Podcasts in ELA

Today's blog entry is dedicated to the topic of podcasts. For those who do not know, podcasts are digital voice recordings, involving some purpose, usually made available in an online blog. Podcasts do not need to be polished, but instead can be raw with 'umm's,' long pauses, and background noise. I will admit that I never fully grasped the concept of podcasts until this school year. I had never listened to one and would never have considered making one. However, after some class discussion and online research, I have come to think podcasting would make an extremely fun, technology-inclusive classroom activity.

Incorporating podcasts into the Elementary classroom can be done in a limitless number of activities. There can be group work involving radio plays, mock commercials, or simple story telling. In terms of individual work, there can be commentary on a specific topic or theme, as well as conducting interviews with adults/teachers in the school. While discussing podcasts in my Language Arts class, one of my fellow pre-teachers made a comment I thought was worth incorporating here. It was mentioned that podcasts could be used as a form of presentation or public speaking activity for students. This in turn could help those who are nervous or do not like public speaking. I thought this was a great idea as possibily a first step in overcoming such a fear. Initially a student could use podcasts, then continue on to include video (videocasts), and then graduate up to actually speaking in front of the class.

When incorporating podcasts into the classroom, it is important for teachers to remember safety issues. First of all, parental consent must be ovtained for students to take part in an activity such as this. There may be parents who do not want their children's presence, in any shape or form, on the internet. However, in  cases where consent is given, there still needs to be protections of children's identities. Code names or numbers can be used instead of real names, and when video is included, it may be a good idea to exclude any clothing or school identifying visual information.

To end this blog entry I am going to include some links to a few podcast and videocasts that I found particularly interesting. I am also going to include a link to some threadcasts, which basically incorporate voice, video, picture, and many other components. Enjoy!

Laura.

- Glenbrook Elementary School Poetry Podcast - Grade 2 class:
 http://ecast.euclid.k12.oh.us/nwelsh/Glenbrook.Starts/Podcast/Podcast.html

- Willowdale Elementary School "WillowWeb" Radio Podcast:
http://mps.wes.schoolfusion.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=115312

- Poland Central School Podcasts/Videocasts - Grades 4-6:
www.polandcs.org/education/components/docmgr/default.php?sectiondetailid=9675&catfilter=381

- Voicethreads:
http://voicethread.com