Podcasting
Getting the message out
What is all the buzz about podcasting? What is it and how is it relevant to education?
Podcasts deliver multimedia content to a wide audience. Podcasting is a way to post and distribute digital media files online. It's a great way to freely distribute learning opportunities and information on the Internet!
Podcasts are audio or video files that have been put on a web site, that have a couple of special features. A special process (news feed RSS script) is applied so that you can 'subscribe' to the podcast, receiving new podcasts in the series as soon as they are posted to the web site. Podcasts can be 'tagged' (categorized) so that you can search for Podcasts about specific topics of interest, such as learning a foreign language, keeping up with science news, discovering interesting math facts, speeches that made history, cool grammar facts... in fact there are millions of podcasts waiting to be subscribed to.
How are they being used for K-12 education? To communicate information and meet curriculum standards as well. Students, classrooms, schools, administrators and teachers alike are creating podcasts and posting them for the public to subscribe to, and are also subscribing to podcasts to keep up-to-date on pertinent content areas.
Imagine this (and click the links to listen): You can update your grammar skills by subscribing and listening to podcasts! A teacher creates literature and writing assignments for his students. An elementary school classroom creates broadcasts that enable them to learn great communication skills while reaching out to other students. Your students create and record stories that they illustrate, and post them for other students to view and listen to. Your class is studying Colonial Williamsburg and can view free video podcasts about the times. You have students interested in mathematics, and share the mathgrad.com podcasts. Your science class will never be the same when you bring in short podcasts from National Geographic. You are trying to learn Spanish as a class.
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What is a podcast file then? The audio file is usually an .mp3 file, when you have still images or a slide show with the audio podcast it is called an enhanced podcast. These are frequently m4a (m4b or m4p) files. Video podcasts, also called vodcasts and vidcasts, contain video and are frequently mp4, .m4v, or .mov files.
What do you have to have to listen to a podcast? Speakers or a headset, and a device to play them with. You can subscribe from your computer using free programs (such as iTunes or Juice); You can subscribe with some cell phones; You can use an Apple iPod, mp3 music device, Palm handheld, and many of the new mobile 'game' devices. We recommend you use iTunes (it is a free download for mac and pc), and we have provided the link below.
What do I need to create my own? You will need a microphone (or your cell phone) to record your voice, a recording device (such as a computer, web site digital recorder, iPod with mic, flipvideo camera), and some software to edit the recording. There is a lot of free software available, and one of the most popular is Audacity
You will also need a web site to post your podcast on, once you have made your recording. A one-stop shop is Podomatic, where you can record and post your podcasts free. Here is a link to a sample story about a Swan that I started in the recorded demo session on Podcasting. Check out the http://cmccarthy.podomatic.com/ example. You too can have a free account on PodOmatic.
Where do I start?
A: Search - Subscribe - Listen
1. Download iTunes (free) from Apple and install it on your computer (Mac or PC)
2. Download and refer to the Podcasting for Teachers & Students book listed below for subscribing.
3. Search for podcasts, and subscribe to a few to get a feeling for the potential!
4. Enjoy discovering that new episodes are automatically downloaded to iTunes for you when a new one is posted.
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Resources:
We will be posting a series of Introduction2podcasting mp4 video recordings. The first two in the series are posted below. Some of these will take some time to download and play, so please be patient (do not attempt this with a dial-up connection!).
We highly recommend you read the following resource by Tony Vincent.
Podcasting for Teachers & Students by Tony Vincent, learninginhand.com (Free 34 page downloadable booklet.)
ISTE links to current magazine articles about Podcasting
http://teachdigital.pbworks.com/podcasting has great resources
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One of our first teacher participants (Anglea Clark-Pohlod) has kindly volunteered her handout for how to create a podcast with Garageband on the Mac. So if you are using a Mac you will want to download the file to the right.
| creating_podcasts_handout.pdf |
| introduction2podcasting1.mp4 |
| introduction_to_podcastingepisode1.pdf |
| introduction_to_podcasting_2.mp4 |
| introduction_to_podcasting2.pdf |
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Aligned to NETS-T: 1.a, 1.b,1.c, 1.d, 2.a, 2.b, 2.c, 2.d 3.a, 3.c, 4.b
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21things Hands-On Activity and Assignment:
1. Locate and listen to a podcast. Write a brief summary of the content and place this in your portfolio.
2. Create a podcast in Audacity or GarageBand (Mac users). (Note: We recommend you purchase a headset with microphone for this activity. The built-in microphone in laptops leaves much to be desired in quality of the recording.)
3. Post your podcast on your web site or Blog. There are several places you can upload your Podcasts. You can upload the podcast to your Blog that you created or your Weebly page, or in a coursemanagement program (Blackboard or Moodle). Once you upload it take a screen shot and make sure it includes the url to your podcast file so we can enjoy listening to it. Place the screen shot in your portfolio.
21 Things for 21st Century Educators by CCRESA, IISD, MISD, SRESD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at 21things.weebly.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://21things.weebly.com/.