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Thing 7: Podcasting and Screencasting

I am afraid that I approached this Thing with a little less enthusiasm than I should. You see, I am familiar with, and love ScreenR, ever since it helped me publish ALL of the 3rd graders' Blabberize Biography projects on one, easy to view page. I tried AudioBoo this week, as a test for an upcoming project:
listen to ‘Test’ on Audioboo
I am excited about the project, but not about AudioBoo. The students will be recording Book Reviews, and we will try to link them to the Online Library Catalog. With AudioBoo, they can only post one picture. Last year we used GarageBand to record reviews with 4th graders, and the result was less than satisfactory. The students spent more time struggling with the technology than they did learning about the book, or enjoying the project. The process strangled the project. We have decided this year to go low-tech, and use PhotoStory for this project. The students can post a few pictures about the book (the teacher wants 5 or more) and record a bit of thier report with each picture. It is easy, simple, and does not require a consistent and dependable Internet connection (which was a problem when we used ScreenR, and even with GarageBand) So I approached this Thing with optimism, and a bit of caution. I love new tools, and love when they help students connect with others, or publish to a wide audience. But we are finding that by using simple tools, the 6th graders are learning to apply the technology that they know to new tools, and to adapt their skills to create new projects. I may use ScreenR to post them to a webpage, however, and am open to suggestions as to how I can link almost 100 reviews to the catalog without creating 100 new web pages!!!

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