First Podcast Finished

The fourth and final day of the workshop with Tony Vincent was today and I walked away with a published podcast. The podcast is named, Kalkulation Korner, and focuses on multiplying and dividing integers. I hope to refine this podcast before submitting it to i-tunes and really spreading the word about my podcast. If you listen to it please come back and post a comment so that I can make it better. I am looking for comments on both the podcast and the mathematical content. After I get a few under by belt I am going to have my students record the podcast. Then Kalkulation Korner will be for kids by kids instead of by Mr. Burns for kids. Thank you for reading and I hope to get comments so that I can make my podcast better.

Web Design

I am starting to get saturated with technology. I just finished creating a mock class on BlackBoard and will soon begin working on creating a website. This is all fine except I still have to finish my podcast. I am still in the recording and editing phase of my podcast which will be finished on March 14, 2009. As I work more on the podcast I will post anymore resources or hints that I find or use.

I have found some resources already for when I do start creating a website.
The resources are -
Mardiros Web Design - I have read a few of the articles on this page and found them very informative. This site was my favorite.
KillerSites - I have not navigated my way through this website but I found some good information on it.
Web Pages That Suck - Again I have not read everything on this site but the basis of designing a good website by looking at bad ones sounds reasonable.

You can find all the links from this post and my other posts at my Delicious account.

Podcast Resources

After a three day workshop, one more day still to come on the 14th, I have learned a great deal about recording a Podcast. The first thing I learned was I still have a lot to learn. The second was I do not like hearing my own voice. I got use to that after a couple of listens. To record my voice I used a free resource called Audacity. This software was relatively simple to start working with. After a few trail and error sessions I was recording like a pro. Tony informed us that in the 1970's it cost 1,000's of dollars to do what this free software can now do. Another resource we are going to use is Levelator. I have not worked with this software yet but it is also free and we will be using it on the 14th. I have a rough copy of my Podcast without any sound effects or music. My trails and experience will be shared as I go through that process.

Some hints I would give to people first starting to record are: just go for it, use your hands and remember you have to get your point across with only words. By just go for it I mean put energy into your recording. I felt silly at first but when I put energy into I like I was really talking to a class of students the quality of the recording got better. As I put more energy into my recordings my hands and body started to move like I was really teaching a lesson and again the quality of the recording was so much better. The first script I wrote was very short and not very descriptive. After recording with the first script I realized that students would be more confused by my lack of explanation.

More resources and experiences to come...