A podcast is a series audio or video on the web that can be cataloged in directories and automatically downloaded. The most popular directory for podcasts is inside of the
iTunes software. There are over 125,000 podcasts and millions of episodes in iTunes. There are podcasts for just about any topic you can imagine (knitting, cats, vegetarians, politics, and weight loss to name a few). Most podcasts are only audio, with 25% of podcasts having video. It's important to know that you don't need an iPod for podcasting--a computer with Internet will do just fine.
Many teachers are creating podcasts for their students. Students can pause and rewind an instructional podcast so they can learn at their own pace. For example, Brent Coley's produces a show called StudyCast for his fifth graders. The podcast is designed to help students review for science and social studies tests. Episode topics include the colonies, body systems, and test taking tips. Students can listen to podcast as many times as they need to review the material.
I especially like podcasts by students. When I taught at Willowdale Elementary School in Nebraska, I developed
Radio WillowWeb, a podcast for kids and by kids. The audio program features students talking about topics they've been learning about like artists, space, and electricity. Students love creating podcasts because they enjoy sharing what they've learned with others.
This week I read about kindergartners who podcast from Miller Perry Elementary in Tennessee. The article, Kindergartners Prove Podcasting Child's Play, appeared in the Kingsport Times newspaper May 31st. The article features kindergartners who have made audio and video podcasts about topics like planets and animals. Their teacher, Jamie Whitinger , is quoted, “They’re so exited about [choosing photographs and speaking], they really want to learn." You can view the podcasts on Jamie's classroom website. You might notice on her site that she uses podOmatic.com, a free service for hosting and sharing podcasts. The school's page at podOmatic is at millerperry.podOmatic.com. podOmatic provides a web widget for embedding the podcast right into your website. That's what I have done below:
To create the videos, Jamie's students searched for information and photos to include in a PowerPoint. The PowerPoint slides were exported as a series of JPEGs and imported into Windows Movie Maker. Students narrated their slides in Movie Maker and the final project was uploaded to podOmatic.com. The process is very similar to the one I wrote about in my recent post Screencast: Adding Visuals to Audacity's Audio.
Read Kindergartners Prove Podcasting Child's Play to learn more about Jamie's podcasting kindergartners. The article features a short video where you can observe students recording a podcast and hear Jamie talk about the process. It's apparent that the teacher and students love podcasting!
