Podcasting: Can We Make it Happen in Our Classrooms?

In the 20th century, people had to set their schedule around the television shows or radio programs. If someone wanted to watch a program, then the person would have to tune into the correct channel at the designated time. Otherwise, the person would miss the show. Later in the 20th century, VCR’s and DVD Recorders came onto the scene, which allowed people to record their favorite television shows and watch the programs at convenient times. In the 21st century, DVR’s are now popular. DVR’s share the same benefits of VCR’s and DVD recorders, but the user does not need recordable media. All the programs are stored on the unit, and the programs are accessible at the user’s convenience. Recently, cable companies have unveiled the latest in convenience for television viewers called “on demand.” With on demand people can watch many programs on their own schedule by choosing the program to view. Now, people do not have to worry about missing any of their favorite TV shows.

Podcasting is Web 2.0’s version of on demand. Lots of shows are recorded by different companies and different people, which are available for listening or viewing on demand. Many of the shows are entertaining, but many of them are educational. By doing a Google search, teachers and students can find lots of instructional podcasts related to almost any lesson. Those podcasts provide supplemental instruction for students who are struggling with a concept. The student can control the pace of the lesson using the traditional fast forward, rewind, pause, and skip buttons on the media player. At the school level, the podcasts are viewed on the computers, but some schools are beginning to allow students to use iPods and mp3 players to view them. Those same podcasts are accessible at home or at a public library through an Internet connection.

Now, suppose a podcast for a particular topic does not exist. The teacher or the student could then create a podcast, and host it either on the school’s server or a third party’s server. The teacher could create a podcast by recording the lesson during class time or record sample problems during planning time. Due to the length of time editing a podcast, I would strongly recommend teachers within the same department work together and decide which teacher would create podcasts for each lesson. Every teacher should not record a podcast on the same topic because that would create way too much work for each individual teacher. The podcasts do not have to be very long; they should be just long enough for the student to understand the topic. Making a podcast too long will cause students to become bored and stop listening to the program.

A podcast could also be used to assess student understanding. The student would have to have understanding of the topic in order to present the information in a creative way through a podcast. Now the most difficult part of getting students to do podcasts is the training. Expect to spend several class sessions going over how to create podcasts. Now, before you start having students create podcast, you better make sure you know how to create one yourself, or the assignment will not go so well with your students. Once the students understand how to create a podcast, then you can guide them and have them showcase their work. You could even use their work as a resource for next year’s students depending on the quality of the podcast.

Podcasting is something that needs to occur in the 21st century classroom. Students need to have access to information on demand. They need to have control over the pace of learning, and podcasting allows students to address this need. If a teacher is new to podcasting, I would suggest the teacher finding websites for good instructional podcasts and sharing them with the students. If the teacher becomes comfortable with podcasts, then he or she could create some podcasts or have students create their own. Overall, if podcasts are used in the classroom, student achievement will rise.