Podcast

With a podcast one can record video and audio or just audio. This is a useful tool for classes that are not in class lectures. They can also be used as a supplement to a lecture by having someone that is located in another place record their thoughts on the lecture of the day. Additionally, as a Spanish teacher, maybe I can find a prerecorded podcast that would give examples of life in a Spanish speaking country. This would provide the students with another point of view other than your own. I think it is important for the lectures to come from more than one source. I think that sometime when we hear something, we might not fully comprehend it or even believe it until we hear it from more than one person. For this reason I think that will try to find a way to use podcasts in my lectures.

Podcasts can, not only be prerecorded, but also they can be live and interactive. Similar to wikispaces, a podcast can be used as a means to communicate and plan certain activities. The difference is that…well, it is more like a phone call. A podcast can be used as a multiline phone call. One problem that could occur with a podcast is that if there are too many people in on it and many try to talk at the same time, it could become chaotic and annoying. I'm not sure that I would want to even try to ever do a live podcast with a group of students. I do however like my previous idea about getting prerecorded podcast to allow the students to experience life in other countries throw the eyes of another person.

I own an iPhone and I use it for everything. I use it for calls, online searches, YouTube videos, banking, email, music, facebooking, weather, calendar planning, contact storage, notes, GPS, among other things. This is truly the most amazing phone and I would be lost without it. I think that depending on a phone for much is an advantage for the information availability but also a disadvantage if I were to ever lose it or drop it in water (as I have done twice now). I'm sure that there are ways to use an iPhone in a classroom; however, I don’t plan on using mine unless I have no other way to explain my lesson. I don’t think I have seen teacher that does not have online access in her classroom in about ten years, and with so many online resources, I don’t think that I will ever be short of technology and have to resort to using my phone in a lesson.

Web 2.0

This week we learned about web 2.0. Although I’ve known about wiki websites for many years now, I never knew what web 2.0 was. Now I know that it’s a web site that can be commented on or changed in some way by average users, not just the web master. I played around a little with wikispaces and I really like it. I’m excited to implement it into my lessons when I’m a Spanish teacher. I've decided that I'm going to break the students into groups of about five students each and have them make up their own study sheet throughout the semester. I’ll have each student post at least once and make it part of their participation grade. I think that this will make them have to think about what we have learned in class and pick the important parts of the lessons.  Additionally, I think they will enjoy learning to use this site and possibly use it for other applications as well.