Learning with Podcasts....

So now I am confidently able to embed images from flickr and my desktop, its time to analyse my findings of podcasts and their use in the classroom. After going on a massive podcast hunt through itunes and other podcast sites, I would have to say I'm not a huge fan yet!! Unless I am just unlucky with the podcast I choose to listen to, I found them to be time wasters with a lot of unnecessary chat at the introduction to each podcast. I do hope that the more research I do, I will find the appropriate podcast to assist my learners in the classroom. From my knowledge of learning process, I do see and understand how beneficial this learning tool would be for auditory learners. They give your students another voice to listen and learn from rather than your voice day in day out. Even though myself personally cannot switch on to a voice without visuals (my brain just wanders to other places) I can see the benefits of this tool for my learners. I would only use podcast with an slide show or animation as I feel it could get mundane for my learners and they could possibly switch off also.
One podcast that I have embedded below would be a great idea to help engage children into interesting stories in lower primary levels. By the use of this podcast the enthusiasm of the readers voice would help to engage the student in the reading experience. It also allows for each child in the classroom to have different podcasts read to them at the same time and this would cater for children's different interests in books.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/the-little-engine-that-could/id207671602?i=13740166&mt=2

This next podcast I found would suit my pedagogy in that it has a visual aspect whilst the students demonstrates his findings in mathematics fractions. These podcasts could be used as a great way for my learners to find relevance to the maths they are learning as most of the podcast are real life problem based questions. They also have children the same age as my learners answering the questions which makes the learning more student centred.

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/math-4.1.2.1-representing/id513361084?i=136009208&mt=2

Creating my own podcasts and allowing my learners to create podcasts for each other is a great tool to allow student centred learning. It is a great resource that can be used in a huge array of learning areas and it allows our students to act as they teacher, which we know from past research helps with their own understanding of the information. Student created podcasts would definitely be used to help learning within my classroom!!

Here is a podcast I created with audioboo

listen to ‘My first boo hoo!!’ on Audioboo

Podcasts can either be student create; working independently or in a small, collaborative groups; or a finished project which students can engage with, reinforcing learning whether at school or at home.  I feel podcasting can be tailored to any learning area. Some of the learning areas that are most often associated with it are: ICT, citizenship, languages speaking and listening objectives ands communication. I would use podcasting in my classroom as a tool for reluctant writers or those with reading difficulties as it allows activities to be tailored to individual children's requirements.

There are a number of sites that have 'podsafe' music which can be used without infringing copyright. These are two examples put here are many more available www.podshow.com and www.soundrangers.com.  AS with other technology it is important to protect the identity of our students who use podcasts. I would inform my students to only reveal one piece of personal information about themselves in a podcast to help protect heir identity.  After much searching of the web I finally found a great website that showed me 50 great ways of using podcasts in the classroom check it out here.