Podcasting in the Classroom

As a parent you may be wandering the hall of your children's high school or sitting in the quad of your child's college. All you can see are kids walking around with their iPods and you think about all the time they are wasting listening to music. Well, in today's technologic world, chances are they aren't listening to music at all. They could be listening to the latest podcast that their instructor downloaded to help them understand and learn the material that was given to them or they could be listening to that night's homework assignment.

In most cases, the Internet is an incredible phenomenon which includes the latest and greatest invention of podcasting in the classroom. It is one of the hottest tools for the most technological inclined educators. This includes teachers that are teaching 1st through 12th grade, as well as professors of different University's around the country. Podcasting in the classroom has become the hot thing to do to not only back up what they said in their classroom but to provide other supplemental materials to their students.

Podcasting refers to a digital recording of a radio broadcast or program that the listeners can download onto their iPod, MP3 player, or computer to listen to all of the episodes entered into a particular RSS feed. Podcasting in the classroom simply refers to educational material put forth from the teacher or professor in relation to the class in which the students are in presently. Many teachers are now using podcasting in the classroom to give the weekly assignments or homework with plenty of details that students no longer have to write down quickly in their notebook. They have the information on hand whenever they need to look back on the assignment or the lecture. Podcasting in the classroom really is a wonderful new technology that many instructors are starting to use frequently and find it essential to the class or course in which they are teaching.

Prior to podcasting in the classroom, many instructors would spend numerous hours typing out the class requirements and schedules and then having to print out copies. They would continually need to revise the content and type out new assignments. Now, they spend just a few minutes recording and uploading their podcast and they are done! It doesn't even cost many of teachers anything to put together a podcast since they do it through free downloadable music recording programs. Then they upload it for using free hosting sites which allow them to place it on their blog or website so that the students can add it to their computer or iPod. The process is simple and the teachers use very little, if any, of their own financial resources.

Most of the students that use podcasting in the classroom find that the podcasts give them a better understanding of the material learned in the classes that they take. They have a better general perspective of exactly what the teacher expects them to learn. If they don't understand something they can just listen to it over again whereas in the classroom you might only hear them say something once and then it is gone. Many of the notes that you take can be incomplete or just plain wrong. Podcasting in the classroom helps students know right up front what is expected of them without any disagreement or confusion.

It's one thing to just discuss something in a classroom; it is another thing to hear it explained in detail without the proverbial �bell� going off. The teacher that is podcasting can talk quicker without any interruptions that may leave them without saying what they thought was most important. Podcasting in the classroom also makes the students feel more involved then the setting of a classroom. It's more interactive then just listening to what the teacher has to say for an hour and a half sometimes. The students don't lose the interest of the lecture because if they find that they can't concentrate they can simply come back and listen again later when they are more focused. All in all, it isn't just the teachers who are becoming fans of podcasting in the classroom; it is the students as well.