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Tips for getting started |
Listen to as many podcasts as you can before you start using them with your students. Determine what makes a good podcast and what makes a poor one. There are a lot of educational podcasts available on the internet so you can listen to what other teachers have already done and think about style and content that would be appropriate for your students.
Students should be encouraged to become familiar with podcasts and think about how they might be used for learning and assessment activities. A good way of doing this is to go through the process of locating and downloading a podcast to an MP3 device in one of your training sessions. If students will be creating their own podcasts, you’ll also need to demonstrate the process to them or set up peer support. Find out which students are already familiar with podcasts or audio recording and editing tools – these students can lead the way and mentor other students who are new to the tools.
You need to be sure that you are using podcasts because they are the best way to provide or create relevant and useful content.
Make sure that you are using podcasts in a way that capitalises on their strengths – not weaknesses. For example, if your students are exploring topical information, aural content or are developing communication skills then podcasts are appropriate for this. If you are using it to deliver dense facts and figures this might not be the best way.
Is the podcast going to be of interest, relevance and sufficiently engaging for students to want to listen to it in their own time? There needs to be a clear benefit for students to engage with extra tasks outside scheduled sessions. For example, if it helps students to understand concepts or covers important information that was not covered in training sessions, you can be sure that the podcast gets listened to.
Go to the ‘Case studies’ section of this resource and listen to the case studies under ‘Podcasting’ to find out how different trainers learnt about podcasting and use podcasts in their delivery.