On Sunday, Casey Kasem broadcast his last countdown on the public airwaves. Talk about the day the music died. When I was a kid, I listened to Casey Kasem and Rick Dees every Sunday. My best friend and I used to create little radio shows we taped on my first "stereo" (In addition to recording and introducing music, I distinctly remember doing play-by-play of a Cardinals game and a Boris Becker/Ivan Lendl tennis match -- Boris Becker ended up with a tennis ball stuck in his ear; we created a Culligan commercial and a new episode of Three's Company; and, I insisted upon carrying on with the worst Pee-Wee Herman impression ever recorded). When MTV arrived, video did not kill the radio star because this radio star lived in the country and did not have cable. Corporate ownership of radio stations killed the radio star. When my favorite radio station KIIK 104 decided to change its format and go to an all-oldies radio station, well, I started going crazy for CDs.
So, I am thrilled by the emergence of podcasting. It's beautiful -- Pump Up the Volume hits the 21st century. As a lover of independent music, I think the possibilities are incredible. As an educator, I think back to my goofy self as a kid and know that I would have thriven on such a medium. There, too, the possibilities are incredible. As we discussed in class, podcasting for fluency would be a great way to use the tool. I also really like the idea of a "school radio station" where both academic and non-academic information and performances can be shared. For those who are somewhat leery of public sharing, it is a great way to test the waters with a little bit more anonymity than a video offers. Having had just a little practice with it already and found it to be very easy to use, I feel like many teachers would be comfortable implementing into their lesson plans.
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I remember listening to him - didn't know that.
ReplyDeleteLiked reading about your radio projects! (In my little world, we didn't do radio, but we did plays - set up in the basement of my friend, with curtains for the stage.... hours of that).
Kids are still interested in creativity. I was telling Beth that my girlfriend's younger kids spent hours setting up their legos and taking a picture, then moving them, taking a picture, and so on. Created their own animation project!
I'm so happy to read about your ideas for podcasting. It has a huge potential for kids in our buildings and I think you hit on several.
Check out "Rockin' The Ridge" - Ram Radio 103.3 I listened to June 8 recently.
Did you watch the podcasting webinar yet? Wow! She is an amazing teacher. If Comanche has a large ELL population, I would pass on the ideas from her podcast. I hope to have students record their reading at Indianola next year. I'll let you know how it goes.
ReplyDeleteCari--I enjoyed reading about your pre-podcast shows:) Because this is something that seems fairly easy (with a little practice), it makes me wonder how many of my students have already had experiences with creating podcasts. I would guess with my own students, a few have tried it and many have not. This might make for some neat peer-teaching and from a practical standpoint, would help with getting around to everyone who needs assistance. I like the teams that we created for this class--maybe doing something like that with students would be a good idea too.
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