"Can We Do It?"--Bob the Builder

When entering the world of podcasting, I felt a little bit like Lofty, a member of Bob the Builder's construction team. Each episode, as the team heads off to fix a problem, Bob shouts, “Can we do it?” With the exception of Lofty, the team always enthusiastically replies “Yes we can!” Lofty, the apprehensive member of the group follows with “Uh, yeah, I think so?” As I began my journey into podcasting, this is how I felt. Can I do it? Yeah, I think so?

[Apprehensive face]. Retrieved July 18, 2009 from http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/oEqrU5O0LbINBKrsv1PpUg

Why Podcast?

As I began to think about podcasting and whether or not I would be able to "sell" the idea of podcasting to my staff, I began to question: How is podcasting better or different than traditional methods of delivery? Also, would students embrace podcasts? Many higher learning institutions are creating podcasts of their lectures. In response to the question: Would you use podcasts? This is what students said.

So, what are some advantages to podcasting. Podcasting 101 and George Cole offered some ideas. I have included their suggestions with my own. Here is my list.

1. Podcasts allow students access to a vast audience. When students create podcasts, they are able to reach outside of their school walls to the world. This allows them to receive feedback from viewers rather than engaging in simply one-way communication.

2. Podcasting is not a one-off assignment. Rather, it allows students to build and grow as they are able to create a series of episodes.

3. Podcasting can be a great communication tool for schools. How much paper is expended on sending home notes and newsletters? Why not try a weekly podcast hosted on the school website that could be used to disseminate this information?

4. Podcasting is inexpensive. Creating a recording can be done with minimal equipment. All you need is a computer, some free software like Audacity, and a microphone. There are also several free sites that will host your podcast. I used Kiqlo.

5. It is relatively simple to create a basic podcast. I had never created a podcast before, and, to my surprise, it was not all that difficult to create and upload a basic podcast. More expertise would be needed to create more professional sounding casts.

6. Podcasts are portable. I believe this a huge advantage to using podcasts over traditional teaching methods. Students can easily upload a podcast and take it with them wherever they go.

7. Podcasts could be used for differentiating instruction. Lessons could be recorded into podcasts for students. This could provide them with individualized instruction or allow for reteaching as many times as needed.

8. Having students create podcasts actively engages them in the learning process. In order for students to create a podcast on a given topic, they must first become an expert on the subject. This requires them to have a deep understanding of the curriculum content.

9. Podcasts are very accessible. Most podcasts are available via a RSS feed so you simply need to subscribe and whenever a new one is created, it will arrive at your virtual "door".

10. There are many ready-made podcasts available for teacher use. The Education Podcast Network is a site that hosts a variety of podcasts for K-12 students in all subject areas. Also, there are many educational podcasts available on Podcast Alley.

How do I use podcasting in my classroom?

Every student from Kindergarten to University can use podcasting in some way. There are many sites such as Guides and Tutorials.com that provide suggestions on how to use podcasts in the classroom. My top ideas include:

1. Using podcasts to create listening centers. Sites such as Just One More Book have created podcasts of children's stories. You can also easily create your own. This is what I have done. I created a listening center story using Melane Watt's book Chester. The focus of the podcast was to teach children about text features as they followed along in their books. You can listen to my podcast by clicking on the link in the right-hand column of the blog. Even preschoolers can use podcasts, my 4 year old son listens to many podcast stories on his mp3 player.

2. Students can receive news via podcasts. Nearly every major news organization posts daily podcasts of their major stories.

3. Teachers can create walking tours using podcasts. Teachers can take students to museums or on walking tours of their city. Podcasts can be pre-made to provide students with pertinent details as they go on their tour.

4. Podcasts can be used for professional development. Podcasts could be made for tutorials, book discussions or policy overviews and uploaded for teachers to use.

5. Podcasts could be used to support English as an Additional Language learners. There are many podcasts that have been created to help EAL students learn how to perform basic tasks in English. The English as a Second Language site provides many podcasts to get students started.

6. Podcasts can be created of teacher's lessons for students who are absent or need clarification. Many higher learning institutions are now offering podcasts of lectures to students. Some professors expressed concerns that student attendance and performance would drop if podcasts were offered to students. According to professors from Bryn Mawr College, student attendance may decline, but they have not seen a decrease in student performance.

7. Students can create their own podcasts. This provides students with another, creative way to display their curricular knowledge. Students can create podcasts of plays, interviews, book reviews, documentaries, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Challenges to Podcasting

As with everything, there are some considerations that need to be made before you begin podcasting.

-While creating a basic podcast is relatively simple, you will need substantially more technological skills if you want to create a more professional sounding podcast. You will need to acquire knowledge about things such as sampling rates, bit depths, compression formats, compression bitrates, etc. Poducate Me offers a very extensive, yet easy to follow guide through these more technical aspects of podcasting.

-If you want to create a podcast that you wish to have people subscribe to, you will need to create a marketing plan in order to get subscribers. Website magazine offers a few suggestions to get you started.

-As always, you need to be aware of copyright issues when podcasting. Use original material and don't include songs that have copyright.

-It may be difficult to assess student's podcasts for a mark. The Podcasting and Education website offers links to several rubrics that teachers have used to assess podcasts. This will give you a good starting point to build on.

-"Poor teaching + technology = expensive poor teaching"--Conor Bolton There is no substitute for a good teacher. Without proper planning and practice, podcasting will still result in a poor lesson and little student learning will occur.

Alright Tara. How do I create a podcast?

As I said before, I was very apprehensive about podcasting. Having zero experience with this technology, I was unsure as to whether or not I would have the skills to pull it off or not. Not having my technological security blanket, aka my husband, at home only compounded my fears. I began by watching the YouTube clip below. This helped explain podcasting in layman's terms and got my confidence up.

[Checklist]. Retrieved July 18, 2009 from http://www.15minwebsitemaker.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/checklist2.jpg



Commoncraft. (Producer). (2008, April 21). Podcasting in Plain English. Videocast retreived July 13, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-MSL42NV3c&feature=channel

As I previously stated, I decided to create a podcast of myself teaching a lesson on text features using Melane Watt's book Chester. I chose this idea for two reasons. First, my intention is to use podcasts to create listening centers of this type in my Grade 2 classroom this year and, second, this would be a relatively simple idea to try for my first podcast.

After scrounging around to find my microphone, I proceeded to download the software Audacity. This was the program that my friend, an E-Learning teacher, had recommended to me. I tried a couple of practice recordings and then realized that I was rerecording over top of my previous recordings and getting a mish-mash of sounds. I quickly discovered the wonderous "New" button and my problem was solved. I recorded my lesson easily and listened to see if the sound quality was good. One bit of advice, try to keep the same distance from the microphone at all times. I moved the mic a couple of times and you can hear this in my recording.

So, I recorded my podcast. Now what?? I had no idea. I sought some advice from Sue at Podomatic. See the sidebar for the complete videocast.

I now knew that I needed the program LAME in order to convert my Audacity file into an mp3. Without LAME, my podcast cannot be posted on the web as it needs to be in the mp3 format so that others can listen to it. After three tries, I had my audio file converted to an mp3 (it really isn't that difficult, I just had a moment of stupidity!).

My next challenge was to figure out how to post my podcast onto my Blog. According to Blogger's help files, I needed to first upload my podcast to a host site and then I could embed it into Blogger. I found a site called Kiqlo that would allow me to post my podcast for free. Kiqlo is primarily geared towards podcasters that want to sell their podcasts, but you don't have to do this in order post a podcast. Using Kiqlo was very simple. All you need to do is sign up (yes, another username and password!), give your podcast a name, and then upload.

Once I had my podcast on Kiqlo, I was able to add a java script/html code gadget to my blog. All I had to do was embed the code for my podcast by copying and pasting into blogger.

Here are a few podcasting tips for you as you begin:

-practice your podcast before you record. I did a few practice runs so I knew what I would say before I began recording.

-have a rough script of what you are going to do, but don't read from it word for word. The beauty of podcasting is that creators generally just let things flow as they broadcast.

-find a free hosting site, such as Kiqlo, for your podcast. There are many sites that want you to pay a fee for hosting your podcast, but this is unnecessary.

So, when all is said and done, when it comes to podcasting, "Can we do it?" I now have to say, "Yes, we can!"