Apple Podcasting Seminar Notes

www.apple.com/education/podcasting/podcastguides

homepage.mac.com/podcasting1

Apple Learning Exchange>Leadership and Professional Growth>Audio Education

How/why to use audio with students

• tapping into multiple intelligences/different learning styles when using audio files
• improve student reading and fluency (Shakespeare)
• listen to audiobooks
• provides individualized learning for students (ie. ELL)
• www.flocabulary .com
  
• audible.com - listen to audiobooks

• Vocabulary - find a picture on Internet, put text on top in iMovie, download to video iPod
• audiofiles - listen to historic speeches
• field trips: download audioguides (ie. Millennium Park)
  

Tips and How To

• .m4a is the extension to make an audio file compatible with iTunes
• Make metadata for the podcast with information, links, and images (use 400x400 jpg)
• plug-in the microphones first, then open GarageBand
• new track>vocals>no effect
• Preferences> to check if settings are correct for the microphone
• Controls>turn off metronome
• file is created as an AIF file (very large)
• save and export to iTunes>Get Info>add metadata
• Advanced Menu>convert selection to AAC ).m4a

Google Features "Dump"

• Use the ~ in front of a word to include its synonyms: ~painting should also return sites for art

• Put "or" in capital letters to have Google search either of 2 words: dogs OR poodles

• Square Root: sqrt and the number: sqrt 144 will offer the result 12. See Google Calculator for more info.

• Definitions: type the word definition and the word you want to define

• To find an address: type first name, last name, and city to find the person's address and phone #

• Type in a street address to get links to Yahoo Map and MapQuest

Manta Free Zone

Here we are on the Big Island, having a wonderful time on an all expenses paid trip. Free Hawaii -- it doesn't get much better than this until I tell you we are at the Four Seasons Resort -- sweet! Each day we get an activity fully paid and yesterday we chose the night manta dive.

We are both scuba divers and have been for 10+ years. A few years ago, we were here also and did this dive. We saw no mantas. So we figured our odds would be good to see them this time. Wrong. We got pimped by those mantas again! One person equated it to sending someone snipe hunting; we're starting to question their existence at all.

Managing Expectations

So, here I am in paradise; a least my version of it. Sun, beach, good food, sleeping in, spending much needed time with my husband. Clearly everyone has their own version of the perfect vacation.

What is the best way to manage the expectations of people of differing ages, interests, and ideas of why we are on this trip without killing someone's buzz? It is Spring Break and many other families had the same idea we did: to travel to Florida. The crowded airports, delayed flights, lines at the restaurants, lack of chairs at the pool, to me they all go along with the territory.

As families grow older, do most families become more alike or are they more diverse given their own daily lives? Do they plan a family vacation in hopes of reconnecting or recreating some idyllic events of the past while creating "perfect" moments for reminiscing in the future? The reality I see and hear is parents yelling at their young kids, kids whining and crying about being hungry or tired or bored, and people just generally being miserable. Luckily for me, my family vacation has not included any of this, but I wish we had "sat down" and learned what this vacation was all about. It seems as though we all differ as to "why we are here" and what each of us hopes to get out of this week together.

Some families spend most all of their time together; even once they are grown. Some even choose to have few friends because their siblings are enough. Is there something wrong when a family doesn't vacation together often? Is it just to hard to manage all the expectations?

I think I finally "get it"!

If you read my first posting, those many months ago, I wonder what all the fuss is about reading other people's blogs. Are others really that voyeuristic? Do people really want to know that much about the mundane lives of their fellow man/woman? This notion of mine came from a naive view of the nature of blogs and blogging. After some reading, attending some workshops, and reading some blogs, I finally see the importance and addiction of blog reading.

Blogging, I have come to understand, is more than merely a public journal or diary of one's life. While that certainly can be the case as my attempts at blogging have shown, to limit it to that one purpose is really selling it short. Blogging is a way to connect your ideas/knowledge/area of expertise with the world. While some ideas may not be of interest or may directly conflict with my own, the ideas are there for those who do find them of interest.

Currently, I subscribe to 11 blogs that I read daily. Most fall into the educational technology genre since that not only is a personal interest, it is also my job. On a daily basis I am connected to the thoughts of some of the preeminent thinkers (and luckily bloggers) on the subject. I also read the blogs of some "average Joes" like myself who share my interest in ed. tech. Some of these people are accessible other ways as conference speakers, book authors, or through web sites that bear their names. However, without blogs, I would never know about the PowerPoint projects of a 7th grade class in Massachusetts. While this many not hold mass appeal, it gave me a great idea for a project of my own.

Blogs are a way of creating personalized learning communities; no matter what your interest. The world really is flat. While I have become a blog junkie, I am still wondering if there is anything I have to say that is of interest to others. What do I want to contribute to this blogging community that is giving me so much?