The challenge of these assignments was to create both a podcast and a video to use as part of a flipped classroom setup. This "flipped" concept gives students a knowledge base on a subject that is then expanded upon in subsequent classroom lectures. This saves valuable time and allows the instructor to fill in gaps, answer questions and prompt further discussions. Students come to class already familiar with the subject matter enough to be engaged in class activities. Compared to years ago when students were asked to read chapters in a textbook prior to coming to class, multimedia tools are used to convey instructional materials that are then accessed at home. Using such tools requires planning and can be quite time consuming but the end products can give students valuable information that can be revisited as needed to prepare for class and review for assessments.
Using Vocaroo, I was able to record a brief lecture on clouds and include a challenge to the students that would encourage participation in the classroom. While I am never really thrilled with the sounds of my recorded voice, I did manage to maintain an appropriate pace that would let students take notes when necessary. After describing the three main types of clouds, I challenged them to take pictures to share with their classmates.
Using iMovie to create video tutorial combined audio and visual elements of my lecture. This took a little longer to pull together as timing issues kept popping up. I added background music to the cloud photos and put in a few old-fashioned looking slides. I used Vocaroo once again to record my narration. It was quite the juggling act as I had my video running on my Mac and had my audio recording set up on my PC so that I could see the actual images as I narrated.
Both projects were saved as MP3 files so that group members could access them for review and edit suggestions. My project links are below:
Martha's podcast
Martha’s video