2008-2009 - Grand Valley State University

Program
Spotlight
Program Spotlight
Very WITty Podcasts for Teachers
Microphone + internet connection + recording software
+ the desire to help K-12 classroom teachers use
cutting-edge technology = two COE faculty members
linking teachers together in cyberspace for
convenient, on-demand professional development.
Barbara LaBeau, COE assistant professor, and Russ
Barneveld, affiliate professor, launched podcasting
in April 2007 at the annual GVSU Technology Fair.
“Podcasting,” says LaBeau “is nothing more than
an online audio program, much like a radio program.”
At first they produced a series of bimonthly, 20-30
minute podcasts. Now they’re doing one a month
during the academic year. “We were aghast when we
started,” says Barneveld. “We had 500 listeners,
located all over the world, access our first podcast.”
They went on to create the WIT Podcast Series,
We Integrate Technology, a public domain broadcast
on the Web. Then they began to search for teachers
willing to share exceptional technology uses in their
classrooms. “One contact led to another, and then
another and then another,” says LaBeau, “and it
became serendipitous to run into one topic after
another that could benefit teachers.”
A recent podcast for example, featured a teacher
at Sierra College in Rockland, CA, who discussed
her use of Voice Thread, currently rated a top
online application. The interview, posted on WIT,
gives K-12 teachers – or anyone in the world for
that matter – ideas on how to use this powerful
application. “Because the equipment needed is
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so simple, interviewing and recording a teacher for
a podcast is easy,” says Barneveld. “Our classic
example is an interview we did with a teacher
located in Muskegon. Barb was in St. Clair and I
was on my boat in Whitehall.”
Using podcasts in education initially was a pilot
project that Apple Inc. collaborated on with six
institutions. Lectures were recorded and posted
on iTunesU, a site developed specifically for that
purpose. Beyond the college campus, anyone
anyplace interested in a topic could simply
download the lecture to an iPod or an MP3 media
player, or listen on a computer, at no cost.
LaBeau and Barneveld had their own idea for this
technology. “New technology was moving into the
K-12 environment and we wanted to help teachers
use it in a positive way,” says LaBeau. “We wanted
to find and record exceptional uses of technology
that facilitate inquiry-based learning. That’s the key
to tweaking the interest of K-12 teachers in the
use of technology.”
Both LaBeau and Barneveld take their podcasts
one step further. They use the online recordings
in their college classes. “They become a listening
assignment, not a reading assignment,” says
Barneveld. “It is a perfect way for our teacher
candidates to learn how teachers are using
technology in the classroom.”
iTunesU is now available at GVSU where WIT
podcasts can be accessed at http://itunes.gvsu.edu