Podcasts

Throughout most of this blog, the e-learning programs and applications have focused on visual enhancement of information. However, a podcast is a very different application that can enhance material being taught in the classroom.

A podcast is like an audio file that is uploaded onto the interent. You can listen to a podcast the same way you would listen to music and video footage on your computer, MP3, ipod ect. However, podcasts are different from normal music files, as they are usually released in a system such as each week or month by the creator. Indivuduals are able to subscribe to a podcast and it is automatically downloaded onto their technological device. For example, a person may want to subscribe to a cooking podcast from a famous cheif, so everytime that chief downloads his audio or video podcast about cooking, that podcast wil be automatically downloaded for the user. THis saves the users time as they do not have to go directly to the podcast link to download the file.

Podcasts can include video, audio footage or both. Therefore, a podcast is generally very helpful to a student who has strong visual or adutory learning abilities. In my classroom, I would use podcasts as a way to help me explain key areas of information that other people may have more knowledge about. For example, I may have a great knowledge of Rugby Union, yet a poor knowledge on netball. Therefore, I could incorporate podcasts about netball into my lessons to ensure the students understand the keys to netball ect. This would also improve my knowledge of the subject.As stated earlier, podcasts are automatically downloaded if you subscribe to them, therefore if I know I had a term of Netball coming up, I could just subscribe to the podcast about Netball and not have to worry about finding the link each week to download the file.

Podcasts are a great tool to use in the classroom if you understand what they are and how they can be used most effectively.