WGBH Video Podcast "What is a Planet?"

The video podcast I chose to listen to was "What is a Planet?" This podcast discussed the debate on how many planets there are in the solar system. While in school I was always taught that there were nine planets, but other researchers try to prove that there are ten or more planets. According to the International Astronomical Union, a planet is a body that orbits a star, has enough mass to create its own gravity, has a round shape, and has cleared its neighborhood. Through this definition, astronomers are saying that Pluto should no longer be considered a planet; it should be reclassified as a dwarf planet. Although this definition has been created by the IAU, there is still much confusion on how to classify planets because scientific understanding is always evolving. Because of this confusion, this podcast tells us that planet classifications are probably going to continually change.

This video podcast was designed for children in grades K-5 who are learning about the solar system and planets. As a future teacher in schools that are being based highly on technology, I believe using video podcasts in my classroom will be a very interesting and creative way to present a lesson. Podcasts like this one use research from many different areas to help students have a better understanding of what a planet is. Because some students are audio and visual learners, having video podcasts along with other types of technology, such as power points or classroom blogs, will help to meet the needs of children with all different types of learning styles. Before I watched this video podcast, I just though of a video podcast as a video recording of a teacher or other professional talking. Through watching this podcast, I learned that video podcasts can incorporate moving pictures, graphs or other images, and the speaker. Being able to use many different types of moving images or props in the video podcasts will definitely make the podcasts more interesting for children.

As as teacher, I will be able to use video podcasts to teach lessons on all of the different subjects: Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and English. I believe one big benefit of having this new technology available to teachers is that it will help teachers with make-up work. I have always heard from experienced teachers that helping a child complete make-up work can become a major headache. Through video podcasts, teachers will now be able to record their lessons and post them to a class website or blog so that students who miss school will not have to miss the class lesson. Another benefit of creating video podcasts in the classroom will be that parents or guardians will also be able to view the class lessons through the classroom website. If a student in the classroom is having trouble with a certain subject area, having class lessons available for parents to watch may help parents assist their children with homework or school projects.