Podcasting Ideas

Podcasting is an excellent way for our auditory and hands on learners to express themselves verbally. However, many of us are stuck on what to use and how to use it. What's UDL friendly? What's not? What's simple? What's not?

What do I use? 

One of the best programs that I have come across is called Audacity. It's a free program that you have to download to your computer. But it is very worth it! Students can save their audio files into MP3 or WAV format, making it very easy to use and listen to on your end.

What do I do with it? 

Many people would love to podcast, but they don't have any ideas how to use it. Here are some ideas that I have recently had my students use podcasting for:

• One of my classes created an NPR broadcast about a recall of their choice. Students had to do the research, finding the Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? of the recall. Then they had to create a 1 to 2 minute sound byte, giving listeners the facts and nothing about the facts. It was a great way for our class to learn current events, in a quick and easy way. The best part was that I could post recordings to my Edmodo page, so students could continue listening to the recordings!

• Several of my classes had to "act out" phone conversations, using customer service strategies that we discussed in class. Each group was given a scenario and had to act it out at a minimum of 1 minute. It was a great way for students to actually practice what they had learned! We then listened to the conversations and critiqued them! 

• As a review, I had my students record answers review questions and "re-teach" the class. It was a great way to check for understanding and use it as another study tool!