iPod Science Experiments – Steve Spangler on the go
Let’s see… what could you watch on your new video ipod? Episodes of NBC’s “Office”… ad-free music videos… or some guy in Denver who teaches you how to do cool science demos. Hmmm… that’s a tough choice between Office and the music videos. I’m pleased to let you know that many of our science segments from television are now available as a podcast through Apple’s iTunes. Even if you don’t have a video iPod (oh, please Santa, please), you can download the segments into your iTunes application (what? no iTunes? just download it for free).
I love your podcast. We’ve had to watch on television, but the ipod is great. Keeping streaming this great stuff.
Can Ipods effect your hearing ability?
I recently attended a technology conference in our state where I learned about podcasting. I am the technology coordinator and chemistry teacher for our school. I have referred to your site often for exciting experiments to perform for my students. They loved the exploding pumkin at Halloween! I would like to incorporate student podcasting from my classroom. What program(s) do you use to create these wonderful podcasts?
Michelle – The people at Apple really know how to make podcasting, vodcasting, blogging (and computing, in general) a snap. We record our podcasts either directly onto the iPod (if I’m on the road) or using GarageBand (an Apple program). It’s really a snap and students can learn how to create their own podcasts in no time. I’m sure the Windows folks have something similar. Best of luck with your podcasting.
I really do not see how podcasting is any different than lecturing to students; therefore I am not sure I buy in to all of this. We already have CDs with lectures on them. What makes this format great? I cannot imagine many of my students wanting to listen to a lecture on their ipods anymore than they want to listen to one in front of them. I do try to give people the benefit. As a result, I am going to look at what you have on your sight. However, I have heard many teachers (including technology specialist) talk about creating libraries of what I call “lecture”? notes for students to access using their ipods. This is not 21st century learning and definitely not research base. Students learn best when they are active participants. Best teaching practices places the student in the role as learner and the teacher as facilitator. I just don’t get this podcasting bandwagon.
Angela – I appreciate your thoughts on podcasting and understand your criticism. I think of podcasting as yet one more vehicle to distribute knowledge. I’m sure that there were those people who criticized the overhead projector because the chalk board was just as good. Videos replaced the film strip projector and I’m sure that some people were upset. I don’t think that anyone is saying that podcasting is better than hands-on learning or that a podcast could ever be a substitute for a great teacher. Instead, podcasting is just the latest and most popular way for anyone to share their ideas. In my case, podcasting is a great way to share our science segments from the NBC affiliate in Denver with anyone in the world who is interested. Podcasting is only as good as the person supplying the content. Great teachers are always looking for new ways to disseminate their information… but that’s only my opinion.
–Steve