I will have to be honest, of all of the technologies that we have learned to this point, I was most fearful of podcasts. Blogs, wikis, and other technologies (though I have not used them much-or at all in the classroom) I had no apprehension about using. Likely, this is due to the amount of time that I spend online each day, and the ability to navigate and post things on the web. I have been posting to message boards (that are very similar to wikis) and using social media sites for some time now. But podcasts? No experience whatsoever. I have never recorded my own voice on my laptop, nor have I created a podcast for any reason. My ITunes account only has one downloaded podcast to it, and to be honest, it has nothing to do with education.
Can podcasts be useful for education? Alter this week, I am 100% convinced that podcasts can serve as a great educational tool. Once a teacher gets comfortable with the technology itself, there are a variety of ways a podcast can be used. Teachers can record lectures, and post them on teacher websites for note purposes, or for absent students. Students can collaborate on a project, and can edit their own work before posting it to the web. Students can create guided questions for a class, and even create individual homework assignments based on questions that are created for the class. Whatever the usage, there are 21st century skills evident in the usage of podcasts. Students can work with one another to do research and use their creativity in the completion of their podcast. They are using critical thinking skills to make these decisions as well.
This week, we were tasked to interview a few of our students about technology in the classroom, and create a podcast with our findings. Truthfully, this assignment terrified me, and at the beginning of the week I was unsure of my completion of the work. I really had no idea about the sound recorder on my laptop, and was nervous about that as well. I could not have been more relieved about the ease of that as well. Recording the audio from my students was simple, efficient, and very worthwhile. My students came up with some tremendous responses to guided technological questions, and were very eager to share their beliefs with me on the audio. I interviewed six students this week, and all six had some very interesting things to say about technology. Though they all admitted to using technology in school, they seemed a bit confused as to what I was referencing. All six mentioned the use of laptops and interactive white boards, along with three referencing PowerPoint as a technological tool. While all of this DOES mean that students are using technology, I doubt that these technological skills truly incorporate what we are searching for in regards to 21st century skills. PowerPoint is a computer based program, but many teachers (me included) use it as a technological means to replace standard note taking. Interactive white boards are great, but how many lessons are designed to have the students being the ones interacting? Each student referenced laptops and computers, and how they were used "a lot" in the classroom. I cannot see this as a possibility. Each student referenced spending about an hour a day at home online. Seven hours a week at home, and I am fairly certain that this is a low-end number. Students MAY spend one hour a week in school online. Frankly, this is not enough.
I truly believe that podcasting can be a way to combat this. Giving students a topic, having them brainstorm their ideas, then recording their ideas, and finally posting their ideas truly touches upon their needs for interactive learning and creativity. It also certainly touches on critical thinking skills. We may want to omit mentioning the critical thinking part to the students though, because I know my students hear those two words together, and the group lets out a collective groan. Having them think and collaborate often leads to wonderful results, and the more comfortable I get with this technology I will certainly be more apt to use it in the classroom.
Here is the podcast that I created for the application for this week:
http://podcastmachine.com/podcasts/13005/episodes/65702
for download:
http://podcastmachine.com/podcasts/13005/episodes/65702/media_files/154931/download/3/file_128kb.mp3
Though I did find the podcast settings easy, I did have a bear of a time getting this file onto the podcast site. I hope you enjoy!
Scott
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