Podcasts as educational tools - analysis

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This post looks at audio files or podcasts. Boring! Once again, familiarity breeds contempt.  I imagine 5 - 10 years ago the potential of podcasts was very exciting.  But technology is moving so quickly nowadays that I struggled to find many situations when a podcast (sound only) would be preferred over a vodcast (with images, either moving or static).  The same “Twix effect” as websites encompassing wikis and blogs. Vodcasts can encompass both the other Group 2 Technologies – Multimedia: images, audio, video.  Greedy aren’t I?

Ok, so if you have a visual impairment podcasts might be preferable, particularly if the creator has focussed the episode knowing the listener will not be looking at visual images. What else, Ian? Oh, yes, if you’re driving a car it’s probably not a good idea to be watching a video.  Hmm, how many primary school children does this apply to? When else is it good to not be able to see images, just hear a voice? When you’re lying in bed trying to fall asleep? When the speaker is ugly? Think man, think.

Looking for inspiration, I duly resourced various websites looking for interesting podcasts. Whilst there may be some useful, relevant, stimulating podcasts out there, I confess that I didn’t find any. I did find hundreds of useful, relevant, stimulating VODcasts out there, but there’s my point: the Twix argument – why would you choose a biscuit OR a chocolate bar, when you can have both?

Follow the instructions on the box. I duly created a podcast, as directed by the course instructions. It took less than five minutes to sign on to PodOmatic and record a podcast. The ease by which I created this, if anything, made me further devalue the tool, because it wasn’t technically challenging for me. But then I got it. “Eureka”, he cried. Listening to podcasts isn’t necessarily the best thing since biscuit chocolate bars, but children creating podcasts might be rather more engaging. So, pretending I was 11 years old, I recorded a book review for my new Class 7 Wiki page Book reviews - bad or brill.  Better than reading my review out loud to the class? Certainly, if I were a shy child, I’d rather record my review in private and publish it, rather than have to stand up in front of the class. Wait a minute, why not use podcasts to encourage comfort and confidence in public speaking and presentation?

Let’s go back to the visually impaired audience a moment. In order to engage such an audience, the presenter must try that much harder to entertain and communicate, due precisely to the lack of visual stimulation available. Having children practice using tone, rhythm, varying speed, alternate character voices, etc, would contribute to a more interesting podcast, and to making them better oral communicators.

And if recording a podcast is that simple a process, then it’s great for children - they’re much more likely to engage if they are likely to be successful, get instant results and be able to publish to a (world?) wide audience.

Examples of the use of podcasts in subjects other than literacy:-

Music



http://thereversesweep.typepad.com/

 No doubt there are many ways to use podcasts in this arena – listening and repeating chords, melodies or tunes (duelling pianos?), teaching lyrics, etc. But even then you’d think written lyrics or sheet music, etc, would increase likelihood of engagement or memory, right? Ok, so maybe if a pupil is busy reading the music, or watching their fingers (is that allowed?  I know I'm not supposed to watch my feet when I'm dancing), they’d find it difficult to focus on a video, but look at the numerous websites showing the finger positioning, chords, etc, for guitarist. These online streaming vodcasts take away perhaps the only other advantage I could think of, that of file size (video files are much larger than audio files, in general). How’s about we compromise? Let’s make vodcasts, even just inserting lyrics or static visuals to capture the mood of the music, and those who want just the soundtrack don’t have to watch the video, ok?

http://memegenerator.net/

LOTE (Language other than English)

Language tapes were all the rage in England 20 or more years ago. You could buy one or even borrow one from the library and, on your way to southern Spain, you could try to cram learning an entire language into a two hour flight.

No doubt modern day language teachers rave over the developments in technology, but again, wouldn’t learning still be more effective with written words, phonetic explanation or some other visuals to marry the audio, even if it’s just a video of an attractive native speaker? (Yes, I still have a crush on my High School French teacher, what of it?).

Other uses by teachers

You’ll see on my website’s home page that I created a welcoming Voki. To me, it’s more stimulating or engaging than a voice alone. Whilst looking through their website, the clever Voki creators (and users) have come up with some great ideas for educational use (although the free version of Voki is limited in the length of audio you can record). For example whilst a Voki or Podcast is playing, say giving an outline of the lesson (an advanced organiser), you can be busy setting up the classroom, handing out books, rebooting the broken down IWB, etc.

Young learners would no doubt enjoy "playing" with setting up their own Vokis with all the various looks, background (there’s even “Bling”) and voices. They could use it to record an introduction or summary of a school project they've undertaken, for example, particularly useful for those who are averse to standing at the front of class and presenting in person (I meant pupils, not teachers).

Having finished my first day of Prac (Embedded Professional Learning, i.e. teaching practice, or Prac.  We have to do 86 days as part of the course, before provisional registration as a teacher) and having seen how many plates teachers have to keep spinning; how many balls they have to keep up in the air; how much multi-tasking they (yes, even us males) have to do, I am reminded of a pro for podcasts alluded to above.  I can listen to pupils' podcast homework whilst driving :o)