Chapter Three Assignment on Podcasts & Vodcasts

It was in 1969 that the Vietnam War had taken a step for the worse. The year before saw the death of Robert Kennedy and Marin Luther King and the Tet Offensive in south vietnam. General William Westmooreland would be replaced by President Johnson. In 1969 with Richard Nixon in the Whitehouse, there was civil and political unrest throughout the country. David Eisenhower the grandson of the former President was at a party along with his future wife Julie Nixon the daughter of the current presedent. David was asked how did the Government determine who would get drafted. He responded only those without rich parents, college students, senator's kids and "other" fortunate sons. John Fogerty, front man of the group Creedence Clearwater Revival was at the party when he overheard this conversation. This is how the song came to be. It is about an "unfortunate" a man who has just learned he has been drafted. 

Reflective thoughts

There are various ways in which I can use podcasts and vodcasts in my classrooms, but first, let me define what each definition means. A vodcast contains video and audio information. It can be used when downloading a production that shows and describes something both visually and with audio. Podcasts can be usefull to students in such a way as to allow them to create and design their own projects. The field of education is constantly evolving. I am a product of the late 1960's and early seventies. At no time did I think Ipods,Ipads, and the internet would be possible. I see how ineffective the U.S. post office has become just to give an example: one can order stamps through his computer, transactions are possible. One can do a background check by simply going to a website.
Podcasts and Vodcasts can be integrated in a students learning. It is no longer necessary to lecture in class where half of the student body will become distracted and bored. Studies have shown students cannot learn in a classroom like this. All this has to do with "partnering" in which the teacher learns from the students as well.
I plan to become more knowledgeable in the use of technology. I can understand how another younger student or younger professor can become frustrated by someone as I, but by the same token, I feel frustarted likewise by those too young to have remembered the importance of the fall of the Soviet Union, the fragmentation of so many countries which no longer exist and the sacrfices made by those men and women who lost something of themselves in the jungles of Southeast Asia, only to come "home" to ridicue and animosity. The oldies such as I who are not taken seriously by the younger generation who were spoiled by my generation and had the priviledge of learning computers at a very early age in school while those of us had to deal with manual type writers. We had to read books checked out in the library while searching for Hemmingway or Poe or Hawthorn through the index cards at the back of the room. Now, one need not have to read a book. They simply google the story and download its abstract.All this leads me to think in a manner I never could have imagined and to ask myself this: Are we products of our own stupidity and have we become so lazy and uncaring as to neglect the very simple aspects of learning? Where is the joy in starting and finishing a great book? of using a scratch sheet of paper to figure out simple math instead of relying of calculators for the most simple of problems? I have not had to physically deliver a typed paper to a professor in the last three years. I am told to e-mail it. Now we have spell check. APA, MLA, or Chicago format? just hit a key on the mother board and it will do it automatically. This is what we now call EDUCATION???
It is the future and so I feel I must learn about Vodcasts and Podcasts or be left behind.