Educators discover value of Internet audio programs.
By Rhea R. Borja
Arlington, Va.
The rustle of dry leaves on pavement. The syncopated claps of middle school cheerleaders. The shouts
of soccer players at practice, and the resounding thwump of a black-and-white ball kicked down a field.
On a balmy November afternoon, Gunston Middle School 8th graders Elizabeth O’Neil and Timothy
Touch recorded those typical after-school sounds here with an iPod, the wildly popular recording and
listening device from Apple Computer Inc.
Using an iPod, 8th grader Elizabeth O'Neil records an interview with classmate Davis Tran as he works
on the set design for a play at Gunston Middle School.
—Christopher Powers/Education Week
Afterward, they ambled into a stuffy computer lab at their suburban Washington school. They uploaded
the sounds onto a computer, spliced and edited them, added music, and wrote and recorded an
introduction. Then the students released the two-minute snippet over the Internet, to the world beyond
their school walls.
Voila!: the newest edition of “Buzzwords,” Gunston Middle’s student-run podcast, a free, weekly audio
show courtesy of the Internet.
Podcasting, a term derived from combining “iPod” and “broadcasting,” is homegrown, 24/7-accessible
Web radio for the masses. Listeners can subscribe via free “podcatching” software, which
automatically delivers podcasts to their computers.
Podcasts exist on just about any subject under the sun: retro television shows, local politics, and
marathon running. There’s even “Copcast,” a podcast “for cops, by cops.” Now, a small but rapidly
increasing number of K-12 schools are taking part in the trend, experts say.
Educators are starting to see how podcasting can help hone students’ vocabulary, writing, editing,
public speaking, and presentation skills, said Dan J. Schmit, an instructional-technology specialist at
the University of Nebraska’s college of education. Students can also learn skills that will be valuable in
the working world, such as communication, time management, and problem-solving, he said.
Learning Curve
“I’ve been talking to people about podcasting for a year now, and before, they were like, ‘What is it?’ ”
said Mr. Schmit, who is also the author of Kidcast: Podcasting in the Classroom, published this year by
Bloomington, Ind.-based FTC Publishing Co. “Now we’re getting to the point where [teachers] can see
the potential.”
Others caution, though, that while podcasting is getting easier as the software and equipment for it
becomes more user-friendly, teachers who aren’t techies still need to carve out some time to negotiate
podcasting’s learning curve.
Many teachers interested in podcasting so far seem to be in English language arts, foreign languages, or
social studies. They also tend to be technology mavens.
Podcasting Resources
How to create a podcast:
1: Record sound using a digital audio recorder or an MP3 player with a recording function, such as an
iPod, and a microphone. Or, you can skip this step by recording directly onto a computer’s hard drive
via the machine's imbedded microphone.
2: Transfer the sound from your recording device to a computer.
3: Edit the sound and add music, voice-overs, or other audio elements using production software such
as Sony Corp.’s Acid Music Studio, Apple Computer Inc.’s GarageBand, or the free, open-source
software Audacity.
4: Compress the finished product into an MP3 format.
5: Post the audio on a Web server.
6: Create a Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, feed of the audio file through online services such as
www.libsyn.com so listeners can subscribe to the podcast.
7: Submit your podcast to podcast directories such as Apple's iTunes Music Store and Podcast Alley.
Many education-related podcasts are aimed at college or graduate students, but a growing number are
created for and by precollegiate students.
Seventh graders at Longfellow Middle School in LaCrosse, Wis., recorded essays and music on their
“hopes and dreams,” and photo presentations on crayfish dissection and mealworms’ life cycle in their
“Kids in the Coulee” podcasts (www. lacrosseschools.com/longfellow/sc/New/).
Students at Willowdale Elementary School in Millard, Neb., wrote and recorded a play on the
Revolutionary War on their weekly “Willowcast” podcast.
And music-appreciation students at North High School in St. Paul, Minn., waxed enthusiastic on their
podcasts about the local heavy-metal music scene and musicians of the 1960s and ’70s.
A potential audience of millions inspires the 7th graders at Longfellow Middle School to spend hours
of their own time writing, editing, and splicing their podcasts, said language arts teacher Jeanne
Halderson, who works with the students in class, at lunch, and after school.
“I feel that something incredible is happening here,” she said. “I have kids who want a pass every day
for lunch so they can work on their podcasts. So far, there has been no grade or credit for this.”
She began the “Kids in the Coulee”—French for “hills”—podcast in September with just a few
computers. The students spoke directly into the microphones imbedded in the computers.
Since then, the podcast project has become so popular that she ordered 10 iPods, and the class is
crafting handmade greeting cards as a fund-raiser to pay for them. Many of the students don’t have
their own iPods, which typically retail from $99 to $399. The ones who do own them, keep them at
home so they won’t get lost or stolen, several students said.
Longfellow 7th grader Alyssa M. Gilbertson described the appeal of creating a podcast. “When you’re
writing an essay,” she said, “you don’t try your hardest because after you’re done, you throw it away or
put it in a box.”
But with podcasts, she said, “now we try a lot harder because we want other people to know that we
[can] do more. We want people to hear us.”
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