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There have been many side effects of doing a podcast with students, and now a podcast for teachers. I am happy to report that most of them have been very positive.
The kids really enjoy it. When I say to the class that it is podcast time I am greeted with smiles and cheers, sort of like what you get when you say it’s time for recess or phys ed. The really neat thing is that they are writing, reading and presenting information and they are having a good time doing it. I get more creative writing, persuasive writing and informational pieces from the students than I ever got before. They all want to be recorded and to get their message out.
But kids aside, let’s talk about me. Several things have happened to me since I started podcasting. For one I am more excited about what I am doing in the classroom. Nathan and I are still doing most of the editing of our student produced podcast, portableradio.ca. This has become a real creative outlet for me, letting me play with sound, sound effects and finding the perfect (not in copyright violation) music to use for each piece. I look at field trips and projects differently because I can now easily add an audio component to what I am already doing.
Podcasting is affirming for me and my students. Because the class work is “out there” you never know who is going to find it. It is great to have people come up to you and say that they heard your latest podcast or they thought something that the class was reporting on was interesting or cool. What is even better is when strangers stumble upon your work and leave a comment for the kids about what we have done. Our class is now in regular contact with schools in Ottawa, California, Connecticut, and South Africa. Podcasting has brought the world to my students. Recently, because of podcasting, a former colleague of mine who had moved away, found our work and got in touch with me. It is so great to hear from her again and to strike up a correspondence.
We are able to track where our blog and podcast visitors come from. I love seeing how many places around the world have visited the site. I realize that many of them are probably robot computers but still it is exhilarating to see that someone (or something) in China stopped by the site. This is where the obsessive side effects come in. I have become a bit of a statistic junky. I find that I have to check my stats frequently on feedburner, sitemeter , and iTunes just to see how we are doing. For example, since we published our first portablepd podcast I have been delighted to see that we are in the New and Notable section of iTunes in the podcast, education, K to 12 category. This prompts me to check our feedburner stats where I discover that 4 people have subscribed to the show. It might not sound like much to you but what it means to me is that two people other than Nathan and I have listened to the show.
Through podcasting, our classes have had the opportunity to be interviewed for newspaper, television, radio shows. We have learned that our voices matter, even if we are only 10 or 11 years old (or even 49 years old). We have also learned that our voices are strong enough to be carried around the world. Nathan and I have had the chance to meet with teachers both virtually and in real life to share information about something that we have become passionate about. The more we talk to others more ideas we get on what to do with our blogs and podcasts.
It has been a really fun ride so far and I am interested to see how far it can go. Why not join us?
Written by Jane Smith
