By: Homz Umrigar
Scenario
John could not attend his university class today, but he was not stressed, he knew he could catch up on his entire missed lecture by listening to his professor’s podcast. As he boarded his bus home he was confident that he would be as prepared as the other students who had attend that lecture. One of the other students who sat through the class had sent him a message that an interesting issue had cropped up at the end of the class. Jane had picked a debate with the professor and had almost won. As John rode the bus he searched the podcast for the incident and listened to it. The atmosphere was charged in class with the debate which john could hear over his headphones. By the time john got off the bus he felt that he had not missed too much. The podcast was as good as attending class in person. He also knew he would have enough questions to ask his professor at a class he was to attend later on that day.
Podcasting in schools
Can podcasting work in schools? Yes! There are many possibilities and ways in which schools can exploit podcasting; ultimately it’s the creativity and imagination of teachers and students together that will start the podcasting revolution in their schools. Area’s in which schools can realize the potential of podcasting:
Chalk out a cross-curricular activity
Delivering alternative teaching approach
Before working on the above it’s important to see how students will adapt to podcasting and how it will make a positive contribution to their course. Are students at liberty to create and share their own podcasts? Four key areas of knowledge, skills and understanding for students are:
Finding things out
Developing ideas and making things happen
Exchanging and sharing information
Reviewing, modifying and evaluating work as it progresses
Scenario
John could not attend his university class today, but he was not stressed, he knew he could catch up on his entire missed lecture by listening to his professor’s podcast. As he boarded his bus home he was confident that he would be as prepared as the other students who had attend that lecture. One of the other students who sat through the class had sent him a message that an interesting issue had cropped up at the end of the class. Jane had picked a debate with the professor and had almost won. As John rode the bus he searched the podcast for the incident and listened to it. The atmosphere was charged in class with the debate which john could hear over his headphones. By the time john got off the bus he felt that he had not missed too much. The podcast was as good as attending class in person. He also knew he would have enough questions to ask his professor at a class he was to attend later on that day.
Podcasting in schools
Can podcasting work in schools? Yes! There are many possibilities and ways in which schools can exploit podcasting; ultimately it’s the creativity and imagination of teachers and students together that will start the podcasting revolution in their schools. Area’s in which schools can realize the potential of podcasting:
Chalk out a cross-curricular activity
Delivering alternative teaching approach
Before working on the above it’s important to see how students will adapt to podcasting and how it will make a positive contribution to their course. Are students at liberty to create and share their own podcasts? Four key areas of knowledge, skills and understanding for students are:
Finding things out
Developing ideas and making things happen
Exchanging and sharing information
Reviewing, modifying and evaluating work as it progresses
Chalk out a cross-curricular activity
There are multiple starting points to chalk out a cross-curricular activity. These activities can originate from the syllabus or curriculum set by the governing board. Activities can also be incorporated on a project basis or assignment basis as per the current curriculum. A starting point could be to emulate real life situations.
Example:
There are multiple starting points to chalk out a cross-curricular activity. These activities can originate from the syllabus or curriculum set by the governing board. Activities can also be incorporated on a project basis or assignment basis as per the current curriculum. A starting point could be to emulate real life situations.
Example:
A tourism guide: In Glasgow an iTour was released to promote tourism. An audio guide of the city was posted as a podcast on the website. The same could be downloaded and transferred to a MP3 player. In this scenario the tourist had to obtain a city map and play the MP3 file on the player to listen to the podcast for a guided tour. The information in the podcast leads the way for the tourist.
Story telling: Everyone likes to listen to a story. It can be as thrilling as reading one out to your children. Those with failing eyesight or visually impaired, audio books are a practical alternative. They have been around for a while (Audio Books) and there are innumerable titles available today. Even the popular Harry potter series for children is available in this format.
Possible activities
As per the first example given herein above students could identify a topic to create and publish a podcast that could benefit other students based on their own experiences. Primary school students can create podcasts for: Activity based on outdoor studies e.g. Fieldwork in Science, history or geography topics as well as guides for new students, parents and visitors to schools.
The second example offers a bouquet of possibilities for story telling and would have a broad liking with primary school students and well as seniors.
Delivering alternative teaching approach
Use of audio material to support learning has been around for years now. Podcasting offers to build on the existing library of materials that exist in other formats and can be custom made for custom topics and learning activities in many curriculum areas. Podcast provides teachers with the idea to use a new approach to teaching and learning by:
Teachers can build a library of audio resources and content can be linked to class topics and curricular activities. These can help support students with special learning requirements. Teachers can supply additional training material to reinforce a particular class or activity thereby increasing student retention. These files could be additional study material for students during revision of exam, tests or while doing homework. In my books one is using technology to boost/assist student learning activity and empower students to achieve more.
As per the first example given herein above students could identify a topic to create and publish a podcast that could benefit other students based on their own experiences. Primary school students can create podcasts for: Activity based on outdoor studies e.g. Fieldwork in Science, history or geography topics as well as guides for new students, parents and visitors to schools.
The second example offers a bouquet of possibilities for story telling and would have a broad liking with primary school students and well as seniors.
Delivering alternative teaching approach
Use of audio material to support learning has been around for years now. Podcasting offers to build on the existing library of materials that exist in other formats and can be custom made for custom topics and learning activities in many curriculum areas. Podcast provides teachers with the idea to use a new approach to teaching and learning by:
Teachers can build a library of audio resources and content can be linked to class topics and curricular activities. These can help support students with special learning requirements. Teachers can supply additional training material to reinforce a particular class or activity thereby increasing student retention. These files could be additional study material for students during revision of exam, tests or while doing homework. In my books one is using technology to boost/assist student learning activity and empower students to achieve more.
Teachers in primary schools sometimes use audio tapes for students to listen to. They are often linked to enhancing language skills in students at a particular stage in the learning cycle for students. The same is employed fro primary and secondary schools that teach their students foreign language(s). This also builds an on demand approach to learning anytime and anywhere. For younger kids parents and teacher can use story telling in the audio form. A few examples for teachers could be a collection of poetry reading for younger children for literacy lesson or audio explanations of scientific concepts to complement student text books. This can be of significant help for students with special learning needs. Teachers can let their imagination go wild and be as creative as they want. Podcasting complements other teaching methods and improves the quality of learning.
Thank you for reading. Look forward to comments.
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