Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Thing # 17: Podcasts: no ipod needed!

About two years ago, I decided that I would go out and buy and ipod. Since my neice worked for Apple, I was able to get my 16GB iPod Touch for a $100 less. I was so pleased with my purchase until I found out that Apple had just come out with a 32GB iPod Touch. In the the two years that I have had my iPod Touch, I have downloaded a lot of my own CD's and music from iTunes. My music library is so full that I am looking into upgrading my iPod Touch to a 64GB iPod Touch.

Being a teacher, student council sponsor, and the co-chair for our PIT Camp (freshman orientation), I use a lot of music in and outside of my classroom. Being a role model, I always stress to my students the importance of copyright laws and downloading music legally. One thing that I like about using the iTunes Store is that it is very user friendly and it meets two of my learning modalities: auditory and visual. I also love the fact that I can download one song instead of buying an entire CD.

I have found that I am very impatient when watching a television show, documentary, or even a movie that I don't like having to watch the commericals. Whomever invented the VCR and now the DVR, are my favorite inventors. Now I can skip the commercials and watch an hour program in about forty minutes and a half-hour program in twenty minus once you fast forward the commercials. All I can say is SWEET! It is even more ironic that when I go to the movies and have to sit through all the previews, that by the time the movie is about to start, I have to think about which movie did I actually pick to watch. I know, it really probably sounds really silly to those of you who are reading my blog.

Looking at several podcasts that were listed, I saw a few interesting titles that might catch the eye of high school students such as: Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips. I am sure that this podcast is not what they think it is about it, but it might "hook" them into checking it out. For students who love to learn vocabulary, the podcast Webster's Word of the Day might be interesting. Again, today's students want to be entertained and not necessarily by a teacher. Podcasts might come in handy. Looking at the iTunes Store and under podcasts, there were several podcasts that caught my eye such as: Things your mother never told you, or things you never learned in History class. Since the movie New Moon is coming out, I decided that I would subscribe to the podcast http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=336385756&subMediaType=Video. Another thing that I liked about itunes was that you could choose between video podcasts and audio podcasts.

I have a coworker that downloads travel podcasts on his iPhone and shows them to his classes when they are studying a particular country that has a podcast available to watch. The students seem to enjoy watching them and they actually think that they are getting away with watching something on the projector using the teachers iPhone. We also have an ESL teacher that uses iPods to teach her ESL students English. Who knew that when these were created that we would be watching tv, movies, music videos, and listening or watching podcasts and not just listening to music.

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