Blog:

3 ideas how to use podcasting to evaluate student learning:

1.  Instead of doing a traditional paper/pencil "muddiest point" students could podcast to me what their muddiest point was in a lesson.  Without the pressure of peers around them perhaps they would be more honest in evaluating their muddy point.

2.  Instead of a traditional paper/pencil journal, I could have each student create a blog.  Their personal blog would become their journal for the unit or for the entire year.  To keep the bog format varied, I would include some days where instead of a written blog entry the students would podcast or vidcast their response for that day's entry.

3.  Podcast summary of the day's lesson.  To evaluate how well they understood the day's concept, I would have each student podcast a quick summary.  It could be a traditional podcast or vidcast format.

4.  Podcast an answer to a "challenge question" - this would be related to the subject of the day or week and would force students to think a little higher on bloom's taxonomy (evaluate, create) as they answered the question.  I would be able to see how well they understood and how comfortable they were with moving to those higher thinking skill levels.

1 idea for podcast series:

I would make a podcast series assignment on brief, concise writing skills.  I would encourage the students to make these into vidcasts but podcasts would also be okay.  I would assign the students each week to post a picture with a brief 20-25 word "descriptive story" about it.  Teens are always taking pics and using instagram or FaceBook to comment on pics so I think they would enjoy this assignment.  The trick would be they would have to be able to identify a tool they used in that short story that made that writing more interesting/powerful.

I would have the students create vidcasts on books they are reading in class or in book groups.  They would create a vidcast series summarizing the book.