Podcasting, Video and Screencasting, and Live Streaming

There are many possibilities that podcasting, video, screencasting, and live streaming can have in a classroom.  One potential that I am particularly excited for is that these technologies can allow students to become teachers themselves.  I think it would be such a neat idea to have students post their own lessons on certain subjects on the web.  Having the students interact with this, they have to gain a deeper understanding of the lessons because in order to teach it, they need to know the topic forward and backwards.  Originally I thought about having the students in front of the class, but with podcast or video, they could complete this on their own and I would have more time to teach the class.  This ties into the idea of the radio for kids, by kids on podcasts.  Not only could my students create their own posts, they could use it to seek advice when they need extra assistance on school work.  I think this is great because I feel that sometimes students can teach students better than teachers could because they may have a better understanding of their thought process and can explain information in kid terms.  This would also be useful if the student is hesitant to ask the teacher and just needs someone else’s opinion or advice.  The other topic I liked about podcasts that the chapter mentioned was how politicians use it to gain votes.  This could be a great way for students to learn more about politics and become more involved in government. 

                As a future teacher, the main thing I took away from this chapter is that I need to practice this technology first, before I use it in my classroom.  I don’t have a real clear understanding of how to use podcasts and I need to become more active to learn all of the potentials it could have in a classroom.  This may be the case for podcasts, but I’m pretty familiar with YouTube.  I think this could be useful in lessons even though there is a lot of controversy over using it in school.  I feel that students are going to be exposed to it at home if they aren’t in school and I figure they mine as well learn proper ways of using it from reliable adults, instead of discovering it on their own.  Either of these technologies will allow students to become more interactive and communicate their ideas to millions of others.  It is essential to teach students how to use these new forms of communication because that may be the sole form in the future.  Newspaper and print sources are becoming scarcer as people just read information online.   Without teaching students places where they can find reliable information they will fall behind in the way of socialization.