Podcasts
Podcasts are great ways to reach a wider audience with audio platforms that can be recorded, saved, and published by students, teachers, librarians, or anyone who would like a vocal presence to share their passion or mission. I have reviewed and evaluated Soundcloud, Audioboom, PodBean, and podomatic podcast platforms with my favorite suggestion and educational podcast for educators.
Soundcloud
Features since 2008, Soundcloud has helped many users with podcasts, music, demos, and tracks. The sound is very clear with the ability to add stats to the submissions to see how many listeners are interacting with their podcasts around the world.
Soundcloud can also be used for music listening, and if students create a piece of work on Soundcloud, others can comment on their work. A possibility for use by librarians could be to help students if they were wanting to practicing sharing music and wanting feed back on their work or group of work
Audioboom
Audioboom is a podcast platform that can be placed on a blog, website, or even other social media platforms.
Librarians and teachers could use Audioboom to help with reading fluency. One suggestion is to start reading a book as a goal, record the reading, come back in a few weeks, record again, and again. The students can listen to their voices and hear improvement in their words and expressions while reading.
Podbean
PodBean is extremely easy to use and upload recordings within a short amount of time. Managing a PodBean podcast for free for the first 5 hours is available for practice and getting used to the application.
Librarians and teachers can use PodBean for regular podcast productions, language building practice, student performance on voice projects, and voice for flipping the classroom.
Podcast platform that offers 6 hours of free space for learning how to work a podcast to your benefit or start a series of podcasts for your organization, student organization, or class projects. The podomatic podcasts can even be played directly from Facebook and Twitter or embed the podcast in other social media platforms.
Librarians and teachers can also use podomatic as buddy reader performances within the school. Struggling students can create voice readings of books for younger students and feel proud of reading on their own and sharing with others, or book talks, and project critiques.
As I mentioned earlier, podcasts in the library have many uses from book talks to reading fluency skill building. Students can come in the library and make productions about the library of new books on the shelves, upcoming Author visits, upcoming contests, events around the campus, and guest visitors to the library. Let the students decide what a podcast could be used for and I bet they will come up with some interesting examples to try throughout the year. The challenges will be to get everyone together at the same time to create a podcast unless you don't mind the podcast sounding "impromptu". Students can plan ahead, create a schedule, and go from there. Depending on how a podcast is planned on being used will determine how much is spent on purchasing the platform. If the podcast will not last for more than 5-6 hours, a free service may be what your organization needs. If the plan is to go further and have many hits, then consider buying a yearly subscription. I'd try a free one first to get the feel for it and see where it takes your group.
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My partner Carla and I chose PodBean with the help of GarageBand for voice and music. We liked the ease of uploading the voice from an m4a format into the podcast. The Publish button was all that was needed as a guide in creating a quick podcast within a few minutes from the start a +New Episode button.
Please view our podcast by clicking on the links below.
Where to find educational Podcasts:
I thought this was a great start by breaking the stereotype of a librarian by The Anna & Raven Show:
As stated on their website "Podcasts For Educators. Podcasts by Educators". "We are a podcast network that encourages you to think about your profession and succeed in the world of education. Whether you are a first-year educator or a seasoned veteran there is a podcast for you.
All of our shows are produced by educators who want to shape education through meaningful discussion and content".
This is the ultimate place for a ton of podcasts related to education! They state on the website, "BAM! is an acronym for "body and mind" and BAM! Radio was conceived in 2007 on the premise that the key to success in life for children and youth is nurturing a healthy mind in a healthy body.
Developed by early childhood professionals, BAM! Radio started out as a single online radio program called Body Mind and Child. It was created to bring parents the latest insights and wisdom from the leading experts in the fields of early childhood education, physical education/motor development, play research, child development, and the neurosciences".
Librarians and teachers wanting to learn and explore the vast amount of knowledge of information will not be disappointed.
Here are just a few examples of the podcasts available:
Brian Sztabnik has a blog dedicated to teachers and the teaching profession. Check it out!
100% agree that Podbean is super easy to use! It may not have the thrills and frills, but it gets the job done, quickly and easily! I also loved how you did screenshots of some of the other podcasts that were available. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI liked the educational podcasts that you shared. I already added them to my resource list. And great podcast! Thanks for sharing.
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