Mel's Digital Learning Community

I have looked at three case studies on podcasts in classrooms. It was difficult to find case studies in an elementary classroom   since most were based on undergraduate and graduate students. The first case study I read was Podcasting in Middle School: A Case Study and Implications for Teacher Education . In this case study, they two middle school teachers designed podcast based projects for their 7th grade English course and their 8th-grade computer literacy course. The case study explained the process of the projects and the teacher expectations as well as the final outcome. In the 7th grade, English class students were to write a story and present it in podcast form. The teacher had students focus on other podcasts to understand how to engage an auditory learner, not just through the story but the sound effects and music. Then in groups, they adapted well-known stories and put their versions into podcasts. In the 8th grade, Computer Literacy class students were asked to make...

While using a podcast in the classroom might be new to you and me, many teachers are using podcasts in their classrooms daily.   Michael Godsey, an English teacher in California, writes a great article for The Atlantic on the value of podcasts in his classroom. He noticed it was a struggle to get his students to read. When he introduced the podcast Serial to his class he found many of his students reading the transcripts of the podcast.  Godsey explained how many of his ELL students enjoyed reading the transcripts while listening to the podcast because it helped them understand what they were reading and it also helps them with understanding the language and pronunciation. Another English teacher, Alexa Schlechter from Connecticut, also used the podcast Serial, by This American Life with her English class. In the article for MindShift by Linda Flanagan, her students spent months listening and reading the blog about Serial. When they finished she felt it wouldn’t ma...

Before researching and reading about Podcast, I wasn’t quite sure how they were any different from the regular radio. I honestly thought Podcasts where just a bunch of people talking about a topic, sort of like the morning radio shows. I liked listening to them for a short while but then would become bored. As I read Will Richardson’s book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classroom, I discovered that my understanding of a podcast was completely incorrect. In chapter 8 of Richardson’s book, he goes into great detail describing podcasts, how to create them, use them in schools,  and much more in relation. The more I read about podcasts the more I realized how wrong I was. As I was researching and reading, I realized I hadn’t experienced podcasts at all. If I was to give this community any information on podcasts I needed to start by listening and creating my own. Which lucky for me Topic 4 allowed just that. In topic 4 of this DDLS online class, we ...

What would Standage say about podcasts? I honestly think Standage would consider podcasts a step in the right direction for social media. Standage wrote about TV and radio and discussed how both of these forms of media are not social media, but instead mass media. Both the TV and Radio are passive and do not include a social aspect to them. They are controlled by a smaller group of people who are able to censor what people see and listen too. On the other hand, Podcasts, which are similar to radio, only in that they are auditory and can be broadcast, are not limited to a small group of people or censorship. Podcasts go along with what Tom Standage believes to be true social media and connection. When you create a podcast you do not need to rely on that small group; tv networks or radio stations. It is a completely personal choice, your message, your viewers there is no limitations or rule because you’re the one distributing your message. Podcasts follow Standage's idea of tru...

Before I read Tom Standage’s book if you had asked me what social media is, I would have said, the internet, websites, and apps that allow us to create and share information all around us. Now after reading his book, I agree with Standage, social media is not limited to the current technology, but instead is a means of communication and connect. Standage’s definition of social media is, “ an environment in which information was passed from one person to another along social connections, to create a distributed discussion or community.” (pg 3) It has nothing to do with our current technology and Standage makes a point to demonstrate how social media back then has come full circle to what we consider social media. As I read throughout the book I kept thinking what does this have to do with podcasts, the topic I will be discussing in this blog. Then it dawned on me that Standage talks about social media, our constant need for social interaction and for sharing information and conten...

Tom Standage’s book titled  Writing on the Wall: Social Media- The First Two Thousand Years, discusses the history of social media, dating as far back as the Roman times. Standage shows how social media is not a new concept brought about by growing technology, but instead has been around for many years. Standage starts by discussing the need for humans to be social and to share information among each other. He describes how a group of primates grooming each other is their form of social interaction. Standage then goes on to discuss the social interactions of the Ancient Roman civilization using papyrus to write letters and share with others. One of the main letter writers is  Cicero. His letters to his friend Atticus are a collection of data and how they communicated. Cicero wrote every day, often times just for the sake of writing. Standage compares this to today and how people post on Twitter daily often times with no reason and just for the sake of posting. Cicero’s need ...