Thing 19

I've listened to podcasts before, especially those from NPR. I particularly like "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me", which I've reviewed on this blog. As a fan of audio books, podcasts are a natural. I can shift time to listen to programs at my convenience rather than when they're broadcast. I listened to Grammar Girl's podcast about posting blog comments, and heard a podcast from a school librarian putting forward some mysteries. Both were informative and helpful.

One of the difficulties I see with this is having students, especially young ones, maintain their attention during the podcast. Certainly, it could be used by a kindergarten teacher, for instance, to turn one of their story books into a podcast. That way they could listen from home. Students could present reports via podcast, which could then be used in different classrooms studying the same topic. At a higher level, students would presumably have a longer attention span (or at least be able to fake it better), so discussions could be captured and rebroadcast. This might be helpful when a test is looming.

Students would probably prefer vodcasts. When I was a student (lo, those many years ago), I always enjoyed slides or movies over just talk. They keep the participants focused. With podcasts, it would be too easy for them to just "half-listen" while doing something else, the much mis-named "multitasking".

Students could be made aware of podcasts by posting them on class blogs, making them feeds, or including them on a wiki. Students could compile their own list of podcasts, as part of a group projects on their wiki. Use of "Science Friday" from NPR could supplement specific topics presented in class. "Wait, Wait..." could be used during either Current Events-type class or ELA focus on humor. Social Studies classes could benefit from the many presentations on "Morning Edition" or BBC World News. Can you tell I'm a regular listener of NPR? "This American Life" could be used as a jumping-off point for journalism classes or writing memoirs. The possibilities are wonderful!