Introduction

In this age of information, people have become accustomed to sharing information about everything. Blogging and personal web pages are not just trendy but essential for some portions of the population. Teenagers especially have eagerly latched onto the Web 2.0 movement. Podcasting is blogging without writing. Students are already eager to share their thoughts, and podcasting is a way to capture their attention and engage their interest in content material.

By creating what amounts to a radio station for a class and providing an online forum for students to present their thoughts, teachers can appeal to students’ interests while guiding them in their learning. Podcasting creates an opportunity to engage in the material and build the class community outside of the classroom.

English classes cover a variety of material. Between reading literature, writing and learning the rules of grammar, there are seemingly infinite ways to implement podcasting in the class. Just as there are a variety of ways to approach a text, there are a variety of ways to approach podcasting. From unit plans to mini-lessons, podcasting can enhance the quality of in-class and out-of-class learning. Students can create thirty second clips on vocabulary or a multi-episode series that traces a symbol through a text. A basic understanding of podcasting and a few tools are all that is required to get podcasting up and running in your classroom.

What is Podcasting?

According to Wikipedia, a podcast is “a series of audio or video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet.” These files are distributed by syndicated download via RSS and through Web feeds to portable media players, such as ipods, and personal computers. Podcasts may be subscribed to and downloaded automatically when new content is added.

The beauty of a podcast is that it can be created by any individual at any time to express their thoughts, and it allows them to share these thoughts with their local communities or the world. Podcasts cover diverse topics including the news, history, literature, music, art, sermons, television shows such as “Scrubs,” or the day to day feelings of the average American teen. A podcast can stand alone or be a part of a continuing series depending on the intention of the creator. Podcasting has rapidly become a new medium for home-grown talk shows on an infinite number of subjects. The relative ease of production and low costs associated with the making of a Podcast has opened this new medium to the masses.

Podcasting consists of three steps: pre-production, production and post production. Most of the time spent creating a podcast is in pre-production. This step consists of planning the content of the podcast, scripting and revising, choosing sound effects, and rehearsing. Production includes setting up the materials and recording the podcast in short segments. The materials needed for podcasting include a computer with a microphone and a recording program such as Audacity or GarageBand which are available online through free downloads. The brevity of each segment allows students to present their best, most articulate version of their script. This is especially beneficial for students who struggle with verbal skills. Post-production involves editing the content to achieve the desired effect and then publishing the podcast online.

To publish online, students need to have internet access and web space on which they can upload their finished product. This can be a teacher created site, such as a wiki. For listeners to access the final product, podcasts can be either downloaded from a website into a program, iTunes for example, or streamed directly from a website.

Podcasting in the Classroom

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~nshelley/

The How-to of Podcasting

http://www.podcasting-tools.com/

http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/sites/sites074.shtml

Examples of Podcasting on various topics

http://podcastalley.com/podcast_genres.php?pod_genre_id=7

Create a Podcast

http://www.podomatic.com/

Detailed Website

Everything you ever wanted to know about podcasting in the classroom. Includes finding and subscribing to podcasts, system considerations, and legal issues.

http://www.poducateme.com/guide/

Educational Podcast Network

http://epnweb.org/

Integrating Podcasting into the English Classroom

There are various ways to use podcasting in the classroom. A way to make podcasting interactive for the class is to create a class wiki page. As they complete their podcasts, students upload them to the class page and then respond to others’ podcasts by posting online. This incorporates blogging into the process and helps to build the classroom community outside of the physical classroom.

Podcasting is versatile and can be shaped to fit almost any objective that you want your students to achieve. Students can write and record original poetry, present definitions and mnemonics for weekly vocabulary words, deliver oral book reports, or trace a theme throughout a novel in a series of episodes.

Here are a few examples of lesson plans using podcasting:

This unit plan lays out a detailed, ten lesson approach to using podcasting in the classroom. This approach teaches the process of dramatic story telling and emphasizes the role of audio broadcasting in a historical and cultural context. The students participate in a Readers’ Theatre of a specific story with a very detailed and focused look at dramatization. The lesson plan meets twelve of the NCTE/IRA standards.

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=901

This example from misterteacher.com presents a way to make podcasts a regular part of the classroom without taking up too much valuable time. The plan suggests taking a word or quote of the week and having students create a 20-30 second podcast that can be uploaded to the class blog. This idea can be applied to any content area, but in the English classroom, it can be used to reinforce vocabulary or key quotes from literature. It could also be used to teach grammar rules.

http://misterteacher.blogspot.com/2005/12/lesson-plan-for-podcasts-week-in.html

This lesson requires students to select a passage from Macbeth and prepare it for performance. They must choose appropriate music to accompany it and then create their own version of the script. This process forces students to analyze the scene or passage they have chosen and synthesize their response to it. An important aspect of this lesson plan is that it meets state-mandated standards. The writing process and oral proficiency standards are met and possibly better reinforced than they would be in other methods and approaches.

http://oache.pbwiki.com/RULH%20School%20District%20Podcast%20Lesson%20Plan

This lesson plan focuses on informational media. Students are expected to read informational texts and create news presentations on podcasts. Preparation for podcasting requires students to write analytically and think critically about editing their work. The lesson suggests extending the podcasts beyond the internet and using them as presentations at the end of the year. It also wisely cautions the teacher to use permission slips to ask for parent permission in posting podcasts on the internet. Another option is to make a private wiki page that limits access to members of the class.

http://www.sedl.org/afterschool/lessonplans/index.cgi?show_record=112

Affordances and Constraints

Podcasts are valuable in many ways. They encourage students to express their thoughts and voice their opinions. By improving oral proficiency and writing processes, podcasts help students meet state requirements while encouraging them to produce artifacts of their learning that reach far beyond minimum standards. Podcasts are simple to create but require the creator to use the editing process carefully. Podcasts are versatile. They can be used individually or cooperatively and can be used for almost any content area. The possibilities for podcasts are only limited by the number of idea podcasters and teachers can create. Teachers can create mini-lessons or whole units based on this technology. Two of the previously mentioned lesson plans provide models for each of these plans.

Though podcasting can be useful in the classroom and can fit most educational objectives, this technology must be used wisely. There is the possibility that students could produce unfocused or poorly created work. Rubrics can help minimize this possibility, but there is no guarantee students will comply with the requirements. Another limitation of is the possibility of podcasting overshadowing the students learning. Learning comes first and podcasting should be a tool to aid that learning. If students or the teacher become more concerned with the tool than the content, learning will suffer. The after school lesson plan mentioned above has the possibility of falling into this trap.

Tips for Teachers

1. Be sure to have clear guidelines explaining the purpose of the project and keep track of your students progress.

2. Providing students with the rubric at the beginning will help them focus their work.

3. Be sure to set aside enough time for the students to complete the assignment well. They will be happier if they have the opportunity to present a finished product.

4. Podcasting develops oral proficiency. Connecting podcasting to state-mandated standards increases your credibility and reassures skeptical parents and administrators.

5. Enjoy the process and know how to use the tools. Students often know more than we do about technology, but we can learn from each other. This is supposed to be fun for you too!

Footer

This work is licensed by Rebekah Hess under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 2.0), and is an Open Educational Resource.

Last edited by Rebekah Hess on Oct 20, 2008 12:15 am GMT-5.