Podcasts

I am still not too sure about how to download a podcast but I did listen to a couple on ABC and found that they have some great information on different topics such as the use of toys for children. Podcasting in Early Childhood Education would be good as parents are always asking for advice regarding their child and maybe if we could direct them to a podcast regarding the topic they could listen to it at their pace and replay anything that interests them. As a teacher I could also download podcasts to parents email addresses.

Podcasts are a tool that can be accessed from iPhones and MP3 players so as students get older they will be able to use this tool as they have been introduced to it at a young age. Podcasts would be better used in a class room of older students who are more capable of working on their own and allowing the teacher to provide one-on-one assistance.

One thing I have thought of would podcasts be used by some teachers as the key to taking the lesson and the teacher sits back and only answers questions when required? I do wonder about it being used for the students being able to listen to books from a podcast, I understand for students who have a learning disability but does it make them lazier readers?

I have read through some comments made by other students regarding the use of podcasting in the class room and a great question was raised - Who pays for the MP3 player? Would there only be one per class or can the students access podcast from their personal MP3 or/and mobile phones. It is great to introduce and use these fanastic ICT tools but who pays for them?

I was wanting to use a MP3 player to tape interactions between the children in my class room and then load the podcast onto their digital portfolio. Using this method would free me up and save me from typing up all the children's stories and the podcast can be linked with images/videos of the children's day. This would be a great chance to allow the parents and children to hear them talking and it would be their work not my interpreation of the play/situation. It would also be great for children years later to hear themselves when they were 3-5 years of age.

14th December
I have borrowed a MP3 Player from Wendy and I am not having an success getting it started. I have tried to charge it on the computer but story of my life NO GO! Everyone at work is liking the idea of using a MP3 Player to record the students in play but that is going to have to wait for a few days.