On Thursday last week, I was fortunate enough to take part in the inaugural e-learning conference on the beautiful island of Jersey and meet virtual colleagues DK, Russell Prue and Ray Fleming face to face for the first time.
My talk this time was on the educational value of podcasting which attempted to move forwards from simply answering the question “What is podcasting?” to “How can podcasting be used to enhance learning across the curriculum?”
Drawing from many examples around the world, I tried to show how podcasting can be a powerful teaching assistant by offering a significant number of learning benefits such as:
- pupils or staff can listen when and where they want, at their own pace, in a relaxed environment
- the process of recording and editing can deepen pupils' understanding of key concepts
- pupils can listen as many times as is necessary for them to embed ideas
- pupils can develop their speaking, listening and writing skills
- they can have opportunities for pupil voice, peer assessment and collaborative work
- eTwinning projects can raise cultural awareness, provide engaging, purposeful language learning and connect classrooms around the world
- struggling readers can make accelerated progress by listening back to themselves or their teacher reading on headphones
I also wanted to highlight the suggestion that podcasting can allow pupils to access higher order thinking skills, as is inferred in the following quote from the recent Becta report Learners' use of Web 2.0 technologies in and out of school in Key Stages 3 and 4:
Learners who took part in a podcasting exercise were seen to engage in collaborative knowledge building. The activity was seen as 'a powerful way of stimulating both individual and collective learning, as well as supporting social processes of perspective-taking and negotiation of meaning that underpin knowledge creation'.
Thought-provoking stuff, eh!
In the second half of the morning, I ran a couple of podcasting workshops where delegates had the chance to get hands-on and see how simple it is to create and publish audio to the web. This was the 'how' after the 'why' of the presentation.
Thank you to all those concerned in organising such a memorable and successful day. Hopefully this will be the springboard for many more e-learning conferences to come on the island in the future.
Hope you find the slidecast interesting too and that it gives you lots of ideas on how you can use podcasting in your own curriculum area. The summary and show notes should keep you busy and as always get in touch if you get stuck. Good luck.
Download The_Educational_Value_of_Podcasting.mp3
Summary
- Introductions
- explaining what is podcasting (personal on demand content) and how is it being used to enhance learning
- publishing to a world wide audience and being part of a community
- subscribing to 80 plus recordings
- defining podcasting: recording, publishing, subscribing with RSS
- watching video tutorials to understand the concept and steps to get started
- getting the software and hardware you need
- key features of podcasting (higher order thinking, collaboration, peer assessment, creativity and promoting speaking, listening and writing skills)
- quotes about podcasting
- podcasting across the curriculum
- bringing words on a page to life
- promoting your podcasts in school
- nuturing the home grown audience of your local community
- purpose audience content
- planning and rehearsing before recording
- the benefits of podcasting
- Microsoft innovative teacher Andrew Douch's biology podcasts
- pupils explain how podcasts help their learning
- choosing when and where they want to revise key concepts such as sitting on the bus/car, going for a walk, before going to sleep/school and feeling more relaxed about learning
- listening to podcasts as an alternative to written notes
- listening through iTunes while reading a textbook
- revising by playing the podcast over and over and helping understanding and pronunciation
- using Skype and Twitter to contact colleagues from around the world
- Jane Nicholls talking about how podcasting can help shyer pupils show their true potential, improve their ability to analyse their own work and make them think about how intonation can enhance their spoken work
- talking about the value of podcasting for the CILT video case studies on the effective use of ICT
- organising the Nodehill French Grammar Podcasts (working in groups and pupils writing their own scripts)
- the joy of receiving comments
- Yr 8 pupils giving feedback on podcasting
- podcasting at Nodehill (Radio 5 Live Podcast, Centenary Celebrations, 7JD Induction Day, Mental Maths Podcast, MetCast, Normandy Landings)
- using voxpops to facilitate pupil voice
- when then term podcasting was coined
- raising cultural awareness, language learning and getting into eTwinning
- peer assessment and creating distance learning resources
- suggestions for using podcasts (as a support for written notes, for revising meaning, as a model for pronunciation practice, as a subliminal learning tool, for listening to on a mp3 player or home computer)
- improving oral literacy for struggling readers to accelerate their learning and make text visible to them
- Andrew Churches' digital taxonomy of podcasting
- examples of personalised learning
- listening to podcasts out on a walk or on the way to work with a FM transmitter for an iPod
- Radio Lingua Network podcasts achieving 34 million downloads to date (not 46 as stated, oops!)
- converting PowerPoints into iPod friendly movies
- charging iPods with a USB hub
- creating MFL GCSE oral revision podcasts
- buying 1,500 mp3 players for pupils
- iPod projects at Heathmount and Beebe Elementary
- ideas on audio moblogging and cross-posting to your blog
- using an ultra mobile pc (UMPC) and dealing with roaming costs abroad
- recording Skype conversations and using digital voice recorders
- running Skype, Pamela and Audacity from a USB stick
- how to subscribe to a podcast feed
- a few final thoughts on the educational potential of podcasting
Show Notes
Practical Podcasting: From idea to iTunes
Conference sessions and interviews
Google Reader in Plain English
Podcasting in Plain English in French
How local blogs can create communities
Promoting your podcast around school
Jess McCulloch interview with Andrew Douch on podcasting
Nodehill French Grammar Podcasts
Nodehill French Grammar Podcasts go from strength to strength
Nodehill Bloggers on Radio 5 Live
Blogs and Podcasts: ICT in your Pocket
Nodehill Centenary Celebrations
Sam Downe and his Mental Maths Podcast
Headphones help pupils improve their reading
Using the iPod for Oral Fluency
Podcasting for struggling readers by Carol Greig
Andrew Churches' digital taxonomy for podcasting
Interview with Richard Lashley
34 million downloads for Radio Lingua Network downloads
Interview with Silvia Tolisano
PowerPoint on iPod and YouTube
MFL podcasting experiments a sound idea?
Revising for the GCSE speaking exam with Audacity
Boosting e-Confidence in languages
Elliott School case study on podcasts and blogs
Edgehill Spanish Grammar Series
Josh Mika iPodject presentation
Recording Skype calls with Pamela
Joe,
Enjoyed this post, have read many of yours previously. I'm beginning my journey with podcasting as part of the educational process and am gaining some great ideas reading this.
Cheers,
Posted by: Shane | 15/09/2008 at 20:10
Cheers Shane,
Just added your blog feed to my reader. Cool.
Posted by: Joe Dale | 15/09/2008 at 20:36
Great post and great to make you 3D Joe :-)
Posted by: DK | 16/09/2008 at 12:53
Cheers DK,
Loved your comment "So no cup stackers in the house, then?" after watching the Emily Fox cup stacking world record clip from your session.
Oh and your "ride the wave, dude!"
Awesome.
:)
Posted by: Joe Dale | 16/09/2008 at 16:17
Really sorry I didn't let you know that the County Press were going to click at an inappropriate time! Please forgive me! Great presentation Joe and I have a long list of things to discuss with you tomorrow about using podcasting at Nodehill (RE and more)
Posted by: Gill Bushell | 21/09/2008 at 12:18
No worries Gill. Adds to the atmosphere and thanks for being an early adopter.
See you tomorrow!
Posted by: Joe Dale | 21/09/2008 at 13:11