This Message Center is organized and operated by David Vitale A few of you have mentioned podcasts as a potential tool about which you'd like to learn more.  And in some cases, many students have completed podcasts as projects in classes at WHS and RMS. From a instructional standpoint, podcasts offer many benefits.  For example, students develop literacy skills as they create podcasts. They become more engaged with their learning, or at least with the uniqueness of the technology itself. David Warlick provides evidence of learning at his Education Podcast Network. Here. you will find topics in 21st century teaching and learning and subject-specific podcasts ranging from computer and information skills to dance, music, and visual arts education to mathematics, science, and second languages. There are also student and class podcasts categorized for elementary, middle, and secondary school.   

The ideas for learning with podcasts are many.  Podcasts can be used to provide weekly updates on classroom news, report on field trips, record a class discussion, conduct interviews, share book reviews, and review curricular content.  Teachers can record notes and lectures for downloading to an iPod or mp3 player. Students can use podcasts for oral history archiving or audio recordings of chapters in textbooks, which support auditory learners and make content easily portable. 

At Longfellow Middle School in Wisconsin students write storyboards, conference about the content, edit, perform, analyze the raw footage, combine the spoken word with photos or video, work in teams, and meet the class deadlines. They develop higher-order thinking skills, their ability to write, select facts, develop and organize ideas and content, and communicate orally.

Jim Moulton (2007) reported in his blog that seventh graders are creating "Words of Wisdom" podcasts for their school's morning announcements. They are "spending significant amounts of time reading, understanding, rereading, reflecting on, and ultimately recording the words of Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, and others, along with a moral. They are thinking about how to modulate and pace their voices, how to read in tune with the words so as to make their recording engaging and meaningful, entertaining and instructive, popular and purposeful" (para. 5).

With guidance, elementary students can create podcasts, too. Students at Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha (NE) created Radio WillowWeb, a podcast series for kids. Third-grade students recently posted what they learned about the ear and the world of sound in Willowcast #26. Grade 5 students at Tovashal Elementary School in California post what they are learning to ColeyCast, named for their teacher. Their recent podcasts address interesting facts about the United States, Puritan life in New England, weather, inside the human body, and the solar system.

If students create their own podcasts, it's helpful to provide a rubric, such as the one developed by Ann Bell at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, so they will know how their work will be critiqued.

So, the potential for positive, rewarding learning experiences is there, along with proven strategies for using podcasts in a wide range of academic scenarios.  Of course, Bob Logan has many tips for getting started and can help you with the software necessary to do the job. 

posted November 10, 2010 « back to Message Center home

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