Mini-me

Podcasting For Dummies

Introduction

Podcasting is a relatively new concept for me. My first experience with it was Joanne’s introductory lecture at the beginning of the course. I later discovered an interesting series of podcasts about step-parenting that I found very informative. I could already see how podcasting applied to my personal life, but wondered how I would use it as an elementary school teacher. I felt somewhat overloaded with the prospect of even more information to take in and how would I find the time to listen to it all? I quickly began to explore how to download podcasts onto my MP3 player so that I could listen while at the gym. Here is an account of my research:

Reflections on the Process of Learning About the Tool

I began my exploration of podcasting with the suggested resources in Trailfires. I soon realized that I would need iTunes downloaded onto my laptop. This took what seemed like forever because I didn’t have much ram. After the download I ran out to get some more installed. Navigating through iTunes and everywhere else was much faster after this.

I spent some time getting familiar with the iTunes site. My previous experience with music software was with Sonic Stage, the program that came with my Sony MP3 player. I found many interesting podcasts and got excited about downloading some of them onto my Sony MP3 player. I turned to eHow to figure out how to do this and followed the fairly simple instructions. I managed to transfer a podcast into Sonic Stage and then onto my MP3 player, but it couldn’t play the file. I decided my 4 year-old MP3 player was too old, so I went out in search of a new one. There was so much to choose from that I couldn’t decide, so I will look at consumer reports before buying one.

My next goal was to make a podcast of my weekly Dictee words to embed on my classroom blog. I Googled to figure out how to do this and found the instructions on the Slideshare website. First of all I downloaded Audacity and with a bit of help from Terry was able to record my voice and save the file. The on-line instructions that I found said to download Lame to export my file as an MP3 file. We didn’t have any luck with this.

I turned to Will Richardson's book once again for help with creating podcasts and discovered a website called Podomatic.com. He recommends it for people like me who are having difficulty with Audacity and converting to MP3 files. It was very easy to use and I was able to record my weekly Dictee and get it posted to my blog. It's on my sidebar at the top. I wasn't very comfortable giving them my blog's username and password, but had to in order to get the audio file embedded.

Discussion of Tool in Terms of Personal/Social Implications

I was amazed to see all of the foreign language podcasts and thought this would be a great way to improve my French and learn Spanish. Here’s a link to a podcast on Spanish lessons that I hope to use on my new MP3 player when I get it.

The other categories that interested me were Comedy, Meditation and Oprah’s Spirit Channel. Once I get my new MP3 player, I will enjoy listening to podcasts at the gym and when traveling. Terry and I enjoyed listening to the CBC’s “Vinyl Café” last Sunday. It made me think of the days when people didn’t have television, and families would gather around the radio to listen to a favourite show. I'll look for other podcasts for us to listen to together.

As for creating podcasts, I think it would be a neat idea to create a personal blog to share with family and friends where I could embed recordings of events that are happening in our lives. I wonder if I could embed audio files into Flickr to narrate the pictures in my gallery? That would be pretty amazing!

Discussion in Terms of Professional Learning

English Language Instruction

I found a number of podcasts that could be used in E.L.A. One of them was “Hooked On Phonics” which is a video podcast. I think it would be great remedial work for a boy in my room who is very weak in English reading. The various EAL podcasts would be helpful to immigrant children in our schools for whom English is not their first language.

Kathy Ishizka at http://www.grandviewlibrary.org/ has podcasts of picture books for kids to listen to with related questions that parents can ask at home to help with comprehesion. Her goal is to get more parents involved with their children's learning. There is also a CD of each podcast so that kids can read along. I can definitely see the value of this in my classroom. My school library doesn't have any French story books with CDs, so now I can easily make my own for kids to use at school and at home!

Professional Development

Esther Kreider Eash writes about podcasting as a “cost-effective method of providing professional development to teachers.” Content is created once and is always accessible for review at any place and at any time. The University of South Florida has a series of podcasts called "Tech-Ease: Classroom Tech Help". It's a series of tutorial movies on the latest technologies for educators. See their podcast about podcasting.

Fosters Multi-Skill Development

Students learn a wide range of skills when creating podcasts. These include research and writing skills, developing vocabulary, and learning to speak effectively. They “develop advanced teamwork and communication skills”.(Schmit, 2007) They must learn to organize facts into logical sequences to help the audience see the big picture. Student podcasts can include interviews, dramatizations of their creative writing, readings of book passages to demonstrate skills. An end product of student research can be a paper, poster, or even a podcast. (Kreider Eash, 2006) There are so many ways of communicating student learning.

Convenient

Podcasting is a convenient medium to use. We choose what we want to hear, when we want to hear it; there’s no need to wait for our favourite show. Podcasts are portable on an MP3 player and can be listened to anywhere and at any time. In fact, subscribing to a syndicated podcast automatically downloads updates onto your computer or MP3 player.

Foreign Language Instruction

Many foreign language instructors have adopted this medium. There are many language-learning podcasts available to students “to enhance their learning of vocabulary, authentic pronunciation, and cultural information.” (Schmit,2007) I am still looking for podcasts in French that are suitable for children. Maybe I'll have to create my own.

Motivating for Students

Many educators don't see the educational value of using and creating podcasts yet, but they do see how it would be motivating to students. As J. Hauser says in M. Stephens' article, "you create something using technology, you produce it and publish it and get that gratification from presenting it to an audience of listeners." When students have a purpose and audience for their work, they put more effort into it and with creating podcasts, they are learning technology skills.

CONS

Explicit Content

Unlike radio or television stations, podcasts are not governed by FCC rules, so there are no criteria when it comes to language or content. iTunes provides parental controls that allows them to filter out podcasts containing the “explicit” label.

Time Consuming

Will Richardson says (about podcasting) that "you do need a lot of technical expertise to make it work." This has not been my experience. Learning how to use the technology and tools takes time and patience and you need to have the right equipment. Hauser does workshops with educators on how to create podcasts. She says, "We always tell them that this is the hardest part - learning how to use the technology and the tools for the first time - and that it gets much easier when they try it on their own and try it a few times." She's got that right!

Copyright

This newly emerging media challenges existing copyright and intellectual property laws. M. Stephens suggests that educators and students make their own music tracks in Garageband or other music programs and use public domain music in creativecommons.org. Freeplay.com may be another source, he says, if the purpose is educational.

Conclusions

I've learned a lot about podcasting over the past week and have found some good classroom applications for this tool. I will continue to post weekly Dictee words to my classroom blog through Podomatic.com and will begin making CDs of French stories with Audacity for my students to read along with. Once I get my new MP3 player, I'll begin Spanish lessons, listen to my favourite comedy podcasts and meditate when I get overwhelmed with information overload!

References

Kreider Eash, E. (2006, April). Podcasting 101. Computers in Libraries. 17-20.

Schmit, D. (2007, Jan/Feb). Creating a Broadcasting Empire...From the Corner of Your Classroom!. Multimedia & Internet@Schools. 14(1), 13-16.

Stephens, M. (2007, Feb). All About Podcasting. Library Media Connection. 54-57.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.