Podcasts are a way to record and deliver information and multimedia to a large audience almost instantly. It can also be a much more interesting way to receive information as opposed to receiving it through an email, or by some other multimedia means. In addition, podcasting can be a great way to bring education to a whole new level by sparking students' interests in various subject areas and technologies that they may not have ever cared about before.
I think podcasting would be great to use in the classroom to distribute homework and weekly/nightly agendas. In the middle and high school grades, teachers are constantly looking for ways to increase a student's interest and participation in and out of the classroom. By using a technology that they already love, this might be all that is needed to get them tuned into your classroom. Teachers are constantly telling students to put away their ipods and cell phones. Now, with podcasts, teachers can gladly tell students to take out their ipods to send and receive educational podcasts.
Just imagine, all of the ways that you could use podcasting to improve the academic achievements in your classroom. For a science class, students could subscribe to receive National Geographic articles and other articles via their ipod, which would be great for research assignments and to really spark their interest in that particular subject. So, in reality students could receive internet information at home, without having to own personal computer.
Now, think about how many students who live in a home where both parents work. Many of times, the students will come home to an empty house, and often times will have no help for completing their homework. In addition, a lot of times parents do not have the knowledge or ability to help their children with their homework either because they do not remember the material, or because they never learned it themselves. So, now imagine that child being able to access math tutorials via his/her podcast to help him/her with that math homework without a parent's help. Many times a child is reluctant to attempt their homework assignment because they are unsure how to begin or they do not understand the assignment. With educational tutorials sent via podcasting, that would no longer be a problem.
So as you can see, podcasting can bring education and educational media to a whole new level, and quite possibly could be what sparks the initial desire for educational achievement in today's youth. So sign up today for a podcasting program like itunes, and you might just be podcasting tomorrow!
Learning in Hand:
http://www.learninginhand.c...Apple's Podcasting in Education:
How to create your own podcast:
Article on Podcasts:
Why is podcasting relevant to Education?
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