Wow! I have just spent the last hour getting educated about podcasting and I can’t wait to use it in my classroom! First, I read the section “Something Brand New – Podcasting” in Raw Materials for the Mind, then I located David Warlick’s podcast on the Internet. From Warlick’s podcast, I linked to “Podcasting in Education”, this site is loaded with information – from answering the basic question, ‘What is Podcasting?’, to listing some examples of student/class podcasts from around the world that you can listen to, then there is a section on ideas for podcasting where the “…focus is on keeping interest in reading to help foster a better reading attitude and subsequently a better reading ability.”
Some of the wonderful ideas for podcasting include:
- Book Talk – students summarize, critique, recommend, etc. novels read.
- Poetry – students share poetry.
- School News – students research and report events happening in classrooms and the school.
- Creative Writing – students read writing assignments.
- Web Review – students search out, summarize, rate and recommend kid oriented web sites.
- World News Summary – students read and summarize articles from on or off line periodicals.
An excellent podcast for students to listen to so that they will have a clear view of the purpose of a podcast, as well as getting them thinking about what they would like to do for their own podcast, is “The Downs FM”. This project is run by a group of 5th graders at The Downs CE Primary School in Walmer, Kent,
England. Their team produces a regular podcast, which is broadcast to other children at school, and to others around the world. The podcast contains a mix of music, news, chat, messages, competitions and much more.
Their teacher discusses how the children learn literacy skills, speaking and listening skills, proficiency at using equipment and software, teamwork skills, and confidence and dedication.
Regarding the technical aspects of podcasting, the “Podcasting in Education” site covers the hardware needed to create a podcast. They also suggest a free, easy to use, software-based audio recorder and editor to download called Audacity. Finally, they offer step by step instructions on downloading a feature that lets Audacity make MP3 Files called Lame MP3 Encoder.
After reading and learning all about podcasting this afternoon, I have had one of those wonderful, insightful “Aha!” moments – the things that Peggie discussed in class suddenly became crystal clear!
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