Podcasting In Education

Podcasting in education opens the door for both teachers and students in many different ways. For both parties, the options are endless when it comes to podcasting. Thanks to podcasting, teachers are able to share lessons and information with not only students, but parents and other educators as well. One of the wonderful things about podcasting is that it is open and available to anyone. Teachers can also subscribe to podcasts where they are opened to new ideas for the classroom and are able to learn for themselves more information the world has to offer through this great resource. As for students, there are so many benefits and skills they can receive from listening to and creating podcasts. Technology skills, communication skills, and collaboration skills are just a few of many great skills our students can learn from podcasting.

A great podcasting tool that can be used in the classroom is the website called Spreaker. In summary, this website enables you to create your own podcast with many awesome features. The website is simple to sign up for and easy to navigate through, making a great resource for the technically inclined and those who are not, like myself. It allows you to choose from many different packages, the free package allowing you to create a podcast up to 15 minutes in length but still including several of the great features. One unique feature of Spreaker is that you are able to access it through many different outlets, one being your smart phone. This makes it quick and easy to create podcasts in a convenient and simple way. Another unique feature of Spreaker is that you can add sound effects into your podcast to make it more appealing and interesting to your viewers. Spreaker has many different options for sounds effects you can add, as well as enabling you to add music into your podcast also. When adding music, they again have many options to choose from and also allow you to upload your own music from your device.

To create my own podcast, I first used iTunes to watch some educational podcasts on my own. After exploring the large library of podcasts covering many different topics that iTunes has to offer, I chose one to discuss about on my own podcast. I chose one by searching for podcasts, then choosing my genre as education, then going even more specific and chose K-12 education, and finally chose my podcast under the "What's Hot" category. After choosing the podcast that I enjoyed the most, I then headed on to Spreaker to create my own podcast summarizing the one I had just listened to. Using the different tools that Spreaker has to offer, I was able to add intro music, record myself discussing the material, and at the end even add a sound effect to end the podcast.
To access iTunes, click here.
To access Spreaker, click here.

Posted below is my podcast summarizing the education podcast I found on iTunes talked about above. In my podcast, I share what podcast I listened to along with specific examples of what was discussed. I hope you enjoy.

Listen to "ITunes Summary" on Spreaker.