Podcasting

With the advancements in internet infrastructure and in the era of instant access to videos about any subject that you can imagine, why bother with podcasting? Is there a place for this in Web2.0?

REFLECTIONS ON LEARNING

I am starting to sound like a broken record with this introduction but when I started this unit I was again at the starting line with no background knowledge of podcasting at all. I really had no experience with creating and even using podcasts.

My first experience was at the beginning of the EDES 501 course where Joanne DeGroot created a podcast explaining some of the expectations and content of the course. I recall thinking that after a lot of reading it was a very nice break from that and I rather enjoyed just listening instead of having to do the hard work of reading. In hindsight though, I find that the information she presented in that form was harder to recall and it was difficult to go back and locate specific parts of the podcast unless you really paid close attention to its relative position. At least with text you can often skim to find important parts and reread.

I started out learning about podcasts by reading from Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. It was there that I discovered the relationship with ITunes. My children had used ITunes with their IPods but I had not ever paid much attention to that. It was off to the computer to explore ITunes. I easily located the link to the podcasts and found to my surprise that there where podcasts available for any subject under the sun. In my searching I found and subscribed to the following free podcast programs.

Stuff from the Science lab - a podcast from howstuffworks.com

The Math Dude Quick and Dirty Tricks to Make Math Easier

Math Guy podcast

SMARTBoard Lessons Podcast

The Teacher's Podcast: The New Generation of Ed Tech

David Warlick

Teachers Teaching Teachers

One thing that I found frustrating was that I was not able to copy and paste text from within the iTunes program so I had to go to each of the above websites and copy and paste the above information.

Another hint that I got from Richardson was to download and use a program called Audacity to allow me to create a podcast. During the download I got my first hint that things may not be so simple. It warned me that I should also download and install Lame to allow me to convert the files I created into mp3 files. I set this up on my computer and played around with Audacity. The program is quite easy to use as a complete rookie was able to create a few short audio files in no time at all. I was even able to figure out that the audio could be edited and was able to do a bit of editing by adding in parts that I had missed and removing parts that I did not want. I was then able to save the file and export it as an MP3 file.

I tried to upload the MP3 directly to my blogger post and I thought it was going to work initially but it never did work after a lot of fussing with it. I tried several things and was unsuccessful. Just about the time I was about to give up I came across a suggestion in our discussion area from Bradlee McDiarmid to use a site called VoiceThread to upload my MP3 files to and then use that site to create links to the files in my blog. (Thanks Brad)

I have included a link to my Intro podcast here. You can hear my very short podcast by clicking on this link to it. It is a short podcast but I wanted to include a sample to illustrate that I was able to accomplish this. My original idea was to create most of my blog as a podcast but after the initial struggles I had I decided to just include a bit of a sample and stick to the typed word.

Another valuable source of learning was the trailfire on podcasting. Of particular value to me was the Common Craft video “Podcasting in Plain English.”

PERSONAL LEARNINGS

I have found that the idea of podcasting is an area of the Web that has grown to be quite significant without me even being aware of it. I think that there is some potential value in podcasting for me personally but I would suggest that it will not have a significant impact.

As I mentioned earlier, I have children with ipods. None of them have used these at all for subscribing to or even just listening to any podcasts. I plan to show my older boys about this and how they might use it as they are attending university to listen to experts in their areas of study. One is studying Engineering and the other wished to become a dentist. I believe that they would be able to find great podcasts in each of these areas. They also enjoy humor and I am sure they will be able to find some humorous podcasts to enjoy as well.

My daughter is younger and just in grade 7. She still wants and needs help with her iPod. In the past she has relied on her brothers for this help and support but I am becoming more confident and think that I will introduce her to podcasts. She may find something that is of interest to her and can then subscribe and download podcasts to her iPod on a regular basis. We travel often and this will be one more item she can use for entertaining herself on those long drives.

As for me personally I find that I drive a lot and there is not anything great on the radio these days. If I can find some podcasts and get myself an iPod then I might just start listening to these on my travels. There are lots of great professional podcasts as well as entertaining ones.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

I think that an easy starting point for introducing podcasts to our staff would be to utilize them as teacher professional development. We have several employees that just like me, spend a great deal of time travelling and thus could listen to podcasts of various educational materials as they drive. As teachers become familiar with this they will then move to the next step which would be to create their own podcasts for use with students. This has the advantage over video in that it is a lot easier and less intimidating to create.

One issue related to podcasts is that a player is needed. The most popular player these days is the iPod. If students do not have a player then they will be disadvantaged by not being able to access the podcast outside of the school setting. This problem may disappear with time. Although iPods are the main tool right now other companies are trying to gain some of this market. An example of this is a product called Zunes. According to Wikipedia “Zune is a Microsoft entertainment platform and portable media player” that is similar to an iPod. Gargano (2008) describes how Microsoft has partnered with some schools to provide them with Zunes. Teachers create and share podcasts of their classes. This is an example of how business and schools may partner to change the face of education.

Another major issue with podcasting is the use of our limited bandwidth. We have had some serious issues in our schools with bandwidth lately. Our internet speeds have been decreasing and in some cases they are hardly usable at times. Our IT department has done some monitoring of this issue and has placed the blame for this on the ever increasing drain from iPods that students are bringing into schools. For now they are working at trying to lock down our systems to the point where iPods will not be able to function off of our systems. This would greatly hamper the use of podcasts in our classrooms.

My initial thought on podcasts was that they would not be effective. I would think that students would want and even demand video with the successes and ease of access to sites such as YouTube. Not only are the videos readily available but today’s players such as IPods, provide incredibly good viewing quality of these videos.

While researching the use of podcast in classrooms I discovered a research paper published by Putman & Kingsley (2009). They suggested that “Podcasts offer opportunities to introduce or reinforce information from the classroom, to remediate students who need additional instruction or access to content discussed in the classroom, or to feature content experts or guest speakers under the guidance of a teacher external to the actual school building.” They studied a group of grade 5 students where podcasts where used to enhance and develop the vocabulary of students in science. They found that the study showed that there was definite improvement in student learning resulting from their use of podcasts. Their result “confirms that there is potential for using podcasts for vocabulary development.”

We have created recording of students reading as part of our literacy initiative in my school division. We have not however, gone to the next step and created podcasts of this reading. I think that students would be interested in doing such a thing.

Perhaps there is a use for this tool in education. There certainly is a need for further experimentation and study into how to effectively use this tool but I now feel that it has a place in our classrooms. The challenge will be to create the required skill set in our teaching staff.

References:

De Groot, J. (2010). Trailfire: Podcasting. http://trailfire.com/joannedegroot/trailview/61577

Gargano, C. (2008). Listen and Learn: Students Put Zune Players to the Test. EContent, 31(7), 18-19. Retrieved February 28, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1556481821).

Putman, S., & Kingsley, T. (2009). The Atoms Family: Using Podcasts to Enhance the Development of Science Vocabulary. The Reading Teacher, 63(2), 100-108. Retrieved February 27, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1879774671).

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. 2^nded. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zune