Creativity is Key

Before reading this article I knew what podcasting was, but what I did not know was that it could be used/incorporated in such a way in a classroom.  It gives students the ability to express there creativity while still including things they learned from writing traditional book reports, such as, "attention to mood, form, selection of key quotes, perspective, and audience" (Rozema 32).  Being able to express yourself, is what will make more students confident in there work and be proud to show there work off to there classmates.  Opening them up to things other than a paper and pencil, it will INSPIRE them to use things that may be different and non-traditional, that could be used in other classrooms or when they move onto higher education.  Everything we have learned in this class so far really excites me, showing that there is more than one way to learn something, and not to be afraid to express yourself, your creativity, not to be afraid to step outside of the box.  I cannot wait to be able to include these elements into my classroom, the use of multimodality is still new to me but as I progress I am sure it will become second nature.  Podcasting is something I will consider when I have my own classroom, it is something that no one would expect to come out of a high school classroom, which is why I would want to do it.  To open up students to a whole new world and experiences, by just using multimodality.  Even though it will take me a while to get the gist of it, I will just have to learn and practice just like all of us have to do in some point in our lives, to learn anything. 

Something I really enjoyed from this article is when Rozema said he publishes the best students work or "podcasts to iTunes, "which he puts out for the world to see.  That the students are able to see there work being showcased, showing them that creativity and trying new things isn't so bad after all.  That he is willling to take time out of his day to do better for his students, to show them hard work and focus really does pay off.  You never know that something like podcasting could lead to a future career or will be included somewhere throughout your life.  As a teacher I will try my hardest to make the classroom memorable and be able to see my students become successful and knowing that I was part of what got them there. 

"Listening to digital audio content won’t replace reading, listening to live presentations, or the multitude of other ways learners take in information, but it can augment those methods."-Eva Kaplan-Leiserson is associate editor of Learning Circuits 

http://hear2cast.blogspot.com/2006/04/more-podcast-quotes.html