1. Reading out loud
2. Editing music/Mashing audio together
3. Learning who our audience is – is our school *really* interested in news that is happening in Italy?

The first one went out pretty well. Since I was in Austin, I don’t really know how many people listened to it, but when i came back on Monday, we critiqued our own podcast. We were pretty honest. It was too long and too boring. We almost couldn’t get through the whole thing. If *WE* couldn’t get through it, how can we expect listeners to listen?

So now, we are changing things up. It will be a news report just for Vistas with the intent to move into video production. The audio element is so hard to do alone. I say that my students know their audience, but did I really know MY audience? I’m going to HAVE to put a visual element.

I’m really going to have to start pushing the screen record feature for this class to reach the visual learners. I’ll still be using the great recording equipment; I’ll just use MovieMaker for now. I think that my needs will soon outgrow MovieMaker. That’s what seems to happen. I started out with Photostory, then went to MovieMaker, and now am looking at other software. It seems to be the logical step – baby steps. Baby steps are safe. If you had told me three years ago that I’d be working with professional audio equipment, I would have shrugged it off. But the baby steps taught me how to be comfortable, even when I got the mixing board (that I had NO business with).

I think I can still use the simple podcasting for my own use for test reviews and such, but I will still advise my students to use their notes and class assignments during the podcast.

I originally was going for podcasting information, but a session over a multi-media class grabbed my attention. It was presented by two teachers from Bridgeport High School. These teachers had started a bi-weekly tv show with their students, Focus. Oh my gosh! I was so excited leaving this session. This was exactly what I had envisioned as the end goal for my podcasting class. In fact, I was so excited that I started looking up video equipment as soon as I got home. I know, cart before the horse, but I was really excited!

The podcasting itself is still murky. We are still deciding whether or not to use iTunes, but I don’t know where the ideas are coming from. Last I heard, one person was unsure of using iTunes because he thought that would make the files only usable by people with iPods. In any case, we have another meeting. Keep your fingers crossed for a solution!

After the TCEA conference, I attended the TAAE conference and was surpised by recieving the TAAE’s Alternative Educator of the Year award! I was so exited and grateful. Of course, I was able to share lots of technology tips with other people. I love being able to share all the neat tricks and tips that I know. Know what I love even more? Getting new tricks and tips!

I am so angry with myself – I signed up for a MovieMaker class on Friday and totally forgot all about it on Saturday until I got the e-mail that I “failed” the course. I thought it was NEXT week. I really needed this for using the movies that we would make in class with Starboard and the Audacity files that we would record to explain the material. Grr. I guess I can try to figure it out myself – it seems pretty easy. I bet I could do it with our AL subscription.

One of my new students is ESL, so I’m *really* excited about having her in class. This could start to be that element that Aspiazu was hoping for – the ESL element. We can have bilingual podcasts now!

We started out the day with a lecture on why we need technology in the classroom and then the group was culled. Educators spent the day playing with products and IT spent the day learning how to implement the products.

I was shuffled off to a small room to learn about podcasts. I was the only teacher in the class – everyone else was a director or curriculum head. We started with the basics – what was a podcast. My heart sank to my stomach. This wasn’t what I had expected at all! Granted, I did get to play with Garageband, but even though I saw a few cool features, I didn’t see what all the hype was about. I did get an idea for how to integrate a geography lesson, though. I had read on the internet a few months back that Apple was considering selling a PC version of GarageBand. I found that suspicious, so I asked the presenter if she had heard of that. She quickly assured me that it wasn’t so, and told me that for the PC, “there is a program called AU-DA-CIT-TEEE. That’s what YOU will use instead of GARAGEBAND.” I grit my teeth, and suffered through the rest of the presentation sales pitch. I don’t think of myself as a quitter, and besides, I had to stay for the whole event if I wanted to get my parking validated.

The rest of the day was a blur. I got to learn about blogs and wikis <sarcasm>very insightful, I might add</sarcasm> and eat lunch. The most exciting part of the whole day was when the fire alarm went off and the presenter kept right on talking! “Just ignore the loud blaring alarm and flashing lights – the hotel assured us that there is no fire.” Gee, thanks.

At least my parking was validated.

For whatever reason, my external hard drive does work on school computers. It works just fine on my laptop at home and my desktop at home. I’m still buying a new external hard drive, however. 320GB, baby! I figured that with all of the sound files I’ve been collection, I’ll need a bigger storage device eventually.

Today, my students used the LMS discussion board to listen to the musical selections that they chose last week. Each student found a copyright free song that they thought represented Vistas, and they uploaded it to the discussion board with their reasons for choosing it. They then had to listen to everyone else’s song and make a comment about each of them.

Thursday and Friday will be spent writing a script for their segment of the Getting to Know Vistas podcast. I plan on having them record on Monday and Tuesday. I still don’t know how I’ll set that up. I think that each group might need one full day working in the studio, so that means that I’ll have to come up with some kind of stations activitiy for next week.

1. Record the podcast and edit in the audio.
2. Fill out a Podcast Rubric for a peer’s podcast.
3. Blog about their experiences with podcasting so far.
4. ???
5. ???

I’ll figure something out. If you have any ideas, please post them! I am hoping that I can get the rest of my final exams figured out today, otherwise I’ll be doing a test review the traditional way. At least I have a back-up plan!

We are still working with PBWiki and the settings with Lightspeed. I will be a little frustrated if this site doesn’t go through – one of the main benefits I see in technology and this podcasting class is that we can connect with the community. The community doesn’t know much about us, and what they do know is often incorrect. Same thing with other educators in the district. I want the community to see how amazing the school is, and that we do learn, and that our students defy their expectations.

For the test review, I have decided to keep the script format, but break it down into sections with commercials, just so I can give the kids a break. In the future, the kids will create their own commercials, but for now, I’m doing it. I had high hopes for this. I’ll update later when I know more.

The good news is that with or without a podcaster/podcatcher, my students are going to start working on the first *really real* podcast. It will be an informational series about our school. Each student has paired up with another student to work on a segment.

The segments are:
What is Vistas?
What kind of students go to Vistas?
What does a typical classroom at Vistas look like?
What does a typical day at Vistas look like?
My Vistas experiences – interview a graduate, a student, a parent, and someone who wants to come to Vistas.

They are so excited! And secretly, so am I!

Today, I had them search the one copyright free music site that our IT department allows: www.freeplaymusic.com. It’s good for background music, but it’s not easy to navigate and all of the music is instrumental. I had them find a song for four categories:

1. Vistas
2. Our podcasting class
3. TAKS
4. A song that represents them personally

They are really starting to get into this, and they are wanting to do so much more than I expected – they want to create a school radio show (rather than a school newspaper).

I never really thoght that the learning curve for this would be so… difficult. In most software applications that we use in school, I know the program. I can figure out how to do pretty anything that I need to use in class. PowerPoint, Inspiration, Word, even Publisher – I know. Podcasting, however, is not proving itself to be as easy as learning another Microsoft application. I actually have to ask the students for help.

Now, I’ve never been the “know-it-all teacher” who shies away from assignments that I am not comfortable teaching just so I can keep my “street rep” up with the students, but my lack of expertise with Audacity is really changing my perspective. I think it’s refreshing for the students to be able to teach the teacher. The students watch me learn and they watch the mistakes that I may. They were happy when I told them that I figured the program out last night and I was able to show off my work to them when they got to class. It’s weird, but they are more appreciative of what I am doing than my colleagues, perhaps because they understand how much effort I’m putting into this.

I have always told my students that whatever they do in the classroom, I’ll do the exact same thing. This way, I’ll understand what they are going through. It’s one thing for me to tell the students to find a song that represents them, but since I’ve done it myself, I can commiserate with them and give them real suggestions.

There is so much that I want to do for next year already – I need mics for the students, I need some kind of dedicated machine for podcasting with adequate storage for sound files, I need a product that I sound off a special effect at the push of a button instead of importing, and I have loads of software that the students are asking for (they get the idea of freeware!). I also think that I’ll need some new headphones for next year. I’d like each student to have his or her own personal headphones so that they don’t have to share.

We don’t even have one student podcast created yet and I’m already thinking about next year!

One more bit of good news – IT is going to push through the LAME file update for Audacity so that we don’t have to touch every students’ computer. Hooray!

I started out with a plan: every student had a brief introduction that he or she wrote. We would record ourselves and then mash all of the files into one with a music introduction.

The plan didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped for. I am still pretty unfamiliar with the equipment, and a student had to find the power button for me. (It’s been one of those days!) The reverb was still turned on from the last time I played around with it, so I had to figure out how to turn it off. I was having problems with the volume. But most off all, I couldn’t get the boys to get their hands off it and sit down!

The machismo in the room was stifling! I had four boys shoulder to shoulder with me in the front of the tiny conference room, trying to touch buttons and talk into the microphone. After they settled down, things went better. I have a few students who are hestitant to talk on the microphone because they don’t like their voices, but I think since we all participated, myself included, things went ok. All of the students were very positive and encouraging to one another.

I just had each student introduce himself or herself, and talk about their goals for podcasting and how educators can use podcasting in the classroom.

The hard part about this is that since each student spoke differently, I have to edit each student’s recording independently. I’m going to try and do some sort of introduction and ending to tie it all together before I post it here as documentation.

It really worked out well. This time, I had all of the students in the “studio” as I call it now, so they all got to watch what was going on. Granted, this meant that some of them had nothing to do while waiting for others to record, so I do have a few noisy background moments. I know this isn’t ideal, but I wanted them to see the whole process. In a perfect world, I would have had the projector set up as well, but I just didn’t have the time to do that today.

Gregg has a wonderful idea today – what if I incorporated audio and started making my own Flash animations. In fact, I could even have the kids make Flash games for TAKS once I get it all figured out.

I have a feeling that I’ll be using Atomic Learning a lot more as the year progresses. And on that note, I think I’ll go look over the tutorials for Audacity and see what other programs they have.

My wiki is currently still blocked. Looks like worst case scenario is that I’ll be doing all the grunt work and uploading the content. My students have been working so hard and they are really taking this seriously, so I’m going to give them their voice. I just don’t know when I’ll have time to do it. I barely have time to grade papers, let alone transfer information from the LMS wiki to a public wiki. Using the wiki as an editing tool is going brilliantly, however! Students are choosing whether or not they are good at editing for content or editing for mechanics, and I am letting them utilize their strengths. In fact, I may split the class into two groups and let them deal with the wiki that way.

I’m scared that this pilot isn’t going to accomplish all that I wanted it to accomplish, and it makes me wonder what I could have done differently this summer to prepare. I would have pushed harder for a podcaster to have been approved earlier, but I really don’t know all of the steps that are needed for that process.

I’m now three months into the school year and haven’t started anything yet. I have created my own ramshackle curriculum because there is nothing available and the people who have the material aren’t responding to e-mails.

I tried to go to NECC last summer since it was in San Antonio, but there was no money in the school budget and I did not personally have the money at the time. I even offered my services to one of the people who helped organize the event in order to help cut down on the conference costs, and even though I was initially met with support, I never heard anything further.

No one really seems to know what it is that I am doing, and I am starting to feel a little lonely. I’m worried that my name keeps coming up at meetings and that I’m being seen as a troublemaker. Peggy (my principal) keeps reassuring me that the reason that I am having so many roadblocks is because I’m utilizing technology in way that has never been utilized in Klein ISD, but I never realized that this would be so exhausting.

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.