Podcasting

=== A few of the members of the News Team have been working to edit and lay out the newspaper. They have learned the standard formatting procedures followed to create a standard look month after month. However, now that all of the reporters are typing their articles directly into the wiki, they all need to follow the same procedures. I created a podcast to explain those procedures. It has a quiz at the end in which the students can record their answers. This podcast will be introduced at a regular news team meeting, and the podcast will remain for their easy reference as needed. ===

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===The members of our school's News Team create our monthly 4-page newspaper. But they also perform on-camera and camera-operating functions for our daily morning announcements. A component of those announcements is the Pledge of Allegiance. Even though the students have said the Pledge every day for years, their leadership of the Pledge generally needs some thoughtful rehearsal.=== ===I have created a Pledge page on our wiki. On it is the written text of the Pledge and a podcast of three of the reporters reciting the Pledge correctly. The rest of the students are urged to practice reciting the Pledge along with the podcast, aiming for accurate pronunciation and appropriate pacing.===

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=Maryland Teacher Technology Standards addressed:= [|Standard I: Technology Information Access, Evaluation, Processing and Application] Access, evaluate, and process information efficiently and effectively

[|Standard II: Communication] A. Use technology effectively and appropriately to interact electronically. B. Use technology to communicate information in a variety of formats.

[|Standard IV: Technology for Communication and Expression] B. Expression 1. Use and understand how technology can be used to express ideas. • Use multimedia tools to express original ideas.

[|Standard V: Integrating Technology into the Curriculum and Instruction] Design, implement and assess learning experiences that incorporate use of technology in the curriculum-related instructional activity to support understanding, inquiry, problem-solving, communication or collaboration.

=Reflection:= ===My students have used the formatting podcast this month and have found it useful as a reminder of the formatting instructions they've been given, but which they frequently forget. It's especially handy to have the podcast available through the wiki, since that's where the students go to post their articles. These podcasts will be used on an on-going basis in future years and will be especially useful at the beginning of the year as a readily available resource.=== ===I really like having the students' voices in the Pledge of Allegiance podcast. All students are very self-conscious when on-camera and generally rush through the Pledge or mumble the words. Having a correctly-recited Pledge for the students to practice with should make them more comfortable and capable when it's their turn to do morning announcements. I played it several times at our last two News Team meetings for a general group recitation, and the result was greatly improved. Of course, the students in the recording were extremely proud, and their performance during the morning announcements now is terrific. We've gotten several comments about the improvement from faculty members.===