Vidcast/Podcasts

What?
We recently learned about podcasts and vidcasts. They are both tools that can be used as tutorials or to cast a lesson as a visual or audio tool. They are both useful tools that can be used when a student has missed a lesson, or if you have something you would like to show your students to grasp a concept.

So What?
As a teacher I find both of these to be fantastic. I know that there will be many times that my students will be sick out of school or on vacation and with important lessons that can only be grasped visually I can record and post on my classroom website. That way my students can keep up with what is going on in class and be able to perform the tasks required at home. I also find vidcasts through youtube to be amazing. There are so many great videos that can help me connect my students and that I can use as hooks to get a student excited about a new topic! There are also fun videos that can help lighten up the mood of my class and help get their wiggles out! I know as a teacher I will be using vidcasts all the time.
Podcasts on the other hand I am not 100% sure that I would be using this as much because I believe so strongly in visual presentation. I do believe if we learn a song in class that I would like my students to use as a study tool that I could use a podcast to help them remember the words and tune.

As a teacher with the future in mind I feel that it's my duty now to find the most useful vidcasts and podcasts online that can connect with the curriculum of the grade I'd like to teach. I can start now by saving the links in a file that I can resort back to when I feel it's neccessary to use them. I also can practice making useful videos and learn how to do different editing that I can teach to my students as they progress with the technology that they are using.

I can also keep a file that I can store the ideas of vidcasts that I'd like my students to make and what types of lessons would be most effective to help them understand a topic more effectively as well as have fun with the experience. By using tools such as these I will be able to touch on several different areas of learning and help them to learn teamwork, how to creat handson activies, creativity as well as core content. I look forward to using both these tools one day in my own classroom!