Area 3 Writing Project Blog

Podcasting is another one of those “tools for everyone,” given that all you need is access to the Internet, a microphone, and a free audio editing program such as Audacity. But like any genre, to learn it, we need good models and ideas for incorporating the tool into the classroom, such as I’ve listed below:

• Colonial Williamsburg – Past and Present Podcasts – Professional actors and historians
  
• Sugihara Letters – 6th graders in Jim Faires’s class
• YA! Reads – Rob Rozema’s pre-service teachers

Here’s a peek at what podcasting looks like in the classroom:

What are your ideas on how podcasting can help teachers and students?

I’m sitting in an A3WP tech workshop brainstorming with our summer institute teachers about what makes a PowerPoint presentation ineffective, boring, confusing and/or painful to sit through.

Here are some of our thoughts:

• Too much writing on a slide
• Horrid color combinations
• Background sounds
• Spelling and grammar errors
• Too many objects or words flying in

Don McMillan’s MySpace video does a great job of summing up bad PowerPoints –

Check out some excellent PowerPoint DOs and DON’Ts resources posted by Prairie Lands Writing Project’s Mark Henderson.  Check back soon for a link to Bee Foster’s handout of PowerPoint do’s and dont’s.