Talk the talk: Podcast article

The first concept I found interesting in this article is when the authors discuss how podcasting in education has been around for a long time. Before this class, I didn't really know anything about podcasting or vodcasting. I think it's a great idea for colleges and universities to use podcasting to share lectures and audio books to students. I definitely would have used podcasted lectures when I was in undergrad. Instead of re-reading the same pages of text and not getting any information out of them, podcasted versions of the text would have helped the information sink in better. The concept of using podcasts as pre-lectures to assist students grasp difficult content would be extremely beneficial. I also liked the idea of some universities including orientation information on iPods and handing them out to the students. I look forward to seeing more of this technology used in the future.

The second concept that I found valuable was how the authors emphasize the concept of student control and ownership of podcasts that they create. I agree that allowing students to create their own podcasts or vocasts not only teaches them how to use the technology, but it teaches them to work together and combine information from all students involved. Research states that students learn best from each other, and by creating podcasts as a team, students are able to gain more knowledge by seeing and doing. Students are able to learn new things from other student's perspectives that they may not have thought of otherwise.

The third idea I liked was using podcasts/vodcasts as a tool for learning language. I would love to do a unit on various foreign languages for my special education class, since many of them do not have to opportunity to go out for language classes. Podcasting Spanish lessons on the computer would allow the students to be exposed to the language dialogue first-hand. By using podcasting, students would not be just reading out of a book and completing worksheets. They would be actually infusing themselves in the language by experiencing the various accents.

By incorporating podcasts/vodcasts in my classroom, it would open up new avenues for learning that the majority of my students have not experienced before. Let's face it--reading from an outdated textbook and completing worksheets day after day is not my idea of learning. Podcasting is a great way to get students involved in their own learning. I know the students in my class will do anything to use their iPods or the computer. By allowing them to use the technology they love to enhance their learning, kids will be more motivated to learn.