Podcasts

"It would be a pretty cool school that let kids create podcasts." Those were the words uttered by my friend's fourteen year old son as he allowed me to interview him for my first podcast. The idea of kids creating 'radio shows' is not new, but the computer age certainly makes it easier. In Coming of Age: An Introduction to the New World Wide Web edited by Terry Freedman, Chris Smith in his article 'Diary of a Potential Podcasting Junkie,'  likens podcasting to the old ham radio hobbyists (pg. 57). As my father was very keen on ham radios and loved to go on about how wonderful it was to listen to them and create his own shows, I could relate. Smith goes on to point out that the difference with today's podcasts however, is that they are portable and can be listened to whenever you want, not just when they are transmitted. What I like  is that their creation is possible for anyone with an ability to record on their computer.

Prior to creating my podcast, I went on line and decided to look at a few. The first ones I got to were Penguin Podcasts at www.mefeedia.com. These were authors discussing their books and I felt like I was listening to CBC radio. It made me think that podcasts could be used for book review, or book talk, presentations that kids could listen to prior to taking out a book. Much like some record stores have 'listening' areas for albums.

The second site I went to was on itunes. They had some very interesting podcasts dealing with a wide range of subjects. I really enjoyed watching 'The Coolest Stuff on the Planet' which is part of Howstuffworks.com. The podcast was about lakes, specifically Lake Baical in Russia. The podcast included some great slides, had interesting information and was presented as a very conversational, informal discussion between two people.

I could definitely see myself using it in a geography lesson or as an example to students as to what could be done with a podcast. I have had students create slide shows with power point for several years, but adding a voice to it and making it a podcast would be so much more effective and powerful. It would also allow for those kids that don't like to stand in front of the room and discuss their slides, to present their information without being 'on the spot.' My next attempt at creating a podcast will have to have slides attached. I wonder if it can be connected to power point?

As I looked through the itunes podcast site, I discovered that you could: search for podcasts in numerous ways, that you could choose specific episodes or get all podcasts done by a particular person. You could subscribe and/or unsubscribe, see the show notes, share links, add things to your playlist, and generally organize your podcasts. Essentially, it is an aggregator.

 The creation of my podcast was definitely a joint venture. My daughter first played with the Macbook to see what the best way to record would be. We decided Garage Band was the easiest way to go. She and a friend practiced recording and editing, then showed me how it was done.

I couldn't believe how easy and fun it was! We then saved the file and as an mp3 file and tried to get it uploaded. We created a podcast 'blog' on iWeb, but found it cost over $100 to be able to upload to their server. So I returned to my text. I found the section on how to publish your podcasting (pgs. 116-119) in Will Richardson's book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts very confusing. I read it through, then had my friend's daughter go through it, but we got nowhere very slowly. We tried joining Ourmedia.org, but had issues with the password. We explored the Feedburner.com site, but of course, had yet to get a url. We googled and watched numerous how to videos, but three hours later still had no luck. I finally went to podOmatic.com and managed to upload my podcast quickly and easily.

Richardson had some great ideas for using podcasts. My favorite was his suggestion of a school radio to keep everyone up to date on  what is going on around the school. I have long found school newsletters to be incredibly ineffective as a way to communicate with parents. Very few middle school students bother to take them home. They are left lying around the school, parents are uninformed and paper is wasted. With 'podcast central' people could have a link to the podcasts and listen to what is going on. If they don't have time one day, they can listen whenever they want. Since most students and many parents have ipods, they could keep connected easily and listen at their leisure.

My suspense unit in English 9 would have benefitted greatly from podcasts. My students wrote their own short radio plays and they would have loved to record them and listen to them. Last year we tried taping some parts, but podcasting would have been much easier and more fun. Again, I have concerns about accessiblity to computers, but if done collaboratively in groups, you would only need five or six laptops for the entire class. I am eager to listen to more student podcasts to see what else can be done with this amazing tool.