Podcasts are used in a variety of ways, but one of which I see as most useful is as a professional development tool, specifically in Education. Teaching is a lifelong learning process. It’s the nature of the profession and professional development supports that idea. Not only is it professionally required for licensure, it’s also another way of disseminating information in lieu of, or in addition to, seminars, conferences, or in service days, all of which can be costly and/or time consuming.
Podcasts allow for multitasking. Teachers can listen while they are preparing materials after school for the next day, or they might listen on the commute home. They might even relisten, if necessary. Podcasts are extremely useful in that you only create a product once, but then it can be accessible over and over again, and, it can be easily shared.
I’ve thought about how much information is out there for me, personally, in the form of a podcast. To professionally develop my area of interest, the media center, there are book discussions and talks on new innovations and trends in media. I can even share my media center lesson plans by way of podcast, just as I can search for such. Professional development podcasts can also include on-demand tutorials, copyright discussions, overviews of new services or policies, presentations by outside professionals, or introductory discussions of educational issues.
I could spend an entire professional development session podcast giving ideas to teachers about great podcasts that they can subscribe to on a regular basis. Looking for good podcasts can be time consuming, so sharing and collaborating these sites would be helpful. Heck, I just spent 3 hours this morning exploring for purposes of this blog entry and I finally had to tell myself to “just walk away”. It’s an addictive hunt, but one that for this research-minded, motivated, media specialist, is well worth the effort.
To save the readers of this blog some time and effort, I found two sites that could be seen as one-stop-shopping. Check them out!
Edudemic’s 10 Best Podcasts for Teachers
http://www.edudemic.com/ten-best-podcasts-for-teachers/
TeachThought’s 51 Education Podcasts for the 21st Century Teacher
http://www.teachthought.com/technology/51-education-podcasts-for-the-21st-century-teacher/
References::
Eash, K. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/apr06/Eash.shtml
Kim,
ReplyDeleteYou made several really good, valid points. I like the idea of multitasking with podcasts. I didn't realize that so much is out there to listen to! When I was a sales rep for a textbook company, we were tasked to read all of the reading anthologies that the publisher had just published K-5. I was on the road a lot and just popped in the CD's into the CD player and listened to each one as I was driving. I remember thinking how great that was, I didn't have to spend valuable time sitting reading all those books. I have often wished I could listen to information that would help me be a better teacher. Now I can. As far as professional development is concerned, what a great time and money saving way to keep up with the latest trends in education. I will spend some time today looking at the list of sites that you provided and share them with my assistant principal who is always interested in new technology and with my colleagues.Thank you for putting those two sites at the bottom of your blog. Another point that you made was about vocabulary changing so quickly. In fact one of the podcasts on Teacher Created Materials is about how much vocabulary impacts comprehension for students. They mention that students' reading vocabularies are actually shrinking, but we are adding about 20,000+ words to our language every year. A large part of this is because of technology and the sciences. Where have I been?
Kim,
ReplyDeleteI found you introduction to what pod-casting is, to be very upbeat. You made me want to read about what pod-casts are, how I could use it, and how they are used today. I also felt your point on creating pod-casts for a professional development tool was a genius idea. You have opened my eyes to a new way of using pod-casts as another educational tool. As a media specialist, it is important for use to realize that teachers have limited amount of time and are not always open to collaborating. I feel if you took the time to record some pod-casts or found some important ones and shared them with the teachers and told them they didn't have to sit in a meeting, they just needed to listen while still working, they would love you forever. :) This might also be a way to encourage those teachers that don't really find media specialists to be important, to recognizing that we do have some value.
While I was reading your overview of pod-casts I got a perfect idea for the media center that I would like to share. After a student reads a book, I'm always wanting them to do online reviews on our system, so when students are looking to checkout a book, they can read the review. Well, I am trying to incorporate QR Codes in the media center as well because our students can bring their own devices, but are hardly ever allowed to use them. I figured I could set up a recording station, have students record their reviews, upload them to the internet, turn the address into a QR Code, and create a book display with books that have been reviewed by students and when the students scan the QR Code, it plays the pod-cast recording made by the student! I think they would love that. This also goes along with your idea on pod-casts helping increase students use of vocabulary and their speaking skills.
Kim,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on using podcasts as a professional development tool. I am the mentor for a first year teacher this year and she has been having difficulty with some classroom management. I found several podcasts for her to watch and reflect on and see if any of the tools she learned about would be helpful in her classroom. Your blog introduced podcasts in an interesting way that got me wanting to find some for my classroom teachers. I also liked how you included two sites to check out for podcasts. If we approach our teachers with your enthusiasm about podcasts I think we could hook them!
Kim,
ReplyDelete“Podcasts allow for multitasking. Teachers can listen while they are preparing materials after school for the next day, or they might listen on the commute home. They might even relisten, if necessary.”
This comment really stuck out to me when reading your blog entry. The amazing thing about podcasts is the access we have to them 24/7 from almost any device. We can complete our work on a laptop while streaming a podcast on our phone/iPad/tablet all at the same time. If it’s 5 in the afternoon and you have a media center related question, imagine the easy of scrolling through archives of podcasts and answering your own questions. On top of all of this, as you mentioned, you can listen just about anywhere so your (the media specialist) time is freed up along with your listeners (teachers, students, etc.)
Me personally, I spend every morning listening to about 5 different podcast I subscribe to through ITunes. They vary in length and subject, but each offers information on different things I need/want to know about. I can get the news, current events in my community, religious topics, and information on new books, movies, and music. The great part is the listening process doesn’t stop once I leave my house. I can take those same podcast and listen in the car, then at work, or just various places around town. I’m not limited.
I think podcast will (if not already) become a great tool going forward for teachers and media specialist to utilize when fulfilling curriculum standards. A lot of emphasis has been placed on writing in the classroom regardless of subjects (science, math). Podcasts could be used in this way by having teachers have students write scripts for podcasts that would later be recorded. Students love feeling that they are a part of the classroom, and having their voice heard. This would offer a great opportunity to them.