Friday, August 1, 2008

Thing #21 Podcasts and Photostory

Wow-- finally one of the things that I am actually familiar with, and have used quite a bit. I made this photostory to document a volunteer project at our school last August. (We now have headphones, so the sound is better on more recent projects) This one used digital pictures I took, but I have done them with primary GT students and 1st grade classes for a product at the end of a research project or social studies unit. To introduce the students and teachers to photostory--it worked well to do as a class project with the students selecting pictures together using the activeboard, and then going back to research or gather information about their particular pictures. Then they returned to me in the library to use the headphones to record their part individually and choose the music to finish it off. The curricular posibilities are endless with respect to using photostory, and it is so easy for even younger students to use.

Having students or staff record book reviews or booktalks is a great way to use audacity for podcasting--and it is really easy. One thing I plan to do is to use audacity to record some picture books for teachers to use in a listening center. We have multiple copies of some wonderful picture books that have no sound recordings to go with them. So I think this will be a fun way to use those materials we already have in a different way. I think I will ask different staff members and older students around the school to record them just for variety and fun for the students to hear.

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