What Is A Podcast?

As I head into the world of podcasting I think to myself, here is a topic that I have some experience with. I have had some PD on podcasting as well as used Audacity with a class of grade fours last year. But as I begin to explore this week's topic a little more, my experience is but a drop in the bucket.

The description provided by the Common Craft website called Podcasting in Plain English gives an excellent explanation of what podcasting is, how it is different from radio and television and how we can use it personally. (I listened to it at least three times.)

Will Richardson in Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts and other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom describes podcasts as "basically the creation and distribution of amateur radio, plain and simple". I find this to be a rather simplistic definition because I see podcasts as having more to offer than just that. I don't think we see radio being used to the same depth as podcasts - especially in the classroom. "More and more, teachers are finding that Web 2.0 applications such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, and videosharing sites move learning beyond the walls of the classroom." (Riddle, 2010)

Podcasting gives you the opportunity to listen to what you want when you want. You can listen to your podcast on the computer or download it to your Mp3 player or iPod and take it with you. That's the best thing about podcasts - their versatility. It's surprising that they continue to be used so little in our classrooms.

3 Reasons Why Podcasting is so Popular
-anyone can do it
-subscriptions - you can subscirbe to podcasts for free (all you need is a podcatcher like iTunes)
-gagetry - you can download it and take it with you
It all seems pretty simple doesn't it?

Something to keep in mind when making podcasts is the use of copyrighted music. This topic is touched on in Podcasting in the Classroom: A Sound Success by Johanna Riddle and again by Stewart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe podcast. In Riddle's article she discusses how in introducing podcasts to her class of university students, a student used copyrighted music and was asked to remove it. At this time a discussion took place as to why - a teachable moment. In the Vinyl Cafe podcast, Stewart McLean discusses how they do not have the rights to podcast commercially recorded music on their podcasts although they are allowed to play the music on live shows. I am not sure I understand the difference here but that is what he said. With independent artists they are sometimes given special permission to use their music. The ethical use of artists' work is a very important piece of using technology and an easy one to teach students about in the use of podcasts.

How Can I Use Podcasts Personally?
I can -listen to my favourite radio show like the Vinyl Cafe by Stewart McLean when I want, where I want.
- access information that may not be available to me through regualar radio but can download it as a podcast.
- listen to an author visit to our local library that I missed.
-have my child make a podcast of herself reading her favourite book or a story that she wrote and share it with distant family and friends.

Using this Tool in the Classroom
As a school tool, I think podcasts have great potential. The hardest part is getting the word out and providing teachers the opportunity to try using this platform with their students. From kindergarten to grade 12, the possibilities are endless. In kindergarten students could tell a story about the picture they have drawn. In grade 1 you step it up a notch with students reading the story they have written or reading a book they love. By grade 12 these students could be producing any number of things with integrated music and sound effects. Podcasts can be produced on topics of interest or a specific school focus. Two years ago, our school fundraised $15,000 to build a school in Mauritania, Africa. Podcasts could have been made at regular intervals to tell our school and community about the progress we were making. A podcast could have also been made about our school and who we are and been shared with the school in Mauritania (if they had Internet access which is unlikely). So much is possible. Using podcasts as a music or language specialist adds a whole other dimension to music and language learning.

Show My Learning
I have downloaded my first podcast and downloaded Audacity with only a few glitches. I used Audacity to make my podcast and found this to be a simple process. I have uploaded my podcast to http://www.box.net/ but for some reason cannot get my podcast posted to this blog site.

Sources

CBC. (2010). Welcome to the Vinyl Cafe. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/vinylcafe/home.php

Common Craft. (2010). Podcasting in plain English. Retrieved from http://www.commoncraft.com/podcasting

Riddle, J.. (2010, January). Podcasting in the classroom: A sound success. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 17(1), 23-26. Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.