Podcasts

What is a Podcast?

“Podcast” was just another buzz word that I heard time and again. The word itself has an alien-like quality to it and gave me the impression that it was a Web 2.0 tool that only those really technologically savvy people would utilize.

I began learning about how to podcast by first finding out exactly what it is. Yet again, I looked to Wikipedia first and I found myself wondering why I kept chastising my students for doing the same thing. Wikipedia defined podcasting as “a series of audio or video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers.” This gave me a general idea but I needed more clarification so I next went through the podcasting trailfire created by our professor.

The Common Craft’s show “Podcasting in Plain English” clearly illustrated that “podcasts” are simply amateur radio. Who knew? All this time I had assumed that “podcasting” was far more complex than it truly is. So why the hype over radio when it has been around for such a long time? I decided to listen to the podcasting samples in the trailfire to determine the reasoning behind the craze. Women of Web 2.0 (Show #65) was indeed inspirational. I found that as I listened, I kept jotting down ideas and websites that they shared. This also led to the discovery that unlike the radio I grew up with, I could pause, rewind, and play back whatever sections I needed to or wanted to on the broadcast. Listening to some of the podcasts featured on the blogs “Educating Alice” and “Just One More Book!!” further piqued my interest and provided me with a great starting point for using podcasts in the classroom and school library.



Creating a Podcast:

Will Richardson states in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2009) that “what you need to create a basic podcast [is] a digital audio recorder that can create an MP3 file, some space on a server to host the file, a blog, and something to say.” (p. 111) I had all of the above except the digital recorder with the capability to create an MP3 file. However, I did have an old-fashioned voice recorder and after finding a volunteer to interview, I was ready to begin.

We started by going over basic internet safety. I suggested that since we wouldn’t use our real names, she could pick a letter to represent each of us. For further security purposes, I let her know that the letter she picked should not be either our first or last initials. For the podcast, I am “M” and she is “J”. Next we determined that it would be interesting for her to share a couple Robert Munsch books that she enjoyed. I have purchased almost all his books over the years so she was able to refer to them during the interview. (As a side note, his website contains audio files of his books.) I turned on the voice recorder and we conducted our first recording. The motivating factor of creating audio files was apparent as halfway through the interview she took charge of the recording device. Unfortunately, using the 15 year-old voice recorder resulted in a very distorted, poor quality recording. Go figure! Plan #2 involved using a microphone to record directly onto the computer. A few phone calls later and a microphone that I could borrow was located. My volunteer was disappointed to learn that we would have to reschedule the interview until I could obtain the microphone – another clear indication of her interest in the project.

In preparation for saving directly to the computer, I downloaded the free software “Audacity” as suggested on page 116 in Will Richardson’s book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2009). After plugging in the microphone, we conducted a couple more interviews, listened to them and chose the one we liked the best. I saved the interview and then attempted to convert it to an MP3. This process took me hours as I muddled my way through downloading “Audacity’s Lame MP3 Encoder” – no, the irony of the name was not lost on me – then locating it on Audacity. Thankfully, I was able to Google all the information I needed as I went along and was finally successful.

Have a listen to our very amateur podcast:

http://blip.tv/file/1356098

Podcasts in the Classroom and School Library:

There are many articles that give examples of ways in which to incorporate podcasts in the classroom and school library, as well as providing reasons for their use. For instance, the article “Podcasting 101 for K-12 Librarians” is a great overview of podcasting and the four examples it suggests for podcasting are library promotion, sharing student learning, broadcasting school news, and professional development. As stated by Dan J. Schmit in “Podcasting Craze Comes to K-12 Schools”, “Educators are starting to see how podcasting can help hone students’ vocabulary, writing, editing, public speaking, and presentation skills. Students can also learn skills that will be valuable in the working world, such as communication, time management, and problem-solving.” After reading the various articles, I soon realized that there is a great number of possibilities for this technology.

In my school, I envision using podcasting in the library to share books. This can be done through book talks and interviews about the books students are reading similar to the podcast I did with “J”. I am curious to see if I can add an audio file within the existing library catalogue or if I will need to utilize a different program such as “LibraryThing” or “Shelfari”. The article “Tell Me a Story”, mentions one school librarian that did this on her school library web site, as well as providing audio questions about the books.

Podcasting is supportive of all students’ learning but one group of students that would really benefit would be those with low writing output ability. In my class, a number of students are unable to share their comprehension fully through writing. Sharing orally provides a better picture of their understanding but I am unable to listen to more than one student at a time and scribes are not readily available. Students could instead use the computer to record podcasts which I could listen to later to assess their level of comprehension. Instead of maintaining a portfolio of just their written work, they could also have a podcast portfolio.

In addition to creating podcasts, students would also benefit from listening to pre-existing podcasts. There are podcasts for all subject areas. For instance, our French Immersion students could listen to French podcasts to assist in their learning of the language, such as those I found on CBC. We will also have to look at our “no IPod” policy as we could have students use them to download the podcasts to which they subscribe based on their interests and learning needs.

Sharing podcasts sends a clear message to students that their knowledge is valuable and worth sharing with a global audience. As long as we have the technology to support it, podcasts are another Web 2.0 tool that will benefit student learning and assist in the creation of an information rich environment.