Thursday, January 6, 2011

Podcasting

The idea of creating a podcast has been around since people could record sounds, since a podcast is really just a recorded audio (maybe video too) track.  The term podcast originated when i"pod"s were first popular- hence podcast.  There are various ways to record the audio for a podcast.  When using a computer with a built in microphone, a podcast can be recorded, although it may have a different name on a PC.  Several websites exist to help create podcasts, including Audacity.  I recommend Audacity, a free service.



Podcasts have been a popular tool in the educational setting.  Teachers can share podcasts that others have made.  In fact, some teachers post their students' podcasts to the internet, allowing other teachers focusing on similar content to use them for instruction.  Teachers may also have students create their own podcasts as a product for a content unit or activity.

Earlier this week I began a project with fourth graders about biomes.   I have found a good website (.gov) for students to gather information.  They will add the information to an organizer (created in Inspiration), and then create a script for their podcast based on their biome.  I'm thinking about doing something with fifth grade and podcasts soon too.  More to come.

2 comments:

  1. Audacity is a great tool, and extremely easy to use! Our language students use it frequently because we can post a prompt or question, and then, they record an answer to put into the hand-in folder. Then, we can listen to the files at our leisure instead of having to call kids up one at a time and possibly miss something.

    Howard County also uses the program to record the oral answers for the Spanish VAP exam in May. I know there were few problems last year with burning the files to a disc, but I don't think the issues were with Audacity itself.

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  2. Great post! I love the idea of podcasting in the classroom! I have gone to many inservices about podcasting but I have never really gotten too far into it. Let me know if you find any great how-to's out there. Thanks for sharing, Joe!

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