Podcasting

In the past I have heard much about podcasts but have never really understood what they were, and why there were used. This week's topic suggested we take a look at the podcasts available in ITunes. As I am familiar with ITunes and have been using it for some time, I found it quite easy to navigate and locate and listen to the different podcasts available.

As I explored ITunes, I came across two forms of podcasts, being audio and video as well as a variety of categories to search. When looking through these categories, I came across a Pirates of the Caribbean Podcast on movie locations from London to Hawaii. As I love to travel and am interested in the locations of movie sets, you can image my delight when discovering this. On many occasions, I have spent hours searching google for information about movie locations and to be able to find it all on one podcast was amazing. I can only image the benefits that this would bring to the classroom for children.

I now understand that podcasts are a multimedia digital file made available on the internet, and can be downloaded to a portable media player such as a computer or iPod at any time for viewing.

According to the Department of Education and Training (2011), podcasts in the classroom can be effective in that students and teachers can create their own from original material or existing audio and video files can be downloaded. Creating podcasts can allow students to share learning experiences. Podcasts also provides students with a world-wide audience that makes learning meaningful and assessment authentic.

Please feel free to view my podcasting below, which identifies possiblities of using podcasts by students and teachers in the classroom.





After creating my own podcast, I consider the process of finding a program and creating a podcasts to be an easy process. I did however, stumble across the program 'MyPodcast' which was no longer taking new members therefore, I continued my search for another program. Once I had decided on using Podomatic, I clicked the publish drop-down at the top of the page and selected 'podcasts' then 'create'. As I updates and uploaded my profile after publishing my podcast, I noticed that there were instructions on how to use the program. However, the instructions on the main page were clear and easy to use. After I had published my podcast I clicked on the link to view the podcast and at the bottom of the page it had a code which I was directed to copy for a direct link. I was quite pleased to discover that I could copy and paste the code into my blog without having to go to the link itself.

Here is the link to my Podomatic Page.

References

Deparment of Education and Training. (2011). Podcasting in the classroom. Retrieved July 28, 2011 from click here.