Why You and Your Pupils Should Podcast!

What is Podcasting?

A podcast is an audio or video recording which is shared online. In its simplest form it could be an audio recording of a pupil’s experiences of a class lesson. More elaborate podcasting can involve moving images, video and sound bites, combined to create a complete multimedia learning experience.

For example, pupils may create a short podcast summarizing their current reading book. This would require the pupils to identify the main points of the story, and to translate them into a short audio, image or video clip. In doing so pupils can demonstrate their understanding of the story as well as apply and extend their ICT skills.

How Podcasting Benefits Your Pupils

Podcasting can enhance any lesson or classroom activity by adding an ICT element to it. As a result it gives pupils a chance to get more involved in activities as well as developing their ICT skills.

Podcasting benefits pupils by:

• Providing access to online tools including audio and video to create multimedia products;
• exhibiting their work to a wider audience;
• enabling evaluation by their peers or a chosen audience;
• easily sharing work thus facilitating collaboration on projects;
• providing a more engaging method of learning and evoking better response than traditional teaching styles

How Podcasting Fits In With the Current Curriculum

The use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is one of the key skills in the current primary level curriculum and is assessed and reported on using the Levels of Progression.

The ‘C’ within ICT highlights the ever-increasing importance of ‘communication’ within Information Technology and the potential of new and emerging technologies to enable pupils to communicate with audiences beyond the school.

Developments in web technology, currently referred to as Web 2.0, mean that it is now possible for pupils to produce work that can be podcasted, thus opening the opportunities for a wider audience. All the tools you need to support your pupils in podcasting are currently available FREE, such as:

• Audacity – easy to use, multilingual audio recorder and editor
• PhotoStory – visual, show-and-tell, story making tool
• MovieMaker – easy to use photo, audio and video editing & presentation tool.

To see how other schools are currently using podcasting in the classroom, check out www.schoolpodcast.org