Podcasting in the Classroom
By Anonymous
AUDIO AND VIDEO STREAMING HAVE BEEN AROUND for awhile now and have been used in education, but podcasting’s increasing popularity is giving it a place in the classroom as a new teaching tool. According to Podcasting News, although podcasting has only been around officially for a couple of years, it is one of the fastestgrowing technologies of all time, with an increase of about 15 percent each month. Apple defines podcasts as audio or video files that are automatically delivered over a network and then played back on any Mac, PC or iPod. According to Richard Sharp, CEO of Pod Channels Inc., although about 60 percent of people listen to podcasts on their PCs, technically a podcast becomes a podcast once you download it to a phone or audio device. Call it what you want, it is becoming harder and harder to ignore. MP 3 players stocked with their favorite music have become “must haves” among students, and, like cell phones, can be another high-tech distraction that teachers find themselves confiscating when they are used inappropriately in the classroom. But more and more educators are also finding that the technology behind these devices can be an effective teaching tool. According to Apple, podcasting allows educators to take their students beyond traditional assignments by allowing them to include voice recordings, photos, movies and sound effects into their projects. Among the suggestions the company offers: students can chart the progress of an ongoing project or submit a recorded version of a presentation. Schools can also host and distribute their own podcasts, and podcasts can be posted to a Web site or blog.
Of course Apple has something to sell, but a look at some news stories in recent months seems to back up the growing use of podcasting among educators. For example, The New York Times reported on its use at Longfellow Middle School in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where students produced podcasts on topics such as a mealworm’s metamorphosis, strategies on improving memory, and making study easier. From elementary schools such as Wells Elementary in Wells, Maine, and Willowdale Elementary in Omaha, Nebraska, to Stanford University and the University of Missouri, educators are discovering how they can use podcasting.
College students are now able to access lectures and listen to them anytime and anywhere, and universities are making some events and lectures free to the public via podcasting. Through podcasts, educators can also reach far beyond their classrooms. Michael Rappa, a professor at North Carolina State University, podcasts his course, “Managing the Digital Enterprise,” which he describes as a survey of the opportunities and challenges managers face in an increasingly digital world. The course Web site (www.digitalenterprise. org) is open and free to the public, and, according to Rappa, it has a global audience of more than 30,000 each month.
Rappa notes that just about anyone with a computer, a microphone, basic audio software and file space on the Web that enables RSS (Really Simple Syndication) can create a podcast. There are free tutorials that can be found on the Internet to help teachers who might want to create their own podcasts. Apple has one on its Web site, Microsoft has a podcasting primer, and Engadget’s site has a tutorial on how to get podcasts and how to make your own. Microsoft notes that the world now has more podcasts than radio stations, and Apple says that, “When students create a podcast for class, they not only learn the content in a creative way, they learn 21st century communication skills at the same time.”
In his article about classroom audio podcasting on the Tools for the TEKS Web site, educator and author of Moving at the Speed of Creativity Wesley Fryer says that podcasts can be educational, instrumentalIy valuable in teaching students a variety of 21st century literacy skills-and the icing on the cake-they are fun.
More About Podcasting
To learn more about podcasting, how educators are using it in the classroom, and even how you can make your own podcasts, here are some sites to visit.
Podcasting in Education
www.apple.com/education/ digital authoring/podcasting.html
Creating Audio Podcasts on Mac OS X
www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/ podcasting.html
Teaching for Understanding with Technology by Martha Stone Wiske and Lisa Breit, with Kristi Rennebohm Franz
www.acteonline.org/shopacte.cfm
Classroom Audio Podcasting
www.wtvi.com/TEKS/05_06_articles/ classroom-audio- podcasting.html
Managing the Digital Enterprise
www.digitalenterprise.org
Engadget
www.engadget.com/2004/10/05/engadget-podcast-001-10-05-2004-how- to-podcasting-get/
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson
www.acteonline.org/shopacte.cfm
Speed of Creativity
www.speedofcreativity.org
Free Teaching Materials on Alternative Fuels
There are a number of educational materials about alternative fuels and new energy sources that are free to teachers and available on the Internet. The NOVA scienceNow Teachers’ Domain Web site has multimedia teaching resources that include videos about fuel cells and hydrogen cars. The topics covered in the videos include energy, matter, and systems and technologies.
For more information orto download the video on fuel cells, visit www.teachersdomain.org/resources/eng06/sci/engin/systems/fuelcells/ index. html. For the video on the hydrogen car, visit www.teachersdomain.org/resources/phy03/sci/phys/matter/hydrogencar/ index.html.
General Motors (GM) has free educational materials on its Web site that focus on energy, technology and the environment.They are broken down into three categories: grades K- four; grades five- eight; and grades nine-12. In October, GM and Weekly Reader released a new classroom curriculum, “The Energy Highway-Solutions Ahead,” aimed at grades five through eight, For grades nine-12, GM’s site has teaching materials on fuel cells and energy, the environment, making vehicles and E85 ethanol, Lesson plans are available for download, and there are RSS news feeds available on the site. For more information, visit www.gm.com/explore/education.
Podcasts from ACTE
ACTE has made podcasts available through its Web site, and these include conversations with leaders in the career and technical education field, new summaries about CTE from around the country, and advocacy and policy information. To learn more, visit www.acteonline.org/resource_center/podcasts.cfm.
Copyright Association for Career & Technical Education Mar 2008
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