Podcasts

     A podcast is digital audio or video file or recording, usually part of a themed series, that can be downloaded from a website to a media player or computer.  I have never designed or created a podcast personally but I do listen to them. I download and listen to NPR and BBC podcasts when I am walking my dog, which are both excellent sources of news. I have also used NPR’s StoryCorps in my classroom.

Click HERE to hear some stories 

     

    

     StoryCorps is an archive created by NPR of just what it sounds like, people’s stories.  NPR has both a mobile and a permanent booth that is equipped with a recording room. Anyone who wants can go into these and tell their stories. Most are less than ten minutes and range from interviews of children and parents to just a single person discussing a moment in their lives. All of the stories are archived by the Library of Congress.

     

     I use this as an opener to a class, lesson, or unit. I play the podcast to the whole class and then give them ten or fifteen minutes to free write making connections to their own lives or just how they felt about it. I don’t usually give the students more direction than that because I want them to be able to feel free to write about whatever they can connect it to. I find that it is a great way for me to get to know my students on more of a personal level, and I encourage them to write down any other questions they have about either the person or time period they are talking about in the podcast. I would love to have my students create their own StoryCorps stories. Due to safety and security measures, I don’t think it’s feasible at the JDC, however…… I could just have them create their own and not upload them to StoryCorps. OR…. To make it a bit more standards based, design and record podcasts of a day in the life of….. say Cleopatra or Louis Farrakhan.

     

How do you use podcasts in your classroom?