Podcasts

Podcasts are audio tools that can help provide students with more information on a topic. Teachers are able to record and publish podcasts on their own using basic software such as GarageBand and Audacity. Then, students can individually listen to the podcasts through a computer or an iPod with headphones. Over Thanksgiving break, I went on a trip to Chicago. One of the sites that we really wanted to see was Willis Tower, also known as the Chicago Skydeck. In this building, you went up 103 floors and could step out into a glass box almost a half mile above the entire city. What was one of the coolest things about this tourist spot was that it offered an audio tour through a podcast. Visitors would have to pay (extra!) for the audio tour, in which they would receive a headset with a prerecorded podcast. When you got up to the top of the tower, the podcast would tell you exactly where to go. As you looked over certain parts of the city, it would provide you with so much information that you would not have if you were just looking out over the city without the podcast.

While my podcast story didn't take place in an educational setting, it still has the same implications for a classroom. If a teacher plans a field trip for her students, she can record a podcast that the students can listen to while on that field trip. This keeps the students focused, engaged, and aware of exactly what the teacher wants them to know.

As a teacher, you can also have students create their own podcasts as a class project. This allows students to work creatively with new technologies that they may have never experienced before. Students will most likely be excited to create podcasts, because they get to take responsibility for their own learning and they are the ones who get to create the scripts. Podcasts are one type of assessment that teachers can use while differentiating instruction for audio learners.