Podcasting

I have to admit I have been holding off blogging about podcasting. For starters, even after listening to the tutorial about podcasting I was still confused about what a podcast really was let alone how I was supposed to implement it in the classroom and secondly, when I tried to create my own podcast it seemed so easy and worked fine...until I tried to embed it into my blog! It is still lost somewhere in cyber-space, so for now I will just investigate what it is and how I could use it in my context and will save the creation until after some further discussion with fellow bloggers.

From my internet searches I have discovered that a podcast is a digital recording of a radio broadcast or something along the lines of an audio, that can be uploaded to the internet ready for downloading onto a personal audio player. This information almost had me finish this blog then and there as I don't have an ipod or MP3 player so I was about to deem this tool 'not for me' until I read that all you need is a computer and an internet connection!

Being an auditory learner I am suprised I had not thought of using this tool earlier. There is a podcast for everything and everyone. I found a great website www.buzzle.com that gave me some interesting ideas for using podcasts in the classroom context.

Using Podcasts in a classroom context:

• Use it as a tool for students to practice their vocabulary at home
• Have students practice their second language using a podcast
• Have students create their own podcast to interact with other students or teachers
• Program parents computers to automatically capture the schools broadcasts
• Create student interviews on a podcast
• Record sounds of things and places and use it for a listening skills lesson or to simply enhance a lesson
• Podcasting allows teachers to turn a once deemed distracting divice into an effective learning tool that is viewed by students as 'cool'!

While I do think the above points are viable, to me I think this tool may be one that often gets used for the sake of using the tool and not for the sake of learning. In saying that I would love for someone to prove me wrong!