Podcasting

The article I read is "Podcasting in Education: A New Way to Inspire Learning". It starts off by stating that podcasting is a great tool for 'creative expression' with the knowledge of today's generation. Their definition of podcasts are audio or video files that are automatically delivered over the network and played back on a laptop or Ipod. It allows the teacher or student to include audio, video, presentation slides, movies or photos into their presentations. The teacher could also record a book narrative or foreign language assignment as homework.

Podcasts are definately benefinicial, especially with the years to come when students are going to become more visual, hand's on and technologically advanced. The website also mentions that podcasts can be published on a website and be sent to every computer on a school's network. This is a great idea for something that needs to be sent school wide; for example, a school wants to expand it's campus and the students want to be involved or the principal is giving a speech and not all students/faculty can attend because of personal reasons. With the use of podcasting, the students/faculty can still feel involved in the process by seeing and hearing things that they were not able to physically be at. They could also be used with a teacher that teaches the same subject three times a day, with the use of podcasts in the classroom, the teacher can go back and see or hear what she in the first class so she does not get confused on what she has said to one class, or if a student was not in class or just wants to freshen up on learning, they could easily go onto the school's website and use the podcast to their advantage.

In my opinion, I think podcasts are a great invention and should be used in the classroom. With the help of podcasts, students can extend their imagination and make their learning experience unique. And with the invention of Apple's new Mac computer which includes programs such as iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, Garageband and a built in camera, it becomes a lot easier for students and teachers to use podcasting and share it with the class.

For futher research, I want to find some lesson plans where it would be beneficial to use podcasting in the classroom and guidelines to make it possible. Also, to find places to use podcasting other than the classroom and use it to my personal advantage.

http://www.apple.com/education/digitalauthoring/podcasting.html