Semester 1 Microeconomics Podcast Assignment – Welker’s Wikinomics Page

Hello readers, I have some exciting news for the future of Welker’s Wikinomics Blog. This last weekend I attended, along with about 450 other teachers from all over Asia, the Learning 2.0 Educational Technology Conference here in Shanghai, at which I participated in several workshops aimed at furthering our integration of technology into learning environments. I also presented a workshop myself on the use of wikis to enhance student learning.

I was blown away by the enthusiasm of teachers from pre-K to grade 12 for the potential uses of wikis. Our own wiki, Welker’s Wikinomics, has grown rapidly this year and is now ranked 47 among Wetpaint’s 516,000+ wikis. My eager and hard working students deserve the credit for our class wiki’s success!

A couple of the workshops over the weekend focused on the use of podcasts in the classroom. This got me thinking about how we could harness the podcast in our economics class. After a few discussions with fellow teachers, I have designed a research project for AP Econ students through which they will create a podcast of a story connecting the content learned in class to current events selected from the news media. Details of this research assignment can be viewed here.

Students, you should follow the link above and read the assignment carefully. Once you’ve chosen a partner, you should sign up as soon as possible on the podcast assignment sign-up sheet. This project has replaced the article commentaries that last year’s AP students wrote and submitted during first semester.

Once stories have been submitted, they will be “podcasted” through this blog, on the wiki, and even through iTunes, where they will be available for download by anyone in the world to listen to and enjoyed. At the bottom of this post is an example of what your podcasts will look and sound like once they’re posted to the blog.

There are a few other exciting new features on the blog for students and readers to enjoy as well:

• Reader comments now include a short extract on the left toolbar. If a comment sounds interesting, you can click on the commenter’s name and read the whole thing.
• Social bookmarking buttons have been included with each post, so you can save and share the posts you find interesting through any number of social bookmarking services.
• An Amazon.com book list has been included on the left toolbar, with images of and links to some of my favorite economics books, as well as a few AP Econ study guides for you to consider as exams approach.
• Comments can now be made on posts using your voice! Yes, you can either type and submit your comment, or you can record your comment (must be 30 seconds or less) for others to listen to right on the blog. I encourage you to experiment with this cool feature!

I will continue to improve and expand Welker’s Wikinomics (both the wiki and the blog). In the meantime, we here in Shanghai are preparing for Typhoon Wipha, supposedly the biggest storm to hit the city in a decade. Around 3 am tomorrow they’re anticipating winds of up to 200km/hour to hit the city. School has been cancelled… hopefully that means more time for blogging!

About the author:  Jason Welker teaches International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement Economics at Zurich International School in Switzerland. In addition to publishing various online resources for economics students and teachers, Jason developed the online version of the Economics course for the IB and is has authored two Economics textbooks: Pearson Baccalaureate’s Economics for the IB Diploma and REA’s AP Macroeconomics Crash Course. Jason is a native of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, and is a passionate adventurer, who considers himself a skier / mountain biker who teaches Economics in his free time. He and his wife keep a ski chalet in the mountains of Northern Idaho, which now that they live in the Swiss Alps gets far too little use. Read more posts by this author

Example of a Podcast from Mr. Welker [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1)

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