What are Podcasts?

What functions can podcasts fill in an educational environment?

Podcasts can do lots of wonderful things in an elementary classroom. Teachers can create podcasts to provide additional instruction for struggling students or gifted students that they can access at school (with the appropriate equipment) or also from home. This is a great home/school resource so that parents know what is going on in the classroom. Teachers (or students) can also create podcasts specifically to let parents know what they are learning about. It is a real life application of information writing (and speaking.) Students can also create podcasts as a final project presenting gathered information, or presenting a piece of finished writing. Podcasts would work very well in a “flipped classroom” model where students do the learning at home the night before and do practice (traditional homework) with the teacher in class. Students that are low in reading could use a podcast of a teacher reading a passage or even a math test to help them be more independent in the classroom and not rely on asking the teach to read everything to them.

All of these ideas will enhance a student’s grasp on 21^st Century skills. Yes, they could just write a paragraph on their research findings, but this is incorporating multiple subjects and intelligences, as well as getting students comfortable with using technology. Technology is becoming more and more prominent and students mostly have a basic understanding of these technologies (like playing angry birds on an iPad. Instead they can learn how to create podcasts or videos.)

Podcast Reflection

I have never used podcasts in the past. Honestly, I thought of them as outdated technology since we have so many other options available to us, but now I see the real benefit podcasts have to education.

Creating this podcast was much easier that I thought it was going to be. Deciding what to create my podcast about may have been the hardest part since there are infinite possibilities with technology like this. I chose to do a book review. My podcast is a model of what I would like my students to complete. They are Reading Rainbow style book reviews, which is why I started with the Reading Rainbow theme song. I also chose this style of book review because many of my students have never heard of Reading Rainbow and I think that is awful! Reading Rainbow is an awesome program that I grew up with and it really helps foster a love of reading in children.

Learning how to use the Audacity software was a bit tricky at first, but after some playing with it, I found it very user-friendly. (I think what trips a lot of educators up is that they don’t take the time to play with new technologies. They simply say, “I don’t know how” and disregard it, even when it could be a great asset to their instruction.) Playing with new technologies is how I learn. I find a new piece of software, like audacity, and I spend some time with it, creating sample recordings and messing with the editing controls. Taking this time is crucial. We can’t be expected to pick up a new technology and instantly know how to use it proficiently. For example, I’m not sure if I selected the right file type to save my podcast as, but the only way to find out is to try it! So if my file doesn’t work you please let me know and I’ll mess with Audacity some more. This time I used Audacity and podcasting in a very scripted manner, having previously written the book review. Next time I would like to try a more unscripted, more conversational type of podcast. I would be afraid to speak freely and say “umm” too much, but the only way to get better at that is practice.