KleinPod: Podcasting in Klein ISD

There was a Web 2.0 meeting yesterday in which the podcasting roadblocks were discussed, so I decided to head down to the Educational Technology department and see what was going on.

Mark, my usual contact, had taken half a day off, so I nosed myself into Rosemary’s office where she was talking with Melanie. They invited me to pull up a chair and tell them exactly what it was that was going on in the classroom.

We prioritized a list of needs and they are going to get back to me on Monday with some suggestions and guidelines for letting people know about problems when I encounter them.

The school wiki was unblocked today, but the log-in page is blocked, so the students still can’t log in to edit the wiki. I don’t think that will be too big of a hassle, so my main concern was that we need to get a podcatcher that the students can use. I suggested two options:
1. All students get (an edited?) version of iTunes, or
2. Each student gets a different product (iTunes, PodcastPickle, etc.) and tests it out so that we can make a decision on a standard product for the district.

Everyone seemed agreeable and happy, and I left the meeting happy.

I am SO glad that I decided to use the PBWiki instead of Wikispaces as I had originally planned. PBWiki allows the teacher to set the control level for students, so while my students can edit my wiki, they can’t join other wikis or create their own. That’s good, because while practicing with the LMS wiki today (it’s starting to work!), the students were already trying to figure out ways to use it to chat. I told them that there was no real reason to mess up the wiki to chat because I already had a chatboard for them. Once they realized that, they stopped clogging up the wiki with “DUDE! JOE IS AWESOME!” posts.

I shudder to think what would happen if they had free reign on Wikispaces.

Once again, I am so grateful that I am doing this with a small number of students.