Simple Podcasting

At the beginning of this school year my old laptops were replaced with a newer model that came with a webcam. Today was my first attempt at actually using the webcams in my class. In Social Science we were doing some reading about the geography of Ancient Greece and how it impacted the settlement of people there. Rather than having students take notes or fill in a graphic organizer I had them create 30 second podcasts. I found that the students were not only more engaged in the activity but also in the reading itself. They new that they were going to be on camera and someone else was going to see it. I eventually posted them on my class website for other students and parents to view. The program we used was cybercam which I think came standard on the laptops. The one I attached here was from a student that discovered what I called the John Madden pen and decided to get a little creative.