Blog Post #4

Langwitches Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting by Silivia Rosenthal Tolisano.
Viewing this blog was a great experience; shockingly, I never would have thought that it took seventy times or more to learn a new vocabulary word. I think that anyone trying to learn a new word or language needs to practice to become perfect because there are also several different meanings and ways to use words in sentences. While reading this blog I learned ways how to successfully obtain the meaning of words and that a person seeking to learn a new language needs to become comfortable with pronouncing the word. Also, I learned that recording podcasts are an important learning tool that gives practice through hearing your own voice, reading sounds and understanding sentences. Editing is another important tool that the author pointed out because you can delete sounds that you don’t want, emphasize sounds to give special importance and rearrange sounds into the order of choice. I would have to say that I agree with all of the points that the author stated because I was formally in a church choir that used editing and rearranging when we recorded songs. The tools helped the choir in several ways to get better after each recording until we thought it was perfect. In the recording, the kids sound like they are really enjoying themselves through their emotions while they were telling the story of Purim.
Langwitches - Flat Stanley Podcast by Silivia Rosenthal Tolisano.
The Flat Stanley podcast contained a short blog post followed with a podcast created by first grade class in Jacksonville, Florida. After the class read Flat Stanley, they thought critically and decided that they wanted to send themselves off in the mail. The blog post consisted of an assignment for the students that included them to interact with their parents by creating a short recording of a trip to a location of their choice. The students had to include specific information about their location, which included the location, how they got to the location, what they did there, and how they got back home. I think this was a great idea that the class came up with because it taught me to use specific details about everything that is going on a podcast. While listening to the podcast, I was shocked how the first graders spoke clearly with great expressions in their voices and how good they organized their speeches without mistakes in the recording. From the podcast, I learned to use sounds to help describe examples and background music that will enhance my podcast to get my points across.
The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classrooms by Joe Dale.
The video “Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom” is very helpful in describing ways that podcast benefit students in modern classrooms. I was quite surprised with the statistics given in the video about the current generation of learners has sent 250,000 instant messengers, watched television for more than 20,000 hours, spent more than 10,000 hours playing video games and talking on the phone. I believe that the reason these numbers are so high is due to increasing advancement of technology; on the other hand, if we were not advancing in technology so quickly I think there would be more kids enjoying the outdoors. The greatest thing about podcasts in the classroom to me is the ability for a student to be able to interact within the class even if they have situations that lead them to miss class. I highly agree that students enjoy podcasts better than the traditional way of class because it gives the student a visual of the criteria. Overall, within this video I learned that podcasts help promote creativity, good discussions, differentiations, and more in depth learning experiences. Also, I learned a new term millenials, which is anyone born after the invention of computers. I believe that podcasts will soon take over every classroom around the world; therefore, there wouldn’t be any excuses for students because with modern technology podcasts can be accessed almost everywhere and parents can also view the information.