Another week, another Web 2.0 tool that I haven't used before. I have certainly heard of podcasting but never created one previously and never even listened to one prior to the start of this course. That's OK, I read somewhere that keeping your brain active by learning new things will pay off big time when I'm older...
The Process of Learning About Podcasting
Podcasting is huge and thus there are many sources available to introduce, explain, and help one get started. I started by reading the Podcasting section in Richardson's book (Chapter 8) which again gives a fairly good introduction to podcasting. Basically, a podcast is a voice recording that gets put on the web for everyone to listen to. I recommend a great article titled "Simplifying Podcasting" (Pandy, 2009) that offers everything you need to know if you are new to podcasting. This one is especially geared toward teachers and would make a great guide for implementing podcasting in your teaching and learning practices.
Beyond the readings, I used GarageBand's video tutorial in conjunction with readings from Nardo (2009) and Shamburg (2009) to help me start creating my podcast. My first podcast was for my family (and thus not available to those viewing this blog), as it contained copyright material that I can't put on the web. I ended up taking one of my daughters favourite bedtime stories and put it in a podcast complete with pictures and sound effects! My family was impressed. This "practice" podcast allowed me to play around with laying voice tracks, adding photos from iPhoto, and also adding sound effects from the GarageBand library. All three of these tasks were done separately and then combined together for the finished product. I especially liked the join feature that combined all the separate voice tracks into one. The entire process was frustrating at times, but also very cool. What made my practice podcast easy what that the story was "scripted" and I basically had to read what was on the page.
The podcast you can view was not scripted, comes complete with photos and a few sound effects. I hope you find it interesting!
http://web.me.com/mvmacau/Site/Podcast/Entries/2010/2/23_My_Favorite_Holiday.html
For this podcast, I spoke off the cuff and shared information as if I was chatting with a friend. I wanted to come across as speaking rather than reading which I hope will seem more natural to my audience.
My Personal Learning
Personally, podcasting has shown me another way to communicate with family and friends. While away from family and friends, email and skype have been my typical modes of communication. Email is great because of its asynchronous nature, skype is great because you can see and hear the person you are talking to. Can a podcast do anything that these two can't? I believe so. The one great aspect of a podcast is its downloadability. If I found myself away from my daughters for example, a podcast will provided them with a message (possibly with pictures or video) that they can view over and over if they choose. My message is also portable so that they can take it with them (if they have an iPod or MP3). This would come in handy if they miss me really late at night!
As a learner, I was happy to create my podcast using GarageBand. I really wanted to use an application I already had on my computer, as opposed to downloading one from the web. While Audacity is a popular application, I like GarageBand better because of the ability to seamlessly add photos or video from iPhoto and iMovie respectfully. GarageBand also provides numerous sound effects that I can use whereas if using Audacity I would need to import sound effects. While the professional setup and appearance of GarageBand appears daunting, I found it to be very user friendly once I spent some time playing with the tool. If I can learn to use this tool, anyone with basic of computer skills can too. The entire experience left me with a sense of accomplishment and pride considering my limited yet developing technological abilities.
Podcasting and Teaching & Learning
In an educational context, iPods offer a variety of opportunities to improve teaching and learning in the classroom. The one salient point here is that most middle school and high school students already own an iPod or a MP3 player thus they are learning with something they understand. As Pandy points out in her article, "Young people want hands on experience, interaction, identity in cyberculture, and connectivity with the world".(P. 251) I believe an iPod can provide all of these things. Some examples of possible uses of iPods include:
1. Administering oral exams
2. Providing extra help to ESL students and those with learning difficulties; students could replay information over and over
3. Increasing face time between students and teachers; as classes get bigger and teachers get busier, podcasts can supplement instruction in and out of the classroom (Mears, 2009, P.1) For example, if a lesson takes up an entire period, a podcast can contain all the information that the teacher did not have time to share: announcements, assignment due dates, quiz reminders, study tips, homework etc.
4. Students can display their knowledge and skills via musical stories, interviews, performances, and compositions (to name a few)
As a physical education teacher and a coach, I started thinking about practical uses in regard to PE and athletics. My last school didn't have many facilities nearby so the students and I often spent 5-10 minutes traveling to and from various arenas, swimming pools etc. This down time could easily and productively be used to introduce a lesson, announce teams, discuss rules and procedures, all via a podcast. For athletic teams, travel time is often longer thus even more information could be provided in a podcast. This could include photos, diagrams and even video that could help prepare for the upcoming game.
Conclusion
Considering more and more schools expect teachers to integrate technology into their teaching, why not use a technology most students are already familiar with? Students that are active and engaged will learn more and I believe podcasting is a great way to improve teaching and learning.
References
GarageBand Tutorial, iLife 2009. Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#garageband-intro
Mears, Derrick. (2009) Podcasts and Wiki's: Delivering Content Information to Students Using Technology. Strategies. Reston: Sep/Oct 2009. Vol. 23, Iss. 1, p. 29-34
Nardo, Rachel. (2009) See! Hear! Enhanced Podcasting With GarageBand. General Music Today, v.23, n1, p.27-30
Pandy, Prachi P. (2009) Simplifying Podcasting. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Vol. 20, No. 2, P. 251-261
Richardson, Will. (2009) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and OtherPowerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Corwin Press
Sahmburg, Christopher. (2009) Student-Powered Podcasting. International Society for Technology in Education. Washington, DC. www.iste.org
Thanks, Mel. I think you have hit on an important point about the potential uses of iPods in schools. Most kids have an iPod or Mp3 player of some kind and I think teachers and schools should work with them and encourage kids to use them rather than ban them outright. There are a lot of positives that can come from encouraging kids to use these tools in an educational way during the school day! And, there are lots of great podcasts out there that we can help our students subscribe to, so even if we are not creating our own, there is a lot of content available (for free) that we and our students can utilize and benefit from.
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