Podcasting is fast becoming one of the best ways to get information to students, especially those students that are taking online classes. Before I get into podcasting and education for this weeks blog I would like to give the definition of what a podcast is. PC Magazine defines podcasting as “An audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player. Although many podcasts are played in a regular computer, the original idea was to listen on a portable device; hence, the "pod" name from "iPod." Although podcasts are mostly verbal, they may contain music, images and video.”
There are many ways podcasts can be used in an educational setting. The major one is giving lessons via podcasting. For example; educators could record themselves speaking (with video being optional) the lesson plans then allow the students to download that plan. The students would then have access to that full lesson plan have the ability to listen to it whenever they want. For the class I teach we are currently writing new lesson plans and curriculum. While we’re not giving entire lesson plans with podcasts we are offering supplemental information that students can use for their projects.
Students can also get involved with podcasting and their work. If a student had to give a multi-media presentation on a project podcasting would be a great way to do it. By using a podcast students can incorporate both audio and visual aspects of their work into their presentation, even if they have other movie or Flash files.
In addition to what you can use podcasting for, there are also other benefits to doing it. For starters it’s easy to create. Most of the software required to create a podcast already comes installed on the computer. While it may not necessarily be top of the line software it can still be used to create high quality podcasts and video. Since this software also comes installed on the computer it’s also cheap, costing only the price of the computer.
Below are some helpful links for podcasting and education.
This article gives a lot of basic information on podcasting and how it can be used in education. If you’re new to both podcasting and how it can be implemented this is a good place to start.
Why Every School Should Be Podcasting
Another article on the benefits of podcasting and education. Gives a few examples of how podcasting is being used in education but mostly discusses the benefits of doing it.
This is the Apple educator’s section online. This website contains great examples of educator created content and how you can make a professional looking podcast with the software that you have on your Macintosh.
More examples of how podcasting is being used in schools from around the country.
This PDF documents further addresses some of the benefits of using as well as some of the technical issues such as movie length and quality.
Excellent definition of what a podcast is from PC Magazine.
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