Classroom Podcast Examples

 

Sandaig Primary School

http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/radio_sandaig/index.php

 

Mr Jaffe class podcast - "where education meets utilization"

http://www.cbsd.org/millcreek/jaffe/podcast/index.html

 

Secondary Teacher and Classroom Podcasts

Mr Hardy's French Class podcast (Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Texas) - L’histoire de Bob et de Marie

 

---See many more podcasts at the bottom of this page---

 

Marian Thacher and David Rosen discuss how podcasting can help with ESL children and reading skills.

Discussion of using podcasting for ESL children.

 

"7 things you should know about podcasting" offers interesting ways to integrate this technology into the classroom.

 Podcasting Information

 

When creating the podcast with your students have the students create scripts of what they are going to say. Have them get as close to memorizing the script as possible, and be comfortable with what they are reading to avoid too many "takes" of a segment.  Be careful that when they do read that they don't sound to "robot-like", their speaking should be as natural as possible."Dry Run" through the podcast to get a feel of how long and how the cast will sound. 

 

100 Ways to Use Your iPod to Learn and Study Better

From the website: If you think that iPods are used just for listening to music, you obviously haven't been keeping up with the latest technology. The Apple-developed music player now features all kinds of accessories to help you study better, and now other companies are in a rush to get their designs in sync with the iPod. Pre-teens, college kids and even adults are taking advantage of the educational benefits an iPod affords them. From downloadable podcasts to just-for-iPod study guides and applications, learning on the go has never been easier. To find out about the many different ways you can transform your iPod into a learning device, check out our list.

 

---

Formats

 

---

 

"Kid Cast: Podcasting in the Classroom"

the author Dan Schmit suggests thinking in "Time lines" to plan your show, where, "Each piece of content will fall along your podcast's time line."  You may want to illustrate your podcast time line on chart paper or an overhead, or better yet on a computer dataprojector!  That way the kids can see the podcast and grasp how it's going to flow and where they will be presenting.  Having individuals or small groups in charge of small parts of the podcast will make it easier to plan out.

 

 Podcasts combine elements of old, familiar genres of instruction and writing to create a new forum for teaching and learning. As a very new genre, the podcast’s utility in instruction is still being determined through experimentation. One lesson to be drawn from our experience is that podcasts, although using elements of traditional instruction, should be recognized as a distinct instructional medium. While the podcast may seem like an extended classroom lecture, it may be best to limit the instructor’s spoken part and devote more time to recordings of speeches, readings, or music, which can be incorporated into the podcast effectively using digital-editing software. When it comes to student-created podcasts, it is also important to recognize where such projects intersect with traditional writing projects and where they must diverge from writing and inhabit a new genre of composition. Students and instructors alike may become frustrated by the results of an assignment that merely asks students to turn a written paper into a podcast without a recognition of how written and oral genres differ. However, there are enough intersections between the skills needed to create a podcast and those employed in writing to make podcasts a valuable component of the writing classroom.

http://currents.cwrl.utexas.edu/spring07/tremel_and_jesson

 

 

 

 Using Podcasting in the Reading Classroom

 

Grade Level of Expectation(s)	Reading Curriculum	Possible Podcasting Application or Idea
All grades	• read a variety of simple written materials (e.g., signs, pattern books, rhymes, children’s reference books) for different purposes (e.g., for practice, information, vocabulary building, enjoyment); • read aloud in a way that communicates the meaning; • read independently, using reading strategies appropriate for this grade level; • express clear responses to written materials, relating the ideas in them (thoughts, feelings, experiences) to their own knowledge and experience; • identify and describe different forms of writing (e.g., poems, stories, plays);	- Read aloud a variety of materials to report, discuss, and analyze. News papers, novels, school newsletters, jokes, scripts, their own writing etc.. - Have students emphasize on the clarity, and emotion.  Read according to the theme of the article they are reading (is it funny, serious, sad, dramatic?). - Retell, Relate and Respond to various pieces of literature.  Novel responses, critique and recommendations. - Students could to a variety show based on the readings of their own poems, stories, dramas, speeches, paragraph types, and other writing forms.
Grade 1	• retell a simple story in proper sequence and recall information in it accurately; words) to learn new words;	- Have students read their favourite short stories and ask each other questions about the story.  A Quiz show format could be used here.
Grade 2	• express their thoughts and feelings about ideas in a piece of writing;	- Have students create short reflections on the emotions they felt for a particular piece of writing.  A segment on the emotions that books give us one idea.
Grade 4	• retell a story by adapting it for presentation in another way (e.g., as a dramatization);	- Students could select various fairy tales or sonnet from the Middle ages and create short radio dramas, much like those in the early days of radio.
Grade 5	• identify root words, prefixes, and suffixes, and use them to  determine the pronunciation and meaning of unfamiliar words; • identify synonyms and antonyms; • use a dictionary and a thesaurus to expand their vocabulary;	- Create a "story of words" show where students analyse the origins and uses of various words.  Check out www.podictionary.com for a show that does just this!
Grade 6	• summarize and explain the main ideas in information materials (e.g., textbooks), and cite details that support the main ideas;	-Have students summarize newspaper articles on a weekly basis to give a brief summary of world, national, and local events.  Assign different reporters like: Fashion, Environment, Politics, Technology, Sports etc..
Grade 7	• clarify and develop their own points of view by examining the ideas of others;	- Have students agree or disagree with various opinion based articles or web sites on subjects they are interested in.  Video reviews, and other product reviews could be used here.
Grade 8	• plan a research project and carry out the research;	- Create a broadcast of the research that they have done.

 

 Implications for Learning

 

 Listening to digital audio content won’t replace reading, listening to live presentations, or the multitude of other ways learners take in information, but it can augment those methods. The following are ways that podcasting can contribute to the learning process.

 

Assist auditory learners. Proponents of podcasting point out that the medium is perfect for learners who prefer to take in information aurally. Margaret Maag, an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco’s School of Nursing, has recorded her classroom lectures and posted them on a secure website since learning about podcasting from an Educause webinar in March 2005. She explains to students that the purpose is to help audio learners retain the information covered. Even though critics initially said students would stop attending classes, Maag found that attendance did not in fact decline, because students “didn’t want to miss what was going on.”

 

 Provide another channel for material review. Listeners with other types of learning styles can benefit from podcasts as well. When material is delivered orally, as in university lectures, classroom-based training, or in-person presentations, podcasting can ease learner worries that they missed key information in their note-taking. The audio files can be reviewed at their leisure for understanding or before testing. In Maag’s end-of-course survey, this was a main reason students rated the recorded lectures as a strength of the course.

 

 Assist non-native speakers. Learners who aren’t yet proficient in the language may struggle to keep up with lectures or presentations. Being able to review recordings of those events as many times as necessary for understanding can be of great benefit. Podcasting can also be an excellent technology for learning a language, not only for listening to speech and pronunciation but also, in combination with a recording device, for capturing a learner’s own speech for review by themselves or a teacher. (See Englishcaster, podcast lessons and radio-style shows for English-language learners.)

 

 Provide feedback to learners. In addition to recording her lectures, Margaret Maag uses her MP3 player to record feedback on her students’ group presentations, creating a 3- to 4-minute file for upload. She says, “I think a professor’s voice adds to the feedback and it saved me a lot of time at the end of the semester.” This use can apply not only to instructors but also to learners, who could record and podcast peer feedback.

 

 Enable instructors to review training or lectures. Another benefit of recording her lectures, Margaret Maag says, is that she can “critique them as a method of improving my teaching style.” Archived online learning events already provide this benefit to instructors. Now podcasting can offer the same advantages for classroom-based teaching and training. In addition, managers who want to review their staffs’ instruction could subscribe to the podcasts as well.  

 

 

Replace full classroom or online sessions when content simply requires delivery. In many cases, learning requires interaction, questioning, practice, and so forth. But when what’s required is simple delivery of information, a full-fledged in-person or online course may not be necessary. Podcasting can alert learners that there is new material to be accessed and then allow them to access it whenever, wherever they want.

 

 Provide supplementary content or be part of a blended solution. When a full course is necessary, there may be occasions when supplementary material would be helpful to learners. Subject-matter-expert interviews are just one example of this type of content. The material could be available for access on a voluntary basis, or it could be a required component of a classroom or online course in a blended solution. In any case, the RSS technology allows instructors to make the material easily accessible to learners and to alert them when new content is in the pipeline.  

 

---

More podcast examples from Schools

 

Mabry Middle School, Mabry, Georgia

 

Bob Sprankle's Room 208, Wells, Maine

 

Chris Sloan's NCTE 2007 presentation: Student podcasts

 

Troy Hicks and Dawn Reed of the Red Cedar Writing Project discuss podcasting in a high school speech class

 

Abigail Kennedy: Use of podcasts for book reviews

 

Student vodcasts: Hartman Elementary School, Ellwood City, PA

 

University of Minnesota:Then and Now: world history course

 

Alan November: podcast: interview with Bob Sprankle about using podcasts in his classroom

 

Podkids: Student podcasts

 

University of California, Berkeley: course podcasts

 

Wuerzburg Elementary School, Wuerzburg, Germany

 

Stony Brook Elementary School, York, PA

 

Mr. Coley's Room 34 class, Tovashal Elementary School, Murrieta, CA

 

Longfellow School, LaCrosse, Wisconsin

 

Speaking of History: 8th grade history

 

Mr. Blake's Classroom III podcasts (truckcast recorded from a pickup truck)

 

John Hanson Community School, Hampshire, England

 

Long Elementary School, Dearborn, Michigan

 

Maple Grove Public Schools

 

Mr. Fitzpatrick 4th grade podcasts

 

YouthVoices: New York City Writing Project

In a project funded by the National Writing Project, Youth Voices (youthvoices.net/elgg), students in journalism classes in two New York high schools and one Utah high school shared their podcast productions on blog posts (Oh, 2006). An African-American 11th grade student in New York describes how she must ask a white woman to hail a cab for her because cabs would not stop to pick her up. A ninth grade student in Salt Lake City her volunteer work in local children’s hospital and her experience of playing a harp to patients in the hospital. The students in this project enjoyed listening to each others’ podcasts, and frequently commented on their posts.

    One of the teachers in the project, Chris Sloan, noted the value of having students share their writing orally as a means of enhancing their sense of voice. Based on his own experience as a musician recording his own music, Sloan noted that “‘When I started to hear my voice played back to me, I became a better writer’” (p. 4).

 

Paul Allison's webcasts of students' at East Side Community High School, New York

 

Overview