Podcasts in the K-12 classroom

After being slightly disappointed by my original case studies and their lack of K-12 experience Dawn shared with me two articles that included a K-12 setting. Woohoo! The first article I read was by Hani Morgan and it was titled,  Focus on Technology: Creating and Using Podcasts Promotes Student Engagement and Learning. In this article, Morgan talks about podcasts and how either listening or designing them can benefit students in many ways and it gives many tips on how to effectively integrate podcasts into the classroom. The article specifically looks at how podcasts help students learn new content and promote language development, especially with ELL students. This article is very good and I highly recommend it to you.

The next article I read was by Khe Foon Hew and it was titled, Use of audio podcast in K-12 and higher education: a review of research topics and methodologies. In this article Hew looks at several different studies on the use of podcasts in K-12 and Higher Education settings. The focus of this article was on three research topics, “a participant's podcast usage profile, effects of podcasts on learners outcomes and institutional aspects.” While the article looks at several different studies, most of the studies focus on Higher Education and the use of podcasts as a supplementary to an instructor's lecture.  This article is very good and very detailed about podcasts effects in the classroom, but the main focus is more on higher education. It does recommend looking in more detail at the effects of podcasts in a K-12 setting.

Overall what I have read on podcasts is positive. Most studies show how podcasts really help students understand new concepts and help with language development. As a language teacher, I can definitely see the benefits of using podcasts in my classroom and a student I have seen the benefits of creating podcasts. My unit lesson that I am currently creating is with a podcast component. I want to students to become journalists hired by the ESPN to create podcasts in Spanish about popular sports in Spanish speaking countries. Since my student's abilities are not fluent, ESPN is looking to hire younger students to recruit a younger audience. I’m eager to start using more podcasts in my classroom because it will give my students an authentic language exposure that doesn’t happen in a stand alone classroom. Plus my students can replay the audio when they are a listener or practice the language when they are creators.

While I am enjoying the summer and my time off, I also am eager to get back and show my students the new skills they will be using this coming year. If you’re thinking of using podcasts in your classroom what are your hang ups and what are you most eager about?

Resources:
Morgan, H. (2015). Focus on technology: Creating and using podcasts promotes student engagement and learning. Childhood Education, 91(1), 71-73.

Hew, K. F. (2009). Use of audio podcast in K-12 and higher education: a review of research topics and methodologies. Educational Technology Research and Development, 57(3), 333-357.

Comments

  1. fraudorseyJuly 21, 2017 at 2:08 PM

    Have you heard of Linguafolio? It's a portfolio service specifically for language learners to store artifacts that reflect their language learning journey. You mentioned using your podcasts later as a "Where are We Now" activity, and I immediately thought of Linguafolio as a way for you to facilitate that!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownJuly 23, 2017 at 10:07 AM

      I have not, but I will definitely look into it. Thanks for sharing that.

      Delete
    2. DoodlesByJimJuly 26, 2017 at 11:45 AM

      Would Linguafolio work for teachers with students who struggle with their 1st language?

      Delete
  2. DoodlesByJimJuly 26, 2017 at 11:42 AM

    We have afternoon announcements done by a student every M,W,F - I have thought about doing some sort of podcast with that, but then thought that those daily announcements would become stale as once the day or week is over, the information is no longer relevant - although they do throw in some fun facts. More recently I've thought about the 'gamers' at our school and have thought about having them do some sort of game review podcast, because they can go on and on and on about every little thing in those games. Games have new updates and all kinds of reviewers on Youtube and other media sites that I don't even know about, so I feel there is NEW content every week that they could make reviews on.

    ReplyDelete

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