Bummed About Gcast

I am a bit behind the announcement, but Gcast no longer provides a free podcasting service via your telephone. I don’t have the facts on why the April change in the way of business was made, but I do know that now, to use Gcast as your podcasting upload service via telephone interphase (like that language?), it will cost you about $100. Bummer for me and for kids. Of course, you can use Audacity or other open source audio recorders for free downloading of podcast capable text, but Gcast was so simple….I mourn its loss.

Bring It On!! Using Technology to Motivate Reluctant Readers

I’ve have been absolutely swamped with work this last month! That is a good thing! More and more educators are inquiring about tools they can use to motivate learners and enhance achievement.  Among other topics, this workshop in Atkinson, Illinois explored ways that teachers can build students’ literacy skills by incorporating graphics into instruction; isn’t that part of the allure that HDTV has over our viewing?

Rather than complain about how visual kids seem to have become, I say, “Embrace it!!” Use visuals to teach thinking skills and then….transfer those very thinking skills to written texts. Think about incorporating a “You Tube” into instruction, perhaps one that reviewed a book or area of study that your curriculum was designed to teach. Couldn’t we teach the skills of prediction, connection, questioning, and inference from a video and then transfer those skills to content text?

On Friday, I have a workshop in Joliet entitled “Boys and Books.” There, I will lead the group in a discussion about the differences between girls’ and boys’ attitudes and achievement levels as shown in standardized testing as well as through  qualitative studies built on interviews among those very populations. When we talk about independent reading, questions concerning assessment arise. How do we asses their reading? How do we know they have read? How do we come to see what they understand?

In the past, this has been done through book reports–a genre that I drudgingly pulled myself through about three times and then threw my hands up in despair. I hated reading book reports; no wonder kids hated writing them. From there, I went to book talks, and though they were more entertaining for all involved and more accurately appraised real comprehension because kids had to answer live questions, they were time consuming and a bit biased. Those who like the stage were more confident and therefore, able to perform at higher levels than the more shy of my students. Of course, I offered options, but book talk was generally preferred by all except the shiest who still chose to write the forumulaic book report.

Okay, where does the technology come in? The Podtalk!

I am sure someone is saying, “Well that’s nothing new! I’ve been doing that for, for, for months!” Try using G-cast, a free web-based service that allows your students to use their telephones and an 800 number to set up their podcast. Once recorded through the phone, the gcast is available online. From there, it can be posted for the world to hear, just like this one…..

Always Learning

I’m trying something new! I decided to try out Gcast as an option for an assessment on “Reviewing Podcasts.” Listened to a Chris Essex podcast on using blogs, podcasts and wikis in the k – 12 classroom. Now, Chris is with Indiana U, or he was when he made the podcast….I’m not sure if he still is—his blog doesn’t show any recent activity…but maybe he’s on vacation?!?:)? I was pretty excited about how Gcast works and since I first drafted this blog, I have shared the site with others who also have found it useful, especially for education. Students, or kids as I typically call them, can easily upload a “Gcast” and have their thoughts posted online almost instantly. From there, they can embed their posts in blogs and wikis. Pretty cool stuff. You can even use your cell phone to record the podcast; however, one administrator told me that a teacher let her students use her cell phone for that activity and was surprise to seee how those minutes added up on her cell phone bill!