KleinPod: Podcasting in Klein ISD

1. I know I can’t export an RSS feed from LMS, but can I import a RSS feed into LMS? That way, my students can have a feed when they log in to LMS.

2. If they use iGoogle as their home page, the students can subscribe to a catgory feed (i.e. English IV or English I), but can they even use iGoogle with Lightspeed?

3. I need to learn how to *really* use Audacity. Right now, I have just been recording one large audio file and if I mess up, I go back and do the whole thing over again. I am ashamed to admit it, but it’s true. I just don’t have the time to really learn anything right now.

4. Did my students even listen to the podcasts? If they did, how did they like it? For most this time, I asked them just to listen to the podcast and if they needed the script to contact me. I am little concerned that pocasting is a little too aural and not enough visual. Perhaps I could have questions or an “assignment” that coincides with the podcast, something for them to look at. I know need to give them the option here, but I feel a little selfish here because I’m scared that if I do give them the option, they will not choose the podcasting. I know that if I were given the choice between reading the material or listening to it, I’d choose reading. I do that in my master’s class – the speaker is too slow and monotone. I suppose I have time to work it all out.

5. I’m almost ready to start playing around with the *real* podcasting equipment. I want to start playing around with music and sound effects to help break up the monotony of my podcasts. Oh! Here’s an idea! What I had students write commericals for whatever it is that I am teaching (Beowulf – bard services, Middle Ages – Black Plague Cures, etc) and then use THOSE for the breaks in my podcasts!

I don’t know where I am going to get the time to do these things.

 I just went back and gave all of my old posts categories and tags, so hopefully once this site gets more information, it will be easier to find information. At least I did it now, instead of at the end of the year!

It looks like I’ll be posting a lot more this week – between my podcasting students and my English students, I’m sure I’ll have some information to pass on.

I placed my podcast posts on my teacher blog (http://vmiller@edublogs.org) and it all seems to work! I submitted the feed Room 118 to Podcast Alley and am going to try and submit the feed to iTunes later today.

I’m excited!

We made it through Hurricane Ike with little damage other than the eight days of school that we lost. For a school on an accelerated schedule, that much time lost is devastating. We finally went back to work last Wednesday and we have been playing catch up the entire time.

My original plan was to publish the podcasts on the district’s LMS site because they have an RSS feed, but we were having serious problems with LMS and Lightspeed the week before the hurricane, so I was never really able to post an RSS feed and see how the students responded to it. Luckily, any problems we had this past week have been short-lived and are usually solved if we restart Internet Explorer.

The best news is that I have created two podcasts for my students! One was going over the answers on a quiz that they took and the second was a test review! I’m so excited! I really hope it works, because at this point, it really saved me a lot of time in the classroom. This way, I also made sure that each class got the same material.

The problem that I’m facing now is publishing these RSS feeds. We are using LMS right now, but I can’t publish them to iTunesor Podcast Alley because I need a public forum to post on. I’m going to poke around on Edublogs and see what options are available. I am a little concerned about this, because Klein’s system does not seem to be very compatible with Edublogs. No one can get an e-mail from Edublogs! I’ll look into that, because I find this to be a very user-friendly site.

Looking back at previous posts today, I already feel months behind. I had wanted podcasts ready to go for the first day of school. Here it is, almost the end of our grading period, and I’m just starting to identify the kinks rather than solving the kinks.

At least my group of students is excited about the process. Right now, I feel like I’m leading them on because I haven’t really given them much podcasting. I’m working on the curriculum as we speak, but for now, I feel like I’m dragging the process out. The great news is that they all seem to be on board and eager. I think they feel special because they know they are involved in the pilot project for a grant. I won’t say that they are looking froward to TAKS testing reviews, because they aren’t, but when I explained my TAKS plan to them, they were agreeable. The students who still need to take TAKS are going to create specific tutorials for middle school students. Each student will create tutorials for the objective that she/he needs to pass.

I passed out the TAKS study guides yesterday. As I expected, they groaned and all told me to keep the book. I agreed to do so, but had them look at their TAKS objectives and pointed out to them what we’d be podcasting later on. I didn’t hear a single groan – in fact, they were asking me questions. I’mnot going to go so far and say they were excited about TAKS tutorials, but I think they are now looking at it in a new way. It was really what I needed to keep my head afloat after the past few weeks.

Rather than bore readers readers with posts describing the waiting process in detail, I decided to wait to post until I had actual results to share.

And now, here are the updates:

After much gnashing of teeth and inquisitive phone calls, I finally have the two microphones! Somehow, they were send to two wrong locations. But, all is well and they work beautifully.

I now have iTunes on my computer and Derek and I made the first podcast today! We are using the Angel Learning Management System for the students, but are looking into other options for the other listeners that we anticipate.

We will have one dedicated maching with the MBox and will use the other mixing board with student computers. The goal will be to start off with eh mixing board before moving on to anything else.

The first podcast is here! It was broadcast today around 4:00 p.m. The momentous was me saying “Test, test. This is a mic test. I’ve always wanted to say that!” Very noteworthy, eh?

I plan on posting two podcasts for my English IV class this week. One will be discussing the answers for a quiz that we took and the other will be a test review for a test that we will take next Monday. I think I’ll call it Room 118. Is that too simple? I’ll just do one podcast with detailed tags for students.

So far, my reading kids are all very excited to be in the pilot. I think they understand what I am looking for and I think my expectations are very clear. They realize who the audience will be and are ready to meet the challenges that we know will pop up.

Tomorrow, I will see if the student accounts can download, play, and subscribe to my feed. I’m sure they’ll be more impressed with my “mic test” than I was.