003+Internet+Radios



**Introduction** In today society internet radios are becoming increasingly more popular as the years go by. With this increase of technology in today's society, it is no wonder that teachers are stepping in and deciding to incorporate teaching new technologies to their students. Students are always up for learning new things and jump at the chance to use something as familiar to them as a radio in the classroom setting. In today's society internet radios are becoming increasingly more popular as the years go by. With this increase of technology it is no wonder that teachers are stepping in and deciding to incorporate teaching new technologies to their students. Students are always up for learning new things and jump at the chance to use something as familiar to them as a radio in the classroom setting.

** How Internet Radios Work ** Internet radios are very similar to traditional radios. The main difference between the two is that internet radios stream live online while traditional radios require an AM / FM satellite. Internet radios can be accessed anywhere there is an internet connection. (Beller). People can listen to various types of internet radios all over the world; you do not have to in satellite distance. Internet radios work through streaming music online. Some internet radio sites like Sirius and Pandora require a paid subscription while others like music365 and popular radio stations like hot 99.5 are free. To get internet radios to work all you need is internet access. You can type in the internet radios URL into your browser and it works as easy as that. ** PROS of the Internet Radio ** Internet Radio will come in handy on several occasions when teaching in a classroom. Children love listening to music that is incorporated into their lessons; it makes it fun and still educational. After researching I found several different authors who listed many pros of using the internet radio in a classroom environment. The first source that I read was a blog from a teacher. His name is Scott Angle, and he is a teacher. In his blog he wrote, “As a teacher I think that listening to different ways of teaching the curriculum is very beneficial” (2006). By reaching out and providing opportunities for the kids to learn in more unique ways, will make the classroom a place where the students will want to be. Angle goes on to say, “It allows you to develop different ways of teaching material that students may not have been exposed to before” (2006). If teachers use the same methods with their students every day the children will eventually become tired of following the same routine. Internet Radio is a new way to teach lessons in the classrooms. The students would be involved, and willing to learn if they are having fun while doing so. Angle went on to give an example of an English teacher who used hip-hop music, from an internet radio, in his classroom to teach curriculum to his students. Angle said that the while class participated and that’s the number one thing that a teacher always wants to accomplish.

**Cons of internet radio** There are many reasons why internet radio should be used in the classroom, but with that also comes a few cons to why internet radio might not be the best technology to add into the classroom. Internet radios are very expensive and time consuming when it comes to installation. Some internet radio providers are free like Pandora or AOL Radio, but many involve the use of a paid subscriptions and/or memberships. Then, the cost of maintenance, hardware, software, networking, upgrades, replacements, equipment, physical fac ilities and internet access can also be a problem when it comes to the cost of having internet radios. Internet radios in the past have also been known to have many technical problems such as reception and low audio quality. This makes people think again about spending money on a program that does not have good quality or usage. Also, the reoccurring pop-up ads and browser security warnings make it hard to open some internet radios. Another factor about the use of internet radio and many other technologies used in the classrooms today are there equality issues. Economic, gender lines, social, and cultural factors limit the ability for some schools to be able to afford technology. The debate then becomes, do rich communities have better education and resources than the poor communities? So before you think about adding any technology into your classroom weigh the pros and cons to see if that technology is worth integrating the programs into your  curriculum. **How Internet Radio can be used in the classroom** There are a number a ways that internet radio can be used in a classroom to promote learning. First of all, a teacher can easily load an internet website, such as Pandora, and set an on-going playlist of selected songs for the classroom. A good time for a strategy such as this would be during group projects where the students are interacting and talking with their peers because it creates a more relaxed setting or also when the students are simply working on a worksheet or activity. This would be because in many circumstances it is a nice change when students have a little background music added to the scene because it creates energy for the students to be more motivated to work on that particular activity. Teachers can also use this device as a learning tool. A great example comes from a Canadian blog by a teacher, Scott Angle. Angle noted in his blog that an English teacher he knew used a broadcast titled “Hip-Hop High” to connect the material they were learning in his class to a hip-hop song that would draw the attention of the students. He states, “I thought this was very interesting because it takes music which has a large amount of impact on today’s youth and applies it to the curriculum" (2006). Another teacher he wrote about used a popular rap song, that he retrieved from an internet radio site, and used it to help connect and relate the song to a poem the class was learning about at the time. He noted that the classroom was fully engaged in the lesson due to the fact that it ignited the students’ interests. To finish, as a teacher, you should always be looking for more and more ways to employ your students and by “thinking outside the box” to allow your students to relate what they are experiencing in their lives to the curriculum that you teach. This way it is guarantees that the material will stick in and stay in the minds of your students.

**Conclusion** Internet Radios can be used for many different things. Incorporating them into a classroom was just a way to teach students in a fun and interesting way. It is a way to keep the children involved and willing to learn. If all teachers knew about Internet Radio they would open their perspectives on different strategies to use when teaching their lessons to their students. __**References**__ Angle, S. (2006). //Internet Radio//. Retrieved on September 30, 2010 from http://scottangle23ed4766.blogspot.com/2006/02/internet-radio-and-classroom.html.

AccuRadio -- The Next Generation of Radio. (n.d.). //AccuRadio -- The Next Generation of Radio//. Retrieved October 14, 2010, from [|http://www.accuradio.com] Beller, D. (n.d.). //How internet radios work//. Retrieved on October 12, 2010 from http://www.howstuffworks.com/internet-radio.htm

ICT of Education. (n.d.). //ICT of Education//. Retrieved October 14, 2010, from []

Pandora Radio - Listen to Free Internet Radio, Find New Music. (n.d.). //Pandora Radio - Listen to Free Internet Radio, Find New Music//. Retrieved October 14, 2010, from [|http://www.pandora.com]

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