EdReach Podcast Reaction

I listened to the podcast “School’s Need Social Media Directors?!” I was draw to this podcast because it talked about social media. I am still intrigued with how teachers can make use of social media sites in the classroom to enhance their students’ learning. Before starting this course, I was very weary of using certain internet tools in the classroom. Perhaps it is because I will be teaching in elementary school, but it just seemed like more trouble than beneficial to me. I was hoping that this podcast would offer creative ways to use technology at all classroom levels. I felt the podcast was very focused on middle and high school classrooms. The educators speaking were all involved with those aged students so that makes sense. However, because of that it was very hard for me to relate what they were talking about in the podcast to how I would use that technology in the classroom. Also, I found the educators in the podcast very annoying. I felt they went off task a lot with random side conversations that did nothing to enhance the podcast. The first 10 minutes of the podcast were even taken up with conversation that had nothing to do with the purpose of the podcast. I would be interested to find a podcast that featured a group of elementary school teachers talking about technology in the classroom. It would be fascinating to hear how they design curriculum around the use of technology and also their interactions with parents. Have they found that most parents are supportive of that much technology integration at a young age? Or, have they dealt with parents who are weary of a lot of social media use in the classroom and how have those teachers addressed those concerns?

            I think podcasts can be a great tool to use for professional development. They give educators a way to communicate and collaborate with teachers all over the world. They also create a way for educators to be exposed to more professional development opportunities then they would if they just attended in-person workshops and lectures.  Podcasts allow teachers to learn on a global scale by having access to educators that they would not be able to collaborate with if podcasts did not exist.