I have loved to listen to stories for as long as I can
remember. It began because my mother
refused to buy a TV because she believed it stifled the imagination so my
childhood entertainment came from listening to her read books aloud and tell me
stories of her childhood. We had a radio
and a record player that we used daily to listen to music and children’s
programs, which were the highlight of my day.
Even after I began reading for myself, I still loved hearing books read
aloud. Fast forward forty plus years and
I still love audio books and, not a day goes by that I am not listening to something,
so it should come as no surprise that I have taken a liking to podcasts.
Podcasts are downloadable audio files that are usually
episodic, vary in length, and are available to listeners through subscriptions. There are many, many podcasts coving a plethora
of topics so it is not difficult to find something for everyone. Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular
with teachers and students because they engaging and adaptable. Students can download a podcast episode and have
the flexibility to listen to it anywhere while doing anything. Teachers can use podcasts in conjunction with
lessons that are being taught and apps like EdPuzzle
allow for embedding comprehension questions to go along with it. According to the EdPuzzle blog article “How to
Use Podcasts in the Classroom”, having students create their own podcasts will
allow teachers to assess knowledge of content in a different way. Some examples of how students might use
podcasts are for book reviews, reflections, how-to presentations, and storytelling. Librarians and media specialists can make use
of podcasts as well. A “teaser” podcast
can introduce students to new books by favorite authors or let them know what
new books are on now available at the library.
Podcasts are also a great way to provide staff development for the teachers
and staff that you support. Because
teachers are always busy prepping for lessons or grading assignments, staying
after school for voluntary in-service events is sometimes met with resistance
but short professional development podcasts that can be downloaded and listened
to while doing laundry after work or shuttling children to and from dance and
soccer practice might be a welcome change.
For this post I looked at three podcast platforms and
assessed them for user-friendliness.
Although I have been listening to podcasts for a while, I have never
recorded and uploaded my own podcast episode, so ease of use for a “newbie” was
what I was looking at.
Podbean is a great platform for those who are new to
podcasting. It is free but, as with many
apps, there is an upgraded version that provides more features. If you just starting out, the free version
should be fine. Creating the account was
very easy and the dashboard is easy to read and navigate. Podbean walks you step-by-step through
setting up your podcast with your title and logo, to publishing and
distribution. I found this helpful and
it lessened my anxiety a bit. This
platform allows for both audio and video postcasting. It offers broad distribution to many of the
major podcast destinations such as Spotify and Apple Play, and you can embed
your podcast into your blog or social media platform. Their website talks about monetization tips
but I did not explore this. Of the three
platforms I reviewed, Podbean was my favorite for its simplicity and ease of
use for beginners.
Buzzsprout is another platform that is easy to use for
beginners. Creating the account is easy
and the free version works well for beginners. For me, the dashboard is not as
easy to navigate as it consists of tabs that run horizontally across the top of
the page but they have a great beginner tutorial video that is short but
provides great explanation. The drag and
drop feature for uploading is very easy to use and you have the option of
leaving your recording unpublished if you are not ready to publish it. You can also schedule when you want your
episodes to be published. The distribution is broad and includes Spotify, Apple
and Google, Pandora and iHeart Radio, as well as a few more. Like Podbean, this site also provides
statistics and monetization help.
Overall, it was easy to use but the dashboard navigation is important to
me so I would prefer to use Podbean.
Spreaker is a platform that I had never heard of before
until recently. The free account was
easy to create using my Google account but it only allows 5 hours of audio so
if you are planning to podcast regularly then you will need to upgrade to a
paid subscription. With that said, it
was very easy to use. The dashboard is
well-marked and easy to navigate and you can upload by simply dragging and
dropping your file. I did not find a
tutorial video on the site but periodically a pop-up window appears with a
helpful tip or suggestion. You can schedule
your episodes to be automatically published and the distribution is fairly broad. As with the previous platforms, there are
statistics and monetization tips for the paid plans. Something that I did not like is that there
is no option to not publish your podcast, only an option for private viewing. Because I was just practicing, and my
recording was not really something I would want anyone to listen to, I would
have liked to have been able to delete it or opt for not publishing. Overall, this platform is easy to use for
beginners.
Where can you find educational podcasts?
Common Sense Education – List of 19 Podcasts to use in the classroom
broken down by grade level with a short description of each one.
School Library Journal- Article about podcasts in the
classroom with a list of recommended podcasts for kids
Edutopia- List of podcasts to inspire teachers
The Cult of Pedagogy podcast series
Spreaker- This site allows you listen to podcasts as well as
create them. A search for education
brings up a list of available podcasts with education as a topic. I did not listen to any of these so I cannot comment
on the content.
References:
(2019). How to use podcasts in the classroom. EdPuzzle.Com.
https://blog.edpuzzle.com/edtech/podcasts-in-the-classroom/
Aguilar, Elena. (2019). Podcasts that expand our hearts and
minds. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/podcasts-expand-our-hearts-and-minds
Garcia, Josep. (2020). The best free and paid hosting sites
for your podcast. Website Tool Tester. https://www.websitetooltester.com/en/blog/podcast-hosting/
Oh, Erin W. (2020). 19 great learning podcasts for the
classroom. Common Sense Education. https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/19-great-learning-podcasts-for-the-classroom
Rogers, Linda. (2018). Prime time for podcasts. School
Library Journal. https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=prime-time-podcasts
You podcast sounds great. I get super nervous recording myself, so if you listen to my groups podcast, you'll hear me talking really fast and stuttering. I asked my group to keep it as is because I want an authentic example to show students who might also be nervous. I would definitely use y'all's as an example of a good pace. Did y'all read from a script?
ReplyDeleteThank you. We used a basic outline as a script, didn't write it out word for word. I was not the designated recorder but Marazul did a great job.
Delete