Tools to Enhance Teaching and Learning in a Digital World » Blog Archive » iLife 06 … I am Finally Using it in the Classroom:

Well, I’m now using to iLife ‘06 and it has become an absolute staple in my classroom. Not really for my students mind you, but for me. GarageBand is now a part of every class period as I record lectures and produce enhanced podcasts. It gives me the ability to walk in with my PowerBook, a wireless microphone, and a Keynote presentation and do a class-based podcast. When class is over, I take about 30 minutes to export my slides from Keynote into iPhoto, they show up in GarageBand, and I can drag them to the timeline. I mix it down and push it to iTunes … I could be using iWeb to publish them, but I am not ready to jump off the WordPress bandwagon just yet. At the end of the day the students click a single link from my class blog and iTunes auto-launches and a subscription is set.

Let’s just add numbered bullets here to what Cole Camplese says in his ADC Exchange Blog above:

1. Walk in with Powerbook. a wireless microphone, a Keynote presentation.
2. Do a class-based podcast.
3. When class is over, take about 30 minutes to export sldies from Keynote into iPhoto.
4. They show up in GarageBand, and I can drag them to the timeline.
5. I mix it down and push it to iTunes
6. At the end of the day the students click a single link from my class blog and iTunes auto-launches and a subscription is set.

How long does it take to get to the point in one’s tech learning curve? I am asking this question because my next big push is to help my English department faculty accelerate their tech learning capacity. For a newbie, the six steps above might become forty if broken down by rigorous task analysis. That is exactly what I am going to have to do. I am going to have to de-automatize many of my own skills. Teaching is empathy isn’t it? It is the mark of a great teacher. My hope is that I can do this in my lifetime by just being “good enough”.