"The Edible School Yard" and "A Night in the Global Village"

The first podcast I listen to was “The Edible School Yard.” This podcast was recorded at the Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkley, California. In this video podcast a garden is the center of learning. Middle school students are not just sitting at a desk and doing worksheets to learn math and science but outside doing “hands on” activities. Students work in their garden growing food then learn to cook the food they have grown. These students are not only learning about the water cycle and the stages of plant life but life skills. This is a great example of “hands on” leaning.

The second podcast I listen to was “A Night in the Global Village.” This video podcast was recorded at Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas. In this podcast students and teachers are given the chance to experience life as someone who must deal with poverty.
Heifer Ranch is set up to close resemble life in third world countries such as Guatemala, and Zambia. Students and teachers visit these campsites and spend time there learning to survive on the minimal resources they are given. They learn to trade resources for resources. Later everyone is given a time to express how this experience has affected them.

I loved these podcasts because it took learning outside the classroom and dealt with real life issues. I believe when students can really get their “hands dirty” in learning it is an awesome experience. In both of these podcasts that is exactly what the students were being able to do. The life lessons they gained were extremely valuable. Teachers need to constantly be looking for ways to do this.

Podcasts are such a great technology tool for the classroom today. Just being able to show these podcasts to students in the classroom is a great idea. This would even give students any opportunity to think of other ways to get out of the classroom to learn. I plan to use this type of technology in the future in my classroom. I am anxious to see what my own students would come up with.