Thing 19: Podcasts

Wow this is sooo neat! I went to several different sites:
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrpearlharbor.htm
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkcubanmissilecrisis.html
Great speeches- better way to teach history, it really brings them to life.
http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=sugar-rinse-raises-performance-09-04-16
60 second science news- great openers, topic discussions or journal prompts
http://www.mathgrad.com/shownotes.html
math topics in everyday life- great openers, topic discussions or journal prompts
http://sciencehack.com/videos/category/10
video on math and science- trick for multiplying 3 digit numbers

I found the vidoe sites much more useful and I regularly use youtube and other sources to reteach math concepts to my students. It is nice to be able to pause and rewind the teacher when a student gets confused. The audio only clips are nice, but my students like to see something so this might not reach every student. I have had the opportunity to use Mathcasts in my class and now have a tablet so I can create my own. I think this will be a great addition to my class wiki as additional support for both parents and students. Interested in Mathcasts, http://math247.pbwiki.com/ is a good place to start!

The downside to this may be the technology in my school. We struggle with bandwidth during the day and this makes videos and podcasts hit or miss at times. Also, since I travel from class to class throughout the day, it is sometimes hard to find speakers and projectors. Set up time can be an issue. But I think the benefits outway the setbacks and I definitely think it is one more tool worth using.