Week 9, Thing 21

As I was exploring podcasts, I focused on educational ones. In the Educational Podcast Directory, I discovered Mabry Middle School which is a good example of how a school could utilize podcasts. I listened to an interview with Bruce Coville done by Book Voyages. I found it interesting that Bruce produces Full Cast Audio Books http://www.fullcastaudio.com/ . I enjoyed his discussion and will explore this further when I work on Thing 22. Bruce also stated that the books he's most proud of are Skull of Truth and My Teacher Flunked the Planet. I really enjoyed Skull of Truth, but haven't read his Teacher series yet. Bruce also talked about passion as being key to getting students excited about reading.

I also found Nancy Keane's Book Talks Quick and Simple http://podcasts.yahoo.com/series?s=7ead099872bb0870a7b5211f91661d84&i=2 that I really enjoyed. I plan to subscribe to this one.

On Tuesday, August 14, our local newspaper had an article on the front page dealing with iPods, "Banned: School to students: Leave iPods at home" http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708140316 . This article led to the opinion page on Wednesday being dedicated to discussion on utilizing iPods for educational purposes. "Digital natives" is a label being used to describe this generation of students. There is definitely a "digital divide" between these students and many of the adults in their lives. This is why offering this class, School Library Learning 2.0 is so important.