Audio Multimedia in the Classroom

Podcasts for the Teacher!

A podcast is a mix between a blog and the radio. Some podcasts are only people talking, just like the radio. Other podcasts allow you to look at information on the screen while listening to the presenter talk about what you are viewing. Podcasts are a great way to get information to students and parents as well as sharing information with other teachers. Podcasts are messages that people can come back to over and over as many times as they want/need to. While looking at various podcasts via the internet, I came across the following podcasts. These are ones that I have subscribed to so I will continue to get podcast from them either via e-mail or iTunes.

KinderKids Podcast at http://web.mac.com/agearrings/iWeb/KinderKids/KinderKids%20Podcast/KinderKids%20Podcast.html is a great podcast for me to subscribe to because it is all about another kindergarten classroom. The author shares different activities they do within their classroom as well as samples of student work. Along with KinderKids Podcast, there is a KinderKids Blog. The blog is great another great way for me to get ideas about what other Kindergarten teachers are doing in their classrooms.

NPR (National Public Radio) is a website that allows the instructor to research podcasts in various topics. There are some great technology podcasts at the following address: http://www.npr.org/sections/technology/. As I was looking through the list of technology podcasts, I came across one about GPS users. I found this interesting after incorporating handheld GPS devices into a lesson last week. There was another podcast talking about how secure the web is or is not. This would be good to use when a teacher is talking with their students about internet safety and how we have to be careful what we share with other people via the internet. Subscribing to a podcast about technology would be very beneficial for me as I incorporate technology in the classroom. It provides another way to keep up with new technology and ways other teachers are incorporating it in their classrooms.

Another podcast I found was Podcast Kid (www.podcastkid.com). I liked this podcast because it is a little girl and her father talking about things that are important to kids. The way I found this podcast was by googling Kindergarten podcasts. This was one of the first ones that popped up. They talk about getting ready for Kindergarten and what the daughter will do while at school. This would be great to share with incoming students either at Field Trip to Kindergarten (which happens the spring before the student begins Kindergarten) or at the very beginning of the year. After listening to the podcast, I would have the students list what they think they are going to learn and do while in Kindergarten and at school.

Podcasts can be subscribed to for free so there is little or no cost to the educator. Many have a link for them to be sent directly to your e-mail inbox. Others have a link for you to listen to them through iTunes which can be downloaded on a PC or is available on a Mac.

Podcasts within the Classroom

It would be easy for me to begin implementing podcasts into my classroom. This past year, Audacity was downloaded on every teacher’s computer in the building. We also have microphone headsets available for us to use when creating a podcast. The biggest part would be finding the time to create podcasts with content information.

Last year, our school’s technology team did a brief training for the staff on how to create a podcast and post it on our classroom websites. It was a very short training and I feel that even after creating a podcast for this class, I would have to go back over and review all of the steps to create one. As far as having my students create a podcast, I would have to provide them multiple days to plan and create their podcast. This would be a fun activity for Kindergartners but would take lots of planning and step by step instruction by the teacher. I feel my students would enjoy creating podcasts. It would give them another way they can become the teacher and share their knowledge about a topic. As I’m writing this post, I’m thinking about our fourth grade buddies helping us create a podcast. One of our Fourth grade teachers already has her students create podcasts. If we did this buddy activity in December or later, the older students would already have completed their podcast for the fourth grade and will be familiar with the process.

In our building, we already have computers that all students are able to use (either the teacher’s computers, student PCs, or the student laptops). Audacity can be downloaded for free on every computer. There are 50 microphone headsets in my school that my class can access. If a teacher did not have these headsets available for their students, they can purchase them for around $10.00 per headset. In all actuality, these would be something would be cheap to purchase for you and another classroom.

Having a podcast on my classroom website about Kindergarten and what we do would be great for parents (and students) who want more information about kindergarten and what it is like. It would be a great way to introduce people to Kindergarten and my classroom. Podcast can be watched over and over which is good for those who need to hear things multiple times.