Podcasts

Podcasts are becoming a greater part of education today. The benefits are numerous. Students are able to create content which their peers relate to and listen to information they receive over and over again. Students who miss class due to an absence can access the same information that was presented in class. Students can listen to lectures while they complete other tasks. Many student's favorite part of the day is listening to read alouds. When you create podcasts, students can listen to your voice whenever they wish.

This article about Podcasting in Education gives you even more information about ways to use podcasts with kids.

Podcasts can also be used by librarians to provide information to teachers and other librarians. I worked with two of my grad school classmates to create a podcast about Copyright and Fair Use.

My teamie Amanda took the information we gathered and wrote a script. I recorded the script in Garage Band. Adriana created a great sound track which we added to the voice recording.

I first site I used to post the podcast was Sound Cloud. I was able to log in through my google account and get started right away. The interface was easy to use and it took me less than five minutes to post and copy the code to embed here. I was even able to create a cover in Canva to post with my podcast. I tiny little detail, I had trouble uploading my profile picture. I know, it seems silly to even mention it but it was annoying. Probably more user error than the program.

Next, I tried Buzzsprout. It was easy to use, too. You were not able to sign in with your Google account but the security seemed to be tighter. They rejected my first password! It was simple to upload the podcast and to change the image and my profile image. Copying the code to embed the podcast was more difficult than with Sound Cloud. I wasn't able to get it to work. Blogger didn't recognize the code. I liked that you got to choose your season and episode number. I would probably go with Sound Cloud because of the ease in embedding it but I liked the season and episode feature of Buzzsprout.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1020826/3404938-copyright-and-fair-use.mp3?blob_id=12383035&download=true


I tried Podbean. It was really easy. I forgot that I already had an account and I don't remember how hard it was to sign up. I was able to use my google account which made logging in easy peasy. It's free like Sound Cloud and Buzzsprout. It dropped it into the blog with no trouble at all. It provides stats that are easy to see. Somehow I'm following myself! Podbean would be my first choice of podcast hosting sites. The ease of navigation and simplicity of using it make it my first choice. I liked the way the site looked.

One of my very favorite educational podcasts is Good Night Rebel Girls. They say it best, "Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: The Podcast is a fairy tale podcast about the extraordinary women who inspire us."  There is a great episode about Julia Child read by Ruth Reichl.

Tumble is a science podcast for kids.  It's kind of like Radio Lab for kids.  The hosts, Lindsay and Marshall, bring scientists on the show to answer questions and share mysteries.

The Past and the Curious is a podcast about history as told by the people who lived it.  These are true stories of inspiration, humor, and incredible achievements.  All kinds of people share their stories in this all ages podcast.