Podcasting

I just completed my first podcast. As an assignment for my Technology in Education course, I was required to select an SOL and make a podcast to help me teach it. I have never been a technology person, and I was not excited about this assignment. I was struggling to understand why a teacher would give her students a voice recording instead of talking to them herself (or himself). I flipped through all of my print offs of the SOLs and finally decided on a topic: the continents. However, now that I had a topic, I had to find someway to convey it to my students via podcast.

I played with several ideas before finally deciding how to go about this. I decided to use my podcast as a radio skit and I wrote my script. Next I had to call my next door neighbors to help me out (ages 7 and 10). I have helped them with their homework countless times so I figured it was only fair that they return the favor. They however, decided there needed to be a little more on the table before they were convinced. So three dollars and a bowl of ice cream later they were on board. I printed off their scripts and we were ready to go.

After a few more hours the recording, editing, and images were all complete. I was definitely relieved to be beyond the assignment. It wasn't perfect, but it was my first attempt at pod-casting. However, looking back I realized I found that while doing my podcast I thought much more about how this podcast would effect my learners than i had before when using other mediums. I thought about what was being said and how I might help kids to understand what I was teaching. During the process of making my podcast I didn't understand why it might be important. I realize now that I was thinking of pod-casting as replacing active teaching in someway, but actually it is something that could benefit both teachers and students.