KleinPod: Podcasting in Klein ISD

Now, I know that some will claim that it’s because I’m a Virgo, but I started doing a little more planning today. I think I have the basis for a great rubric for this pilot based on TAKS results.

We’d like to focus our podcasting on specific TAKS objectives that students are having trouble with. This will truly highlight how technology can integrate individualization in a classroom. When discussing TAKS results with Stacey, she mentioned that physics was the objective our students struggle with most on the science TAKS test.

I know very little about physics, but my friend and mentor, Mary Obenauf from Pasadena ISD, is a master physics teacher, especially when dealing with at-risk teenagers. I called her today to tell her how the grant was progressing, and then conversation turned to TAKS (as it always does with teachers). I mentioned what Stacey had said, and Mary made the suggestion that she guest teach for a day. Because of the distance between Pasadena and Klein, and because of the nontraditional schedule that we implemented at Vistas, I did not think that was feasible. Besides, Mary has so many toys and manipulatives for instruction that it would be hard to transport them all.

And then, it hit me.

I guess it takes a while once you get new technology to fully realize its potential, but I think I’m starting to realize it now. Why don’t Stacey and I vodcast Mary and the best practices that she uses successfully? Not only would she be able to share her techniques, she’d be able to share how she does it – projects like her hovercraft and magic circle formula.

I can’t remember the last time I was so excited over science!

I was up at school for a few hours today, trying to work out the Audacity/Mbox issue with Derek, but it looks like this is going to take a little more research.  I’m just happy that we are finding this out now, and not when we have students in the classroom. We are also frustrated in our attempts to troubleshoot because we don’t have a microphone that is compatible with our technoogy. We have lots and lots of USB microphones, but there isn’t a single USB port on the mixer. Yes, it is high tech and professional (which was the goal), but is very limiting. At this point, I am very glad that we bought an extra mic. Note to self: Buy more mics.

Dr. A, the ESL and bilingual director for the district, was on campus today. I explained to him what it was we were doing on campus and invited him to have a look at the technology which led to a discussion of podcasting/vodcasting in the ESL classroom. Just by brainstorming with Dr. A today, I can see KleinPod becoming an intregral part of the ESL class. All four langauge arts skills are used in podcasting: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. How neat would it be for an ESL class to podcast their respective journeys? How powerful would it be for these podcasts to actually be used in English classes overseas?

Stacey, Peggy (my principal), and I brainstormed ideas for the pilot implementation today as well. I think I am really starting to see just how innovative this project is.

I love the smell of plastic wrap and new technology in the morning!

The only things we are still waiting on are the microphones, which we didn’t even end up needing today. This morning was an install day.

A bit of disappointing news – at first glance, it looked like Audacity and the Mbox are incompatible, but with further research, I think we can get it to work. We had just started troubleshooting right before we left campus for the day, but I think that I’ve found a solution. We are just going to have to test it out tomorrow when we get the equipment in front of us.

ProTools is the software that came with the hardware, and I have read some amazing reviews of the software. The only problem that I have with it is that we only have one license. That’s fine for now, but I envision every student having the ability to podcast, and we can’t do that with one license. So, at this point, it looks like we have three options:

1. Get Audacity to work.

2. Get DigiDesign to donate licenses for ProTools so we can use this on multiple computers,

3. Use ProTools with one podcasting workstation.

I think at this point the next step is to start networking with other successful educational podcast programs. I knw it sounds cliche’, but why reinvent the wheel?

It’s only the beginning of summer, yet I’m actually looking forward to getting back on campus tomorrow!

I got an e-mail today telling me that the grant equipment has come in! I’m going to go up to school tomorrow to unpack and get Derek to install all the software on my school laptop. There’s so much software and hardware involved that it’s mind boggling.

I must admit, I’m starting to feel a little overwhelmed. I’m so relieved that we have so many people supporting us in this process, otherwise I’d be wondering what I’ve gotten myself into. I am finally about to make that jump from research to product. I think the hardest part will be reminding myself to slow down. I have to remember that this whole process will take much longer than what I am used to at home. Take iTunes, for instance. At home, I can just download to my heart’s content and use it immediately, but we need to make sure that it’s appropriately filtered for educational use and is compatible with all of the district’s other software. iTunes is the obvious example, but I am expecting many technological “surprises” once we get started.

At least I have the rest of the summer to find them.

Actually, it was a bright and sunny Saturday morning when Stacey and I attended a district staff development symposium on podcasting. It was here that we developed the idea of writing a podcasting grant for the Klein Education Foundation. While I had never personally podcasted, I had downloaded plenty of pod and vodcasts on my iPod. How hard could it be?

We decided to write a grant for a Alesis Multimix 12 USB Mixer, Shure KSM32 Professional Broadcast Microphone, Digidesign Mbox 2 USB Audio Interface, and an extra Nady SCM1000 SCM Series Microphone. This was my first experience with grant writing and I was very nervous even though I was confident in the grant itself.

When I turned the grant in, I was reminded of when I was an undergraduate student taking a test. I knew I was prepared, I knew the material, and I thought that I did really well, but it isn’t until you actually get the graded test back (or, in our case, the grant proposal) that you find out the truth.

The truth revealed itself on Friday, April 25th when the Celebration Express showed up on campus. I was in the middle of class, helping my students with a project over Othello. I was in the middle of second period when I heard a loud cheering down the hall. No big deal - there is always some project going on at Vistas that involves cheering and noise, but this was different. For one, the cheering didn’t stop. It just kept going and going. And secondly, you could definitely hear the distinct sound of noisemakers.

Even at this point, I tried to keep my excitement to a minimum. I didn’t want to assume that this noisy racket was for KleinPod, but the students could see the huge smile on my face. I poked my head out of the window and saw the huge crowd at the end of the hall that included the superintendent, my principal, the district technology gurus, and huge crowd of important looking people whom I didn’t recognize, including a clown with a bicycle horn. Other teachers were standing out in the hallways with their classes, but I was still trying to maintain some sense of teacher dignity. I tried to keep my students working on their projects at their desks, but it was to no avail. They revolted and left the room to investigate the noise and the clown, and were quite shocked when Stacey and I started recieving hugs. It was then that I finally accepted it – we had just won a grant. I jumped up and down out of excitement.

SHW Group representatives were there to present Stacey and I with the check, and I vaguely remember answering questions about the grant and the educational value of podcasting. The “big check” was placed in the front of the school, and I spent the rest of the day thanking people and explaining the grant.

We have so many ideas and there is so much enthusiasm and support in the district for this project that I can hardly wait for the equipment to come in so I can start to familarize myself with it.