When I first moved to DC, I used to metro every day from Dunn Loring to Dupont Circle. Listening to downloaded podcasts on my 5G iPod was the only way that I survived my commute. Until now, though, I had never taken time to consider podcasts for their value in the sphere of education or think about how they might contribute to my professional development as a teacher. However, I recently listened to several episodes of “An EdTech Minute” on the Bam! Radio Network and was pleasantly surprised by what this podcast offers.
What particularly attracted me to “An EdTech Minute” is the fact that it focuses on ways that technology can be incorporated into the classroom and that it delivers its content in bite-size pieces. What I found most helpful were the reviews that the hosts give for the many digital resources and teaching tools out there, which, as a novice to all of this (teaching, being more tech-savvy, and incorporating being more tech-savvy into teaching), I really appreciate. I listened to several episodes, like the one about “Kahoot,” a digital classroom response system that is a way to “gamify” your classroom quizzes or discussions. I appreciated the reviewer’s honest opinion about whether a teacher could (or could not) actually integrate using this site into a classroom and the best ways to do so. I also liked the fact that, when my professor actually mentioned Kahoot in class the other night, I, for practically the first time, knew what he was talking about.
Listening to this podcast made me peruse the podcast section in iTunes for other education related podcasts and have so far really enjoyed “The Educators” from BBC Radio 4. I also have the “Educate” podcast from APM Reports queued up and am looking forward to this episode in particular. Will I consider using podcasts for my professional development as a teacher? Yes, but that may be because I have always enjoyed listening to them and it seems like a natural progression for me to turn to this medium for learning more about topics in education. I think the main challenge is finding the podcasts that are out there among the countless that share information I personally find interesting and well produced (and therefore, I think, more engaging), that share information that can indeed meaningfully contribute towards my professional development.
Thinking about podcasts in education also had me thinking about using podcasts as a teaching tool. I think you have to be a little creative in incorporating them into your curriculum and you have to work with students who would not miss the visuals. But there is just so much useful info out there from Grammar Girl and RadioLab and Stuff You Missed in History Class and so many others that I think it would be worth trying. And maybe a creative high school kid in some class would like exploring storytelling through podcasting, maybe even younger kids. Overall, I think this medium still offers a lot of positives, you just have to be open to exploring them and making them meaningful to you in your own personal way.
My Blog for ED 554 