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30th January 2006

Classroom Podcasting Tips

posted in podcasting |

In the Bit by Bit podcast from January 29, 2006, Maine educators Bob Sprankle and Cheryl Oakes share a Q&A session with other teachers about very practical questions regarding classroom podcasting.

They address issues like parent permission forms, the benefits of “starting small” and focusing on student writing via blogging first, using Feedburner to track podcast subscriptions, and more. I agree with Bob that from an accessibility standpoint, even though Garageband3 is amazing with its capabilities to create enhanced and video podcasts, schools are better off from multiple perspectives to primarily stick with audio podcasts– at least when starting out. Garageband3 and iWeb are great for creating and sharing audio-only podcasts as well as enhanced/video podcasts, I am switching myself over from Audacity to Garageband3 for my own Speed of Creativity podcasts. Bells and whistles can be more than teachers and students need for classroom podcasting, however. (We see this all the time with students getting so carried away in their PowerPoint presentations with transitions, custom animations, and sound effects.) Some of the reasons for this are:

  1. Bandwidth issues: As Bob mentions, enhanced and video podcasts consume more bandwidth on your school network as people download them, and are therefore actually more expensive to publish and share (especially if your feed is popular)
  2. Technical issues: As I wrote in my winter 2006 TechEdge article “Classroom Audio Podcasting,” there are fewer technical issues that can distract students when they are audio podcasting. The focus can be more on the message and communication, which is what podcasting is all about. (I do think enhanced/video podcasts are cool, but I think audio podcasts are the best place to start in the classroom after text blogging.)
  3. Time issues: Let’s face it, everyone in schools today is stressed and short on time. Getting started with classroom podcasts adds multiple levels of complexity to the teacher’s day. The KISS principle applies here. Keep it simple sherlock– go with audio podcasts first!
  4. Accessibility: You are creating a podcast in part so as many people as possible can access it. Even though Apple would love it if everyone used iTunes to listen to podcasts, the fact is not everyone does. About 50% of the people accessing my own podcast don’t use iTunes. So to increase the accessibility to your podcast, you are better off publishing podcasts as mp3 audio files. Bob’s suggestion of having a separate feed for enhanced/video podcasts is a good idea, or you can publish a second post to your podcast feed that has the enhanced version. Web accessibility is, after all, one of the educational banners we should all be championing in 2006 and beyond! :-)

Great, practical advice from some superb educators who are models for all of us in ways web 2.0 technologies can be used to help students engage in 21st century classroom literacy development! :-)

On this day..

This entry was posted on Monday, January 30th, 2006 at 2:41 pm and is filed under podcasting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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