IT @ ISM Tech Think Blog

This is from the faculty focus group session I did this morning. I shamelessly borrowed the idea from Alan November, whom I heard present at a recent conference in Shanghai. It’s deceptively simple, yet very powerful…

Over the last year, many teachers have voiced an interest in podcasting as a way to diversify students’ ways to demonstrate learning and understanding, but for a few different reasons, few ever seem to get round to actually implementing it in the classroom. For example, it seems time-consuming, they worry about not being able to deal with technical problems that might come up, they’re already really busy and don’t have time to learn the technology, or there just isn’t room in the curriculum for another project.

However, what if there was a way to have a class podcast without actually having to teach the kids, deal with the technicalities, give up valuable class time for another big project, or even spend much time grading the end product? What if you could have all the benefits, but hardly any of the drawbacks?

(By now, astute readers will already have seen the answer I’m building up to: “Yes, you can have all that!”…)

The simple point is that by letting a few students learn from one of the IT folks and then take over the process of teaching the other kids and doing the work on a rotating basis over the course of the year, it removes the whole issue of teacher stress and transforms it from a project - i.e. a discrete event that needs to be fitted into the syllabus somewhere - into a process, an on-going natural part of the everyday learning activities in the class.

If you think that this may be for you, don’t hesitate to set up a time to meet so we can get the show started! Here’s a slideshow that outlines the steps and time investment involved: