Watching students as they work on projects is always fun. Recently, with the advent of Twitter – and students jumping in with fervor – it has become possible to watch their work almost in real-time.
Via Twitter, I was able to watch Ashley and Karen Russell – along with many other students – talk about the Safe Kids Athens campaign. So, after looking at the campaign and chatting with the students I thought a podcast was in order. ‘Tween you and me, I’ll use this to spur on …

In preparation for the coming semester, I’ve found myself thinking back and then looking forward.
My interests here are primarily on evaluating where people are, what positive aspects they may have gained from our classroom projects, and – how we can make them even more valuable and entertaining. Yep, that’s right. I said entertaining. You see, I believe students will dive in with greater fervor if they feel it is fun and they can see a true payoff at the end.
So, where are they now?  

Podcasting just got a lot easier. And, it is essentially free – except for the time spent creating your content. There is a lot of open source software available to create content, too. The camera for video, well – that’s another story. But, some very good digital camcorders – with hard drives – are available for less than $500. Your cellphone video will do quite well, too.

Podcasts are just one way that newspapers are trying to enhance their news delivery. But, the San Francisco Chronicle, on their SFGate.com site, is taking the idea one step further. Talk about consumer generated media, SFGate.com now offers an Open Mic Line for readers – Correct Me If I’m Wrong and many other podcasts.