WHY+Podcast?

=Why Podcast? =

1. Podcasting is cheap
 Many new technologies are expensive, but not podcasting! The recording and editing software used for this podcast is free online, as is the web hosting for the audiofiles. The only real expense for an audio podcast is an external microphone, and those can be purchased for under $10 from many retailers like amazon.com, RadioShack and Walmart.

2. Podcasting Invites a global audience
 Because podcasts are published online, anyone can listen and respond to them. That means students, teachers, administrators, and anyone in the community can share their ideas, and people from the other side of the country, or even the world, can potentially respond. This podcast is intended for a listenership of our own school community, but it could potentially be helpful to other schools in other states, too. Your audience is unlimited.

3. Audio podcasting is low-key and low-stress
 Creating AND listening to a simple audio podcast doesn’t require a lot of extra time or energy, which makes it a great tool/medium/forum for busy multitaskers, like most of us are these days. PowerPoint can be distracting with selecting a theme, sound effects, and bullet point entry and exit animations. Videos require lighting, prop placement, and camera angles. For an audio podcast, however, all you need is a little music (cleared with copyright, of course!), a microphone, and your voice. Then just listen. Since audio podcasting inherently has less distracting frills than visual multimedia presentations or videos, it can be easier to focus more on a message’s content and its effective delivery.

4. Podcasting encourages listening critically
 Human beings are innately hardwired for storytelling: It is an activity dating back to the cave. We connect with and remember stories. On a daily basis through a variety of media, we are bombarded with messages increasingly presented as digital stories communicated via Internet websites and other means. Forming an awareness of the information we absorb daily, and developing strong critical listening skills are essential to being information literate. Listening to podcasts, even short ones like these, helps foster those skills.

5. Podcasting provides a window into the classroom
 Despite the interconnected nature of our society and our wired classrooms, many parents as well as community members are in the dark about the daily activities which take place in schools. Podcasts can provide a virtual “window” into schools, permitting a variety of interested stakeholders to gain an in-depth understanding of the issues students are studying, the new things they are learning. Frankly, sometimes reading a classroom blog just isn’t good enough; you need to make use of other available media by using your eyes AND ears.

6. Podcasting involves few privacy concerns
 Publishing student photographs as either still images or video clips to a school website can bring about multiple privacy concerns. Unlike posting pictures on a blog, //audio// podcasting need not have any local identifiers. Speakers do not need to identify themselves, and there are no images to identify speakers, either. For this podcast, the school library media specialist is identified, but any contributing students need not be.

7. Podcasting can educate about copyright
 Copyright law can be confusing. Because a podcast can have a global audience, following copyright law is VITAL, and legally mandatory. All the images on this wiki, and all the music used in the podcasts, have special licenses that allow them to be used by members of the public without the authors giving up all their rights. Anyone learning to podcast should use the opportunity to learn about how to find music and images that are copyright safe (contact Ms. Steinhardt for help and more information).

8. Podcasting can be interactive/collaborative
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Like many “Web 2.0” technologies, podcasts do not stand alone! As an audience, listeners should give input to how the podcast reflects their needs. This podcast is intended to support the students, teachers, and curriculum of this school. Commenting on individual episodes, and suggesting new topics are highly encouraged!

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">9. Podcasting can be creative
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Along the lines of podcasts being “no-frills” and “no-stress,” podcasting is not meant to be too formal or rigid. As a result, it can be a great outlet for creativity, both is choosing the topic and the presentation. This podcast is meant to appeal to all facets of education in this school in an interesting, engaging, and supportive way. There is no, however, prescribed structure or order to producing a podcast. I picked a structure that works for me. If you wanted to make your own podcast, you’d do what works for you.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">10. Podcasting can be fun!
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> As a creative outlet, to listen to during downtime, to perk-up an otherwise drab assignment, or to share ideas, podcasting can be fun! Podcasts can be used as a tool to effectively communicate with a broad community constituency about great things happening in the school/library media center. The fact that podcasts can be educational and instrumentally valuable in reinforcing a variety of important twenty-first century literacy skills, while also being fun, is more than icing on the cake.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Picture credit: FlickR user AJC1 via [|creativecommons] References: Fryer, W. A. (2006, May). //Integrating Technology in the Classroom: Classroom Audio Podcasting//. Retrieved April 30, 2009, from Tools for the TEKS: Integrating Technology in the Classroom: http://www.wtvi.com/teks/05_06_articles/classroom-audio-podcasting.html

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