Podcasts

Podcasts:

The use of podcasts seems limitless and especially from a student perspective. They give access to the entire world of teaching and unlike some of the internet many that I searched were of an excellent quality.

Looking through the itunes store was amazing and I subscribed to a few casts while I was there!

I liked these pieces of information from Macinstruct: and feel they represent wonderful ways I could use podcasts in my classroom.

Podcasts should have a planned presence in your classroom. They should not be included with little or no planning. Consider the pedagogical approach you’ll be taking and match the use of Podcasts to that approach, not the other way around. Careful preparation and planning are necessary to succeed with new tools, and Podcasts are no exception. If you’re expecting to download and play some Podcasts and gain student interest and increase performance, you’ll be disappointed. Planning a Podcast as a resource to enhance your classroom is a better, and more professional, approach. For example, it’s very likely that you’ll want to use just snippets of some Podcasts to highlight concepts and support the curriculum, so you won’t be playing the entire file. You can skip ahead to specific parts and play only those pieces that are pertinent to your class objectives. Compared to the Fast Forward and Rewind of the filmstrip, film projector and VHS days, Podcasts make selective presentation of material exceedingly simple and powerful. However, this requires that you listen to the entire Podcast and select those portions you wish to use. The time invested in this process now will pay off when your lessons are focused and appropriate.

and:

Advantages of Podcasting in Education

Podcasts provide several advantages to teachers, students and parents. The points made above all support the list of advantages below, which is certainly not all inclusive and is growing as Podcasts become more prevalent in our educational systems.

1. Meet the needs of more students with varying learning styles and aptitudes.
2. Provide ‘make up lectures’ to students who were absent.
3. Supplement existing material and resources with a portable and remotely accessible source of information.
4. Audio benefits vision impaired students and non-native speakers.
5. Ability to replay and review information helps to embed lessons in memory.
6. Asynchronous consumption allows for convenient access and multi-tasking (riding the bus, walking, working out, etc…).
7. Flexible curriculum pathways to encourage student participation and facilitate success.
8. Most appropriate presentation of spoken/audio material—e.g. native language, foreign language, speech therapy, music, reading assistance.

The following are some further links to information on the use of podcasts in the classroom:

http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet26/scutter.pdf

http://www.wtvi.com/teks/05_06_articles/classroom-audio-podcasting.html

References:

Macinstruct (2013)Podcasts in education, referenced (march2013) from http://www.macinstruct.com/node/43