Month: January 2017

Using 21st Century Tools In The Classroom

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Integrating technology into my classroom is always fun for me. It’s a good way to increase engagement, and it also gives students the opportunity to make a real world connection with the content we’re learning. The fun part about my subject area, is that tech tools are constantly changing. People are consistently finding new ways to tell stories and distribute them to as many people as possible. Getting my students to understand that the tools they use for fun on a daily basis can also be used to complete industry ready work, is a challenge that I’ll gladly accept.

We’ve been working on creating feature stories for our Podcasts in both my Radio I and Radio II classes, which gave us the opportunity to make good use of Apple’s Voice Note app and AirDrop functionality. Students have been recording interviews with their peers and teachers across campus using Voice Notes. Once they return, to our Mac Lab, they simply AirDrop their freshly captured audio and pull it into Adobe Audition to edit.

We’ve also been brainstorming creative ways to promote our Podcasts, and today, I introduced the idea of using Instagram Live to increase audience participation. Students asked their Instagram Live viewers for questions in real time, as they recorded today’s episode of their shows, and it was a success. I’m looking forward to working with my students to fine tune the process, and hopefully continue to encourage them to expand the way they look at the tools they use on a daily basis.

Stay tuned to see what we’ll be working on next, and see what’s going on with our Magnet program by following @YatesMagnet on Twitter.