One of the greatest challenges in teaching undergraduate students is accommodating diverse learning styles but doing so is can improve learning (Chickering & Gamson, 1987). Yet its hard work. There are very few opportunities to learn how and there is much to do within our own disciplines. What is one to do?
The beauty of Blackboard courses is they are available 7/24. Its available whenever students want to study and you’d e surprised when that is. Many of our students are actually working online while you and I are snoring like a buzz-saw. So it makes sense to make content available in Blackboard.
Adding content means more than posting syllabi, assignments, and scores. That’s filing. Adding content requires inserting nuggets of information online that are traditionally presented in lecture and text. It means entering into the exciting world of multimedia. But it doesn’t mean you need to become a creator of multimedia programs. You’ll have greater success as a wise consumer of multimedia and one of the best places to shop is the iTunes store.
This podcast shows you how to shop and neatly tuck your purchases away into your Blackboard course. The best thing about this is you don’t have to bring your wallet or purse. Everything you need is free.
One thing we know about undergraduate students today is they are consumers of electronic gadgets. They grew up watching television, playing video games, and listening to MP3 players while skating around the park. They can relate to podcasts and use them in ways we may not fully understand yet. We can accommodate diverse ways of learning by putting the content in students’ hands and iPods.
This program provides an entertaining explanation of podcasting. What is it? How much tech-stuff do I need to use them? Why do I care about them? If you don’t know this one is for you. Invest 3 minutes and learn something today.
The iTunes store has been a great resource for educational pods and vods for sometime. I’ve been incorporating their podcasts in all of my Blackboard courses for some time now. The biggest problem I’ve had it navigating around the podcasts to find material which made the process more time consuming than it needed to be. However, the rewards far outweighed the pain.
Thanks to Steve Jobs and his friends I can now sit more comfortably because he has made the iTunes store more user-friendly by adding two new features.
The first is a back-button like then one on your web browser. It works that same way too so you won’t need any training on this feature. It may not seem like a big deal but I spend a lot of time at the iTunes store and it’s more than worth its weight in gold.
The more exciting new feature is iTunes U! Apple has recognized how significant their podcasts are to the education community and so they’ve reorganized the store to make shopping easier for educators. Thank you Apple!
This primer is for you if you have no idea what a podcast is. It explains what a podcast is and why you might be interested in them. You’ll also learn several ways to find podcasts and how to play them. No, this primer does not teach you how to make a podcast. Look for that in an upcoming blog.
