Thing 21: Podcasts and Vidcasts

After my book Substitute Groundhog came out, a librarian in a south Texas school sent me a podcast of her students performing a Suzy Red script related to it. When they e-mailed it to me, I was impressed and touched. I'm glad to have the tools to make similar podcasts with my own students. It might be a more appealing alternative to a book report for some students.

For an author visit by Mike Artell last spring, PhotoStory came in VERY handy for me. With Mike's permission, I scanned the book into PhotoStory and used it to read his book La Petite Rouge, A Cajun Red Riding Hood to each class. Because my school is large, it saved me from having to read the book to 22 classes, especially because it is lengthy and there is a lot of Cajun dialect. Because of copyright, I destroyed the story after his visit, so I am unable to vodcast it. Knowing what I do now, I'll be able (if my district permits) to vidcast such a production so classes can view it in their classrooms.

I'm going to use PhotoStory to show the locations of the library as we go on a virtual tour. In the past, trying to do it physically was less successful as I dragged my queue of ducklings around the library. Inevitably, the ones at the end heard the least. I'll follow that with a game I'm creating for the Smart Board. So far I've taken all the photos and learned how to do it. The end product won't be finished until after this course. I think it will be very handy, if I'm permitted, to save this tour as a vidcast for new students to see, and to use as a midyear review.