Having looked at the technical basics related to podcasts, I am going to share some of the benefits associated with podcasting in education/reading.
The Podcasting technology can be used to assist students and teachers in developing and improving reading skills as the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feature enables students to download and listen to recordings by their teachers and themselves over and over again at anytime and anyplace. The repeated listening can help students to think about what they have heard critically. Smythe and Neufeld (2010) indicated that learners would be able to 'create content relatively quickly and easily and often collaboratively'.
Additionally, podcasting does not require a great deal of technological knowledge, will help support the learning process and engage the learners for extended periods (Lee et al, 2007). Creating a podcast will make wonderful projects for the students and prove to be a motivating experience as they are students of the digital age. Teachers need to be trained in the use of the tools to create a podcast or have a computer technician help, and ensure that the students will develop the necessary competency with the tools.
Some sources related to podcasting are: Podcast time: Negotiating digital literacies and communities of learning in a middle years ELL classroom by Smythe and Neufeld. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 53(6) 2010. 'Podcasting for Teachers -Using a New Technology to Revolutionize Teaching and Learning' by Kathleen King and Mark Gura. Audioblogging and podcasting in education by Tan Yuh Huann and Mong Kok Thong.
Http://iresearch.edumall.sg/iresearch/slot/u110/litreviews/audioblogging_podcast.
http://conference.nie.edu.sg/2007/paper/papers/ITE166.pdf.
I am in agreement with you on the simplicity of the technology needed and the process. Also, we do need the training in that area. My concern, though lies in the actual number of our students who own Ipods. I see many of my students with really expensive phones. Apparently the Blackberry 8520 is the new 'Me too".(Remember when the old Nokia model was called that because everyone had it?) But I have only seen 1 or 2 of them with ipods.
ReplyDeleteBut if they have it by all means let's do podcasts. God knows they fill their ears and by extension , their intellects with questionable lyrics anyway. Why not use it to enhance their learning and help ourselves from having to repeat whenever multiple students are absent.
Thanks for the links and the information.
Regards.
There are certainly plenty of examples of podcasting in the classroom, but there are fewer examples of classrooms that use podcasting effectively to add something new to instruction.
ReplyDeleteMost educational podcasts on iTunes and other podcasting databases are merely a broadcast of a classroom lecture. It is difficult to find something that is student-created and that is more than just a recitation of facts learned from a textbook.
Classrooms could use podcasting to encourage discussion about political issues and current events.
Research shows that most seventeen and eighteen-year-olds are interested in debating critical issues and participating in their own education, rather than listening to a lecture. Some of my most animated discussions took place at election time!
Podcasting provides a unique opportunity to tap into that interest and give students the chance to be creative. I was not able to find an example of podcasting that matched this description exactly, but I did find a few examples of podcasts that came close.
Podcasting in Education http://chatt.hdsb.ca/%7Emagps/boylit/Podcasting%20in%20Education
Social Studies Central
http://www.socialstudiescentral.com/?q=node/73
Reaching Beyond the Classroom
http://open.ncsu.edu/prof_podcast.pdf
Legal Issues with Podcasting
http://www.higheredblogcon.com/index.php/legal-issues-in-podcasting-the-traditional-classroom/
Thanks for the links and the information. I guess we as reading specialist will have to be creative and create podcasts that will incorporate our students ideas and talents.
ReplyDelete