Terrific Technological Teaching Tool

           Students today don’t need to be lectured at; they need to be a part of constructing the content of what they're learning. It’s important to give them a sense of autonomy within the classroom so that they always remain interested in what they’re doing. Assigning a podcast over a paper is guaranteed to spike students’ interest and ensure their engagement while giving them some freedom to represent their learning in their own way.

            
          Creating a podcast allows students to share their knowledge and their learning experiences. Students today are surrounded by technology and we can teach them that they don’t have to be passive consumers of media, but that they can produce their own. One benefit to podcasting is that students get to see their work out there; they can share it with the world rather than just their class. Their audience is much larger which may make their work more meaningful to them. Knowing that they are responsible for putting new knowledge out into the world might give them the drive and motivation to edit and perfect their work more so than if they were simply sharing with their teacher or their classmates. Teachers could also use this technology to provide their students with important information recorded in class for students to review, or to provide additional material that students would be able to watch as homework (which would be much more stimulating that reading a text). Students would be able to view these podcast on their iPods or iPads while doing other things - for example, taking the bus – and this would allow students to better time manage their work.

         There are multiple ways in which I can think to incorporate podcasting into the classroom. To start, there are many situations where I think that using a podcast as a teacher will be very beneficial. For example, in a science class - to demonstrate a reaction that we may not have time to complete in class or that might not be deemed safe for an in-classroom experiment – or in a P.E. class – to demonstrate proper form before starting a unit (especially if I as a teacher am not particularly skilled at said unit). An example of where student-centered podcasting would be useful is for research projects. After having them to do research about a certain topic, have them then make a creative podcast. For instance, after researching certain pieces of art, students could create an unofficial audio guide to a faux art museum where these pieces of art are on display. These are just a few examples of the many ways in which podcasts can be utilized in the classroom. The flexibility of this technology makes it an extremely valuable educational tool.

Curriculum - does it help or hinder? Student's of today - who are they and how do they learn?

           As a student in the PDPP, with our first practicum looming, there is a nervousness of not being prepared, of not know exactly what to do and a fear of not being able to do it “right”. This nervousness is slightly diminished knowing that we have such a descriptive guide to follow. In this way, the IRPs are extremely helpful for beginning teachers. They outline in extreme detail what needs to be covered, as well as what students should be able to accomplish once it has been covered. They even go as far as to suggest ways in which the information can or should be covered. For beginning teachers who are somewhat lacking in confidence due to lack of experience, the IRPs are immensely beneficial.

           

            Having said all that, the IRPs from K-12 for English Language Arts alone are approximately 900 pages. Daunting doesn’t even begin to cover it. I’m sure that once we’ve started working through all of the content, and have prepared the mountain of lesson plans that are required, this task won’t seem quite as impossible. As of right now, however, I reiterate: daunting.

            A way in which the IRPs hinder us as future teachers is that, when it comes to the content, the material is rather prescribed. To its credit, I have learned that recent changes have made it less so. As future teachers, we are given more freedom than those before us, which I am grateful for. There are many suggestions on how to teach the prescribed material throughout the IRPs and I think that it is important for us as future teachers to take note that these are only suggestions. Everybody teaches differently and with different styles – this is important to remember. Something that I believe does need to be taken away from the IRPs suggestions, however, is the importance of maintaining an active and engaging atmosphere in the classroom. This is how students learn best. Other than their engrossment in technology and the benefit that today’s students will get from the integration of technology into education, today’s students are no different than yesterday’s students. I don’t believe that students learn differently now; I believe that we have developed newer and better ways of teaching.