Podcasts

Podcasts

Podcasting is the ability to create and listen to audio or video content either live or downloaded for later use.  My twelve and nine year olds are obsessed with podcasts.  They can sit and listen to someone talking about a video game or a toy they like for hours.  After listening to some podcasts myself, I understand why podcasting is something that is trending in education and why it’s so popular among students.

 Podcasting can be used in the classroom or by teachers in a variety of ways.  It can be a tool teachers/librarians use to communicate with parents, and students outside of the classroom.  Teachers/librarians can communicate upcoming school and classroom events, projects and activities.  In addition, teachers can use podcasting to give a lesson that students can access outside the classroom and can be viewed for tutoring or to re-teach at a later date. Teachers/librarians can have students publish their work, do book reads, book reviews, conduct interviews, and much more.  I tried using Audioboom but was not successful.  I tried to figure it out for two days until I found out it was an Apple application. I went as far as creating the account listening to some podcasts, but creating one wasn't an option.  I thought I was doing something wrong, so then I created a new account using a second email, but I faced the same problem.  The other two Podomatic and Soundcloud were fairly easy to use.

Podomatic

I was truly bracing for a very frustrating evening trying to make a podcast using Podomatic since my experience with Audioboom had not been very positive.   I was really feeling anxious about it.  However, I was amazed to see how it was exactly the opposite!  I created the account and on the main page without having to go anywhere else, I clicked on the create a podcast button located at the top of the page.  I thought to myself "it can't be this easy".  However, I was really pleased to see that it was.  The app asked to download the file, add a title, and publish.  That easy!  I will for sure use this again in the classroom.

Sound Cloud

SoundCloud was just as cooperative as Podomatic.  The sound isn't good on this one.  It sounds like there's too much echo,or the sound is just too low.  It might be that this podcast was not a file upload; the recording was live.