A Take on Podcasting and Gender
Posted by Dinobrads at Podcasting-Education@yahoogroups.com:
"In regards to videogaming and podcasting...... my reason for using podcasting has to do with girls lagging computer science skills, or lack of girls going into college computer engineering programs.
This is partly why the use of podcasting this year has been so exciting for me
professionally ......
One of my classes that I teach is called Girls Involved in Science and Engineering (GISE). The GISE "guys" take great delight in creating literary works that can be podcast. Coming up with a scientific, interesting, creative way to get people to listen to the science involved in their podcast is the most exciting part of the classroom period. Girls researching, creating and writing their podcasts......then producing and editing and finally posting it to iTunes. The girls are very involved in their own learning.
The reason that podcasting hooks so many girls is the reading and writing component. If you were to ask students in your classes, "How many of you play video games?" I
guarantee that almost every boy will raise his hand and none of the girls. Girls computer skills do not grow with videogaming activities, they grow with personal journals (MySpace, Blogs) and now with these podcasts.
I have done about 15 or so podcasts since Oct and it has been all girls. For my 8th grade science class I have a weekly "This Week in IPS" podcast- explaining the physical science completed for the week. I have a sign up sheet in the classroom and people are "fighting" to get their name up there to produce the next week show. I also now have a sheet where the the kids are creating and producing science fiction podcasts. This has really hooked the kids, they meet at lunch to develop these.
I am always looking for ways to foster science education and this has been a wonderful tool. The more we use this in our classrooms the more involved the students will be in the content that we are covering in our classrooms, or rather the students will be discovering in our classrooms."
Learncasting
I'm not content to let
Learncasting die. Here's what it is:
Cash for Comments!
From Graham Stanley at http://blog-efl.blogspot.com:
Not about podcasting but certainly relevant re legalities and how safe are you if you let it all hang out on your blog or podcast?
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On Saturday there was an article published in el Pais (www.elpais.es) about
a student who has been find 400 Euros (200 according to the electronic
edition of the newspaper) because of a comment published on his blog:
http://www.mafius.com/blog
Ivan Fresneda wrote about his college, saying that it was incoherent and
absurd, complaining about the lack of newspapers in his school, and was
extremely critical of the methodology of his Philosophy teacher.
Now Ivan has been taken to court and fined because of threats to the
Philosophy teacher that were published in the comments section of this blog
post. Although the comments were published anonymously, Ivan has been held
responsible because it is his blog, and he should have let the comment be
published.
Obviously, this has repercussions for bloggers everywhere, who could
potentially be held responsible for comments published anonymously on their
blogs, and is also related to the cyber-bullying incident I wrote about
recently (http://blog-efl.blogspot.com)
To feed or not to feed?
I've been asking myself the "to feed or not to feed" question.
So, with a view to making some sense of the range of activity we're finding at different educational organisations under the umbrella of "online casting" - and with the name of our site an underlying consideration - I've been trying to get my mind around some of the terms we, and others, are using - and what we mean by these terms.
'Casts' whether broad-, web- or pod- are being interpreted and defined in a number of ways - and that's probably a good thing. But I thought it worth looking for some simple points of distinction. (Which you no doubt already have clear in your minds?)
So I've been scavenging through Wikipedia and here's a bit of summary of their definitions of
podcasts and
webcasts which might or might not be useful as discussion points for us, as well as a take on
broadcasting that I rather like:
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is also the old term for hand sowing.
Sowing is the process of
planting seeds. (Unlike animals, plants are limited in their ability to seek out favorable conditions for life and growth. As a consequence, plants have evolved many ways to
disperse their population through their seeds. A seed must somehow
"arrive" at a location and
be there at a time favorable for germination and growth.)
Hand sowing is the process of
casting handfuls of seed over
prepared ground: broadcasting.
Key concepts:
Sowing
Dissemination
Dispersal
Prepared ground
PodcastingPodcast = a podcast is distinguished by its ability to be downloaded automatically using software capable of reading RSS or Atom feeds.
Podcasters = individuals or organizations offering feeds
P
odcatchers = special RSS aggregators with the ability to transfer the files to media player software or hardware.
Podcasting = "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player" (New Oxford American Dictionary)
Note: Podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their filesKey terms:
Digital recording
Feeds
RSS aggregators
Asynchronous broadcast/narrowcast
Download to a personal audio player
WebcastingWebcast = a webcast uses
streaming media technology to take a single content source and distribute it to many simultaneous listeners/viewers.
Key terms:
Streaming media
Distributed
Web broadcast
Simulcast (live) = synchronousTT
ESL podcasts
Finally stopped trying to retrieve my old (forgotten) password and created a new one.
Would students have the same memory problem? Possibly not - they probably save them on one of their mobile devices :-)
Anyway - just thought I'd add this link to a ESL podcast site (American). Simple, but could be a simply useful learning tool for langauge learners. Would an educational organisation consider something like this?
TerryT
The Author of Posts...
Seems that even though Delia and Brad have admin rights and can post and edit and delete etc it still appears as if I have posted everything cos I'm the owner of the blog. :( Can we all live with that? Maybe always sign your name so we can see at a glance who's posted?
To cast or not to cast?
In my experience, it takes a while to find a name or names that best embody all the layers of meaning and desired associations. But I love the explorations along the way! Joyously, Delia.
Brad's Back and Fishing...
Casting around
I invite others to share what 'casting' means or suggests or evokes to them. Happy casting, Delia.
A UK Model of Implementation
I love the infinite ways in which these four concepts might be knitted together when considering embedding innovative practice from an institutional perspective:
VISION
CULTURE
LEARNERS
INFRASTRUCTURE.
These concepts are highlighted in the 2005 UK publication, Innovative practice with e-learning: A good practice guide to embedding mobile and wireless technologies into everyday practice.
It's great to have this space, Delia.
