Setting up my Google Reader reminded me a bit of registering for my wedding. Oh, I want this, and this, and hey that looks cool! Why not try this out? It was like shopping with none of the guilt (and technically none of the stuff either). I was super excited about all the different feeds to choose from on the NYT page. And then I went to the NPR page and got SUPER EXCITED about "grammar grater" but I couldn't subscribe from school because my itunes isn't here. Boo!
All of the above ties in with the item of interest I found in my reader, I promise. I was very intrigued by an idea presented in "A Day in the Life of Web 2.0" in which a teacher records his lecture and then uploads it as a podcast online for his students to listen to. Not only is that a great way for absent students to catch up, but also a handy review and study tool. Well, then I thought about students who may be in the situation I was in--not able to access itunes or some other obstacle that might prevent them from getting the audio. While browsing through my reader I found information on a digital recorder that can transcribe the audio into text. It is a bit tricky and requires software that can be pricey, but allows the teacher to record a lesson, upload as MP3 (I guess, I'm not very saavy with technology) and save as a text document as well. AND for anyone doing research this kind of technology would be invaluable if it works well. Instead of painstakingly listening and re-listening to tape after tape of audio and transcribing by hand, how awesome would it be to have all that done for you?
By the way, I really want to put pictures in my blog posts. I signed up for PicApp, but I'm not sure how to get the images in my post. Told you I wasn't all that technologically saavy. Any tips?
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As for the pictures...Ask and ye shall receive!
ReplyDeleteJust made a video for that after I saw your post:
http://23things.barrow.wikispaces.net/file/view/Blogger-images.swf
Great analogy of comparing your wedding registry to signing up for feeds! I feel much the same way. There are sooo many good ones out there, but I don't have time to read them all. That's why skimming has become so necessary.
I'd like to address your idea about recording your classes for those students who weren't there. I think there is a misconception that you have to have iTunes in order to get podcasts, but you don't. As long as the podcast can be opened from the website (blog, wiki, etc), then you can right-click on the link and download it to your desktop for listening.
Another idea (for those students without ready access to a computer), would be to burn the audio files to a CD. If the CD is re-writable, the student could return it so you could re-burn it for the next student.
As for the sites that transcribe audio into text, I have yet to find any Web 2.0 related sites that do that either well or for free. I have found many that will go the other way though.
We have a teacher in this group, Chuck Neuschafer (I may have spelled that last name wrong), who is a middle school math teacher. He records screencasts (videos) of his lectures and posts them to his blog. What a great resource for his kids!! I think we'll be seeing more and more of this type of technology come into common practice in the future.