Podcasts: The Experience

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 were asked to create a podcast for a series called Monument Moments. In it, we were to discuss a monument, (Mine as the MLK Memorial) to an audience of listeners. I learned from this experience was the creation process. A podcast is not a morning radio talk show it’s episodic, mean it has episodes in a series. It’s creative and “ear” catching (you know instead of eye-catching!) It uses intro music and sound effects to really capture the listener's attention. Many podcasts use different formats of speaking, it's not just narration, there are clips from other speakers, and conversation to change the style and keep the listener engaged. While this assignment helped me understand and experience the creation process, our class discussion that evening open my ears to start listening to podcasts.

Before that Thursday evening, I was eager to start listening but I didn’t really know where to start or what to listen to. When the discussion on Podcast started several classmates chimed in on their favorite if you like politics this is the best one… have you heard of this…. It’s hilarious! One that got my attention (maybe because it came up several times) was S-Town, I had never heard of this podcast, but on my way home that evening I found it on my phone and listen to it the entire drive home. Sure enough, I was hooked! It goes beyond a regular radio broadcast because of how engaging it really is.

With Podcasts, there is more happening that just a person discussing a topic or telling a story. One of the books I had to read for the DDLS class, I ordered in an audio book. I thought I could listen while I cooked dinner. I found myself getting lost in my thoughts, distracted by my surroundings and not really listening to the book. I found I had to get the Kindle Edition and reread most of it. With the Podcast, I don’t get lost in my thoughts, because it’s not just narration, or read aloud to me. Podcasts are using several elements to make them for engaging for listeners.

As I have been driving around this week listening to S-Town my boyfriend on the passenger side, I ask him if it’s okay that I listen and he says sure and pulls his phone out to “play” with it while I listen. About five minutes in he says what are you listening to? He puts his phone down as I explain very quickly what's happened. The rest of the ride we listen and both are intrigued about what’s happening. Podcasts go beyond a radio broadcast to engage listeners.

Now all I can think about are all the possibilities of podcasts in the classroom, using it to build Spanish fluency and understanding of culture, helping ELL students, giving students a new media to understand literature and giving students the opportunity to create their own series. I plan on sharing my research and articles about Podcasts, but that will have to be in another blog post since this one is already quite long. Until then!