- My podcast can be heard at: http://www.archive.org/details/Ed.331ContemporaryIssuesPodcast
- I found my article at: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3751073 .
- I used Kevin MacLeod's http://www.incompetech.com/ for my royalty-free music and sound effects.
I spent a couple hours finding an article, reading the article, and writing my script. It only took me four tries to get my podcast recorded. I then imported my music clips and inserted them in where I wanted them to go. All of the steps up to this point were rather simple to do, but the next step of exporting my project was very difficult. I had downloaded the LAME encoder file but it would not let me locate the lame_enc.dll. When I tried to export my file it wouldn't let me, it said something about not having administrative approval. I spent about an hour and a half re-downloading the LAME file and trying to figure out how to export it as an mp3, but I just could not figure it out. I then downloaded the older version of audacity (I had been using Audacity 1.3 Beta) and was able to get the encoder to work on the older version. I then quickly re-recorded my podcast on the older version and added my music/sound effects. I was a little confused at what the sound effects were supposed to be (I used incompetech.com for my music, but I could not find any sound effects like clapping, so I just used short sound clips for my sound effects).
The article I used was rather interesting and discussed the use of cell phones in school to assist in learning. Although I had a very difficult time exporting my project, I think that making podcasts can be something that I incorporate into my teaching. I think that recording my lessons and posting them on our classroom blog would be a great way to keep parents informed of what is going on in the classroom and to help students who may have been absent to catch up on what happened in class. I think that podcasts would also be good for my students to create. I think that students would have fun researching a topic and recording their information in a podcast. I know that I had fun (except for the exporting part). I also think that it is good for me to share a podcast with my peers, because it helps me to practice using a tool that I could definitely see myself using later in my career. I think that it is important to practice using tools now, outside of the classroom, so that when you do use these same tools in the classroom, you will know how they work. I also think that making this podcast prepares me for professionally discussing current issues with my peers. I was able to find an article that was current and interesting; I was also able to share this article with my peers through some simple technology. In the future, I very well might be making a podcast to share interesting contemporary issues with my colleagues.
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