Podcast Reflection

My experience using a podcast was very different than any technology I have used before. I had many ideas of possible uses for a podcast, but they all seemed to work better on a Skype conversation for instance. All of my ideas would be better served using technology that allowed for multiple voices to contribute to a conversation, not just the teacher delivering a monologue. However, this being said, I did get a good idea for using a podcast from my sister, and that is to announce daily work. I think if students were able to access a podcast of the day’s lesson if they missed class because they were sick it would be very beneficial. Not only would the students always know what is going on, but it would reduce a large amount of work for the teacher who has to ‘catch up’ the students that were absent.

Specifically in the classroom, there are many ways students themselves could implement the use of podcasts. One way is in a presentation. If every student in a class presents information about their project, ii is often difficult to remember the information presented in every one of them. It might be beneficial to have each student record a podcast of their presentation so their peers could have access and listen to it whenever they wanted. This could also be used if students are writing an ethnography paper and they need to conduct interviews. This would be helpful not only in the student’s writing process but to the rest of the class as well.

I think students would enjoy using a podcast and I think it might even be motivation in itself. The students also would know that the entire class has access to their work, so that might be more motivation to do a thorough job since they realize everyone will be listening to it. In terms of evaluation, I think the content of their podcasts would be much more important than fluidity in their voices. This might be a very new concept to students so hopefully they’ll be excited about it!