Friday, July 27, 2007

Penpal Podcast

For several years now students in my class have had pen pals. My sister teaches in Pennsylvania – 450 miles way. Students write email letters to each other and then at the end of the year by writing a regular letter on paper and can exchange email addresses and postal addresses so they may remain pen pals. Students only use first names over the internet for security. Podcasts now seem like a natural extension of this activity. Students could record a brief podcast that might include a greeting and some information about themselves. I would not allow students toinclude a picture for security. For that matter, students could use a blog or wiki together. They might just share information about themselves, but they could also do projects together. If both classes have a common subject such as planets or states they could research information, share ideas, and even collaborate on a report/project together. Both classes could complete community service projects and then blog about their experiences. I feel like I am starting to think more out of the box for uses of these tools. Permission would be essential, though I already get parents’ permission before initiating email pen pals.
David

3 comments:

Jeff said...

I can't tell you how excited I get when I hear teachers start rolling with ideas. You have a ton of great ideas here all of which could easily be done. I love the podcast idea where students would still have to write their script, but then their pen pal...or would that be podcast pal...could listen to their voice and expression within their writing. You could even require that students type their script on the blog with their podcast so it could be both a reading and listening assignment.

mrichme said...

Just a word of caution (from someone who has already been down this road), don't mess around with parental permission! You may run into a couple of parents who will not give you permission. Those students can still be involved by creating a script or producing it. If you get a parent who objects and their children are involved it could bring down all the good work you've attempted.

mrichme said...

Let me clarify, make sure you have parental permission!