Blog Post #4

Why Podcasts? How do we do a podcast?

In Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting, I have learned that podcasting is an excellent tool to utilize in any subject of teaching. The teacher in this blog was a former World Language Teacher and had used podcasting to help teach her students foreign languages. For one project, she had her students write in Hebrew the Purim Story which taught students who tend to be kinesthetic learners as well as those who tend to be visual learners. Next, she had her students record themselves while reciting the story in Hebrew, arrange the story in correct chronological order, and post it to the class blog. This process allowed those student who are auditory learners to listen to themselves and others in order to learn in a way that best enables them. The students were allowed to watch the podcast from the comfort of their homes while learning in a way that was personal to them. I think that I could use this in my future biology classes. I could have my students arrange and record certain steps in processes related to biology and upload it to a class blog. I could also scramble the steps on the SmartBoard to make the lesson to be more interactive which would allow for more learning in the classroom.

I think the Flat-Stanley Podcast is such a fun way to get students involved in learning about other cities and countries as well as technology in general. Students learn to take a proactive step in their own education by researching the city or country they want to be mailed to and describe what they will experience when they get there. I think this also helps teach children a little bit about imagination and communication. They get to present their knowledge in a podcast and find creative ways to make their stories become much more realistic.

In The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom, Harry Dell presents many positive outcomes to podcasting in the classroom. First, he says that it is an effective way of interacting with students outside of the classroom. I imagine that this is very true since the students are able to download the podcasts from home to receive repetitive instruction if they feel they need the additional help. Another benefit is that it is a form of learning that students of today are familiar with and therefore makes it relevant to them. Times are changing and, as educators, we must change with it to be effective. Students no longer learn as well by listening to a lecture and repeating the memorized material. To be honest, they never learned well that way to start with. However, kids today love technology so why not meet them at their level and let that be a means of learning. Dell mentions that podcast learning allows for creativity and project-based learning. I think it is a wonderful idea to provide a list of projects and let each child pick which project they want to research. They can do research to gather information and figure out how they want to present it to the class. I have had classes where I would have to present a chapter to the classroom and it was that chapter that I understood the best of all. I think that would be the same for everyone. Another benefit to podcasting is that it allows for the parents to see what their child is doing in school. It has been proven that parental involvement creates a better learning and working environment for both students and teachers.