The Technology Literate Teacher

Today I watched last semester's EDM 310 class videocast. The topic was Tech Literate Teacher. I found this to be a very interesting and informative topic and discussion. I strongly suggest that you watch this videocast. You can find it by clicking this link,Tech Literate Teacher.
Although I found this videocast to be very well constructed, I feel that there are some improvements that could be made. At the beginning of the video I felt that everyone should have been more energetic when introducing themselves. In addition, I feel that the students should have looked more at the camera when introducing themselves. I believe they should have done this even though it is a podcast because, there is still a video camera there and it makes the viewer feel more involved if they look at the camera. In addition to the occasional look at the camera, there was also a few times where the students needed to speak into the microphone and not hold their heads down and read their notes.
I felt that the topic was very well known by all students. I learned from watching this videocast that it may be beneficial for me to have some notes prepared for my podcast. Having notes will allow me to quickly access some of my thoughts and keep me from forgetting any important comments I would like to make. One other critique I have is that each student should have equal speaking time. I felt that two students imparticular talked the entire time. Each student needs to make an effort to voice their opinions. By having each student contribute, the conversation becomes more interesting and more beneficial to the viewer. Having four different responses may lead to the viewer gaining more knowledge about the topic.
Overall, this videocast was very good. I felt the students and teacher knew a lot about the topic and were very organized in their layout.

After visting the EDM 310 class blog, I then visited the Langwitches Blog. On this site I found some really amazing posts and ideas for podcasting. I found this site to be incredibly helpful to me. I read the first post on the page called "Producing A Podcast." This post is done by a teacher who gives ideas about doing podcast in elementary school. She mentioned that you could have the children do a podcast to get them interested in the subject they are studying. I feel that this is a great idea because children will have more fun producing something than just sitting and studying.
This blog also explained ways to prepare and plan a podcast. The post states that you should decide the theme or purpose of the podcast, prepare your students, give your students lessons in editing, give each student their own segment, have good musical transitions, and have closing credits listing the student's names. I feel that all of these steps are very important for creating a podcast. I will use some of these steps myself when preparing for my EDM 310 podcast. Also, I would like to separate my EDM 310 podcast into segments. By doing so, each student will have their time to speak. In addition to the other information, this post also lists the many ways you can record a podcast. This was very useful to me because some of them I never thought of to use.
In conclusion, I really enjoyed this post and the Langwitches Blog site. The information was very useful and the site was organized and easy to manage. I will most definately take this information into making my EDM 310 podcast.