Do I want to be a Podcaster?

This week's topic for the blog is another Web 2.0 tool that I've never used before- totally new. Even though I had listened to Joyce Valenza's podcast at the beginning of the course, I really didn't know exactly what it was all about.

I started my research by looking up the actual term "podcast". I found the following definition on www.wikipedia.org:" A podcast is a collection of digital media files which is distributed over the Internet, often using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media players and personal computers. The term, like "radio", can refer either to the content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster." It confirmed what I thought it was and I was interested to see that it is compared to a radio. It seems like we are going a bit retro! I also found it interesting to see that the actual term was created or introduced by Apple and the iPod- duh?! It's just one of those terms that is used so often, I didn't really stop to think about the origins.

Use for teaching (Before Research):

When I sat down to think about when and where I would use this tool in my own classroom, I couldn't really come up with a scenario. Personally, I am a person who listens to things in the background and picks up pieces here and there. I am also a person who has to see, read or discuss things to really learn them and I feel that the majority of my students are the same way.

I could see podcasts being used for something like online courses or WebCT, but the only thing that I would use it for would be for students to report findings for projects. I could also see myself using this for a tool for students who have a learning disability and need to have my "lectures" recorded.

I did ask ask a couple of my colleagues about this tool and whether they would consider using it in their classes. One of the teachers, who teaches English thought that she might use it for doing things like Reader Theatre. The French teacher was a bit more excited because she felt that she could (and might) use it for oral tests or assignments. It is a very time-consuming process for her and she felt that she could use the MP3 format to have students record and submit their tests and she could evaluate them later and free up more class time for instruction. For either purpose, I'm not sure that they would need to actually have the file on a website- they could just hand it in electronically or email it to her. Some interesting responses that I never thought of!

Without doing more research, this would be one tool, I don't see myself using on a regular basis.

Use for Teaching (After Research):

After looking at a few websites that discuss the use of podcasts in education, I can see there are many more possibilities. Darcy Norman has a blog entry entitled "Podcasting for Education" and he has many suggestions for using this tool- although I do find that many of them would be more useful for post-secondary students Vs. secondary school. A couple of suggestions that caught my eye had to do with interviews and guest speakers- it is suggested that interviews with experts and presentations with guest speakers could be recorded and then put on a site so that the class (and future classes) could be able to access them at any time and go over the information repeatedly. I could see myself wanting to do this in the future.

Another area that I totally over-looked- and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it- is to use podcasts to create audio files of books!! I came across and article by Kathy Ishizuka in the School Library Journal that outlines using podcasts for this purpose. I think that she is talking more about elementary schools, but I could see this working in a secondary setting as well. Sometimes it is extremely hard to find audio recordings of novels for students with disabilities and this could be an option. I will have to practice my "radio" voice! :)

I would also like to share this website that I came across for anyone who is interested. I came across it when I was researching and it has heaps of links to articles about using podcasts in education. There are too many for me to mention here, but I would suggest that if you are interested in using podcasts in your own program to have a look! Very interesting!

Reflections:

I will try and create my own podcast using my personal reflections as the topic. I am having a little bit of trouble with it, which I will discuss in my next post, but I have to send a shout out to my brother Nick, who is going to help me out! I'm sure I'm in capable hands.

Until next time....

Katie