Podcasts

Looking for a new way for your students to learn or to assess their learning. Look no further...podcasts are a great and fun way to do that!! Podcasts are digital, audio files that you can record or simply listen to podcasters speak about various topics. Podcasting will help your students become better listeners and will definitely accommodate the auditory learners in your classroom. ReadWriteThink offers great tips and lesson plans for using podcasting in the classroom. Podcasting in Education also offers various ways to use and implement podcasting in the classroom, which was very helpful in understanding what podcasting is and how it' s used in education.

 After stumbling upon (http://www.appsinclass.com/audioboo.html)apps in the classroom, I also learned various ways to utilize podcasts and am very excited about using and assigning podcasts for the following purposes:

• Sharing my weekly agenda with the students
• Students will use podcast to summarize the day's lesson
• Digital storytelling
• Language/pronunciation skills practice or ELL's

I have reviewed 3 different Podcasting websites for you and hope that you venture out and offer other creative ways to teach and assess your students.

PODOMATIC
This particular podcasting website allows you to follow certain channels, create a feed, user friendly interface, no background music offered. One downfall in publishing a podcast was you could only add a file for upload and not record on the site directly.

AUDIOBOOM
This site was the most difficult for me to navigate through. I searched and searched for the create a podcast tab/option, I found none. I then proceeded to download the app on my iphone and after I created a sample to test it out, I couldn't find it on the full site on my laptop. It wasn't until I looked under profile that I was able to find it and then see an option to record a new one. After multiple attempts, it would not upload my podcast and indicated a "fail" message.

SOUNDCLOUD
I had much luck with soundcloud and was able to successfully record directly from the site. The interface was simple and easy to navigate. You're able to listen to various podcasts, search by genre, attach photos, stream music and you're also allowed 180 min. of podcasting with the free account. Personally this was the best podcasting tool to use. I gave it a two thumbs up!!

**Check out an assignment I plan on assigning through this podcast. Exit Ticket-Malala Yousafazai