Classroom Podcasting Idea

Like I’ve said in previous posts, I’m not and educator by trade, but I consider myself a lifelong learner. So my approach to the ideas of how podcasting might be used in a class comes from the perspective of a student. I’m sure that all of us at some point in time have taken a class we weren’t exactly thrilled about being in. For me that class was literature, not because I wasn’t interested in the subject matter, but because I had such a hard time understanding much of the material we were reading. Some of the poetry we read for the class was very old, very long, and I thought very hard to understand. As a result I found myself nodding off during every attempt to read the material.

What does that have to do with podcasting?

Who remembers CliffNotes? If I were teaching a class that involved subject material that is difficult to gasp, I would look for ways to keep my students engaged in the material and at the same time entice them to learn. In a number of my college classes we studied Shakespeare, had it not been for CliffNotes I don’t think I would have gotten very much out of it. What the CliffNotes books did for Shakespeare was take something very foreign and explain what’s going on in plain modern English.

Podcasting, are we there yet?

What if you used a podcast to explain and entice your students through a tough reading assignment similar to the way CliffNote books help to explain difficult material? The difference being with a podcast you would have complete control. When I think back to that literature class I took years ago, and those old poems, it would have been so great to have a something that explained things a little along the way. Or even hints about what the authors’ intentions were. If it was a really long reading assignment, you could have a podcast that talks too particular sections. The podcasts could even be used to set a frame of mind prior to reading a section, or ask a question that the reader might seek to answer within the reading.

Wiki and Blog Podcasts

In a class that uses a wiki or blog to interact with students, a podcast could be used by the instructor to answer questions, or explain assignment similar to way our Wiki_Blog_Moodles class is conducted. During the course of a unit students could be encouraged to ask questions about the material via the wiki or blog, at some point in time the instructor could then put together a podcast that answers all questions asked in one shot.

Schools using Podcasting

As I was writing this post I wondered if many schools were using this technology, after doing a few searches it turns out that the numbers are growing. Recently Indiana University announced that it would launch 60 podcast projects across many of its Indiana campuses this fall. There are also many free resources available to educators with sites like Blogging for teachers made easy. In an article entitled Podcasting for Teachers step by step instructions are given for setting up a podcast. And in another article entitled, Ideas for Podcasting in the Classroom, not only are ideas given but an RSS feed is available on the subject. It seems to me that podcasting technology is being embraced by the education community.