do what I want done without me learning how to do it or even finding out if it is possible. Sometimes users want the answer or the instant fix (even for new, evolving systems) instead of looking up the solution or doing the background prep (homework) first.
Do we still have an assumption that computers are “teaching machines” so plop a child in front of one (with ever better proprietary software) and they will pass standards?
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WordPress is free, as are other blogging services, and they can be set at “private” to allow only access by students and parents. The bigger problem I’ve run into is the need to download some stuff — I’d like to be able to post PowerPoint stuff here — and the blocking some school districts do to blogs. Irving ISD in Irving, Texas, gives laptops to every kid in high school and many in junior high, and provide wireless access in the buildings — but they have difficulty getting kids to appropriate sites. I often found the best class material I could find in a search at home was blocked from our school systems.
As educators, we’re missing this boat. We missed the boat almost entirely on the use of television (and film), and we’re missing it again with computers. It’s very frustrating.
It’s easy to post assignments on line, if they are available in any electronic form.
But, hey, I’ve worked in corporations where software wizards were the order of the day. Anyone at American Airlines who didn’t seriously know how to make Excel dance was at a severe disadvantage. At Ernst & Young, consultants who could not wield the entire package of Microsoft Office as a skilled surgeon would a scalpel, would be left in the dust. In schools, I find teachers and administrators who have difficulty formatting a paragraph to indent in Word or WordPerfect, let alone make a visually enticing table or chart in Excel.
And don’t get me going on Death by PowerPoint. (See my posts on that topic.)
We’re missing the boat, dammit. We’re missing the boat.
I have never known a computer wizard teacher to get “teacher of the year” honors. Anywhere. Administrators who don’t know how to use computers aren’t going to promote teachers who do. We’re missing the boat.
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I volunteer in a school district where roughly 98% of all teachers don’t even have web pages. I teach about wikis, blogging, and podcasting (for free in that district; for pay in another). I’m always ready to dive into the newest technology (heck, that’s how I got into blogging–so I could teach teachers about it) but most teachers are resistant. One brave teacher this year accepted the services of my 12-year-old son who set up her website and taught her how to maintain it; last year, a second teacher accepted my personal instruction about podcasting. He said that this summer he wants to get together with me so I can teach him about how to use blogging, wikis, and other web 2.0 stuff. They aren’t doing what I consider *real* podcasting at my kids’ school, but his enthusiasm got them started. Our combined enthusiasm will carry him a little farther down the road. But usually I run into teachers who say, “Wow, I’d love to post my assignments online, but…” Since I taught myself html, I’m not 100% sympathetic, but I do think that they need to 1) be informed about technology; 2) be given examples of how/why the technology would improve their lives; 3) be supported in implementing the technology; and 4) be carried until they’re independent users. So many of those 4 components are missing that it makes it difficult to bring true change to education. Of course, what do I know? I’m just a parent.
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I am an upcoming senior at Lehigh University and used podcasts in a class last fall. It was a film class that met once a week for 3 hours. Since the majority of the class was filled up watching various Bradno films –which could eventually be videocasts –the podcasts were used as lectures, interviews, and film viewing tips, which all were downloaded via iTunes, to listen during our own time. This meant listening to lectures while at the gym, on a run, or in the dorms. This allowed for an hour-long discussion on the pervious film at the beginning of the class while already having a detailed introduction (because of the podcasts) to the film about to be viewed. Throughout the class we wrote various blog posts that were submitted to a class Blackboard site covering director information, character development, overall meaning, deconstructing a particular scene, etc. For the final exam we wrote and posted about one topic covered during the year. Additionally, we responded to one student’s final blog post in a podcast –recorded in the professor’s office.
Check out the class website:
http://cf1.cc.lehigh.edu/American_Film/index.cfm
I believe this was a great first step in creating what the professor called a “culture of conversation” in education. The more students talk with each other the greater education becomes. Lectures are necessary but take valuable time away for class discussion, which builds critical thinking.
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