I’ve never really just listened to a podcast. I always felt like I would enjoy them, but never took the time to actually listen to one. So this week we got the chance to listen to some podcasts. When I read “Serial” podcast I thought, “Okay that sounds a bit creepy.” But once I started reading about classrooms utilizing this type of podcast, I began to feel intrigued. One site that we were to visit was What Teens are Learning From ‘Serial’ and Other Podcasts. I found this article a great tool for any teacher. I think using podcasts in a classroom setting is a great idea. Students will advance their listening skills and podcasts are also more interesting to some students than reading an old historical story. Podcasts may also help students work on their analytical skills.
We also got the opportunity to view different digital stories. I think this would be something great to incorporate into a classroom because of all the benefits. I think using digital stories in a classroom allows students to use creative thinking. Students could create their own digital story which would help some of them work on public speaking, creativity, and also sharing a part of their life with their fellow classmates. After reading Teacher’s Guide to Digital Storytelling, I found out the digital storytelling also helps students work on cooperative learning, listening skills, organizational skill, and time management. This article also includes a few ideas for lesson plans on digital storytelling.
Although I do see some disadvantages to podcasts and digital storytelling. Podcasts depend on listening skills, which may be difficult for students who are mostly visual learners. Students may struggle to understand the concept of the podcast because there aren’t pictures to go along with it. I also think that for a teacher, it may be more time consuming to create homework assignments or tests over there specific podcast. For digital storytelling, I think a disadvantage may be how much time it would take to do a full lesson on this topic. If students were to create their own digital story, it may take a while, which could cause a conflict for other content areas.
I think that after reading different articles and listening to my own podcasts and digital stories, I would definitely try both of them out in my classroom. I would have my students listen to a podcast story a few times and then see how my students do on an assessment or just ask if they like it better. If I saw my students scored well on their assessment I would probably continue to use this method. I would also try digital storytelling. I think I would set aside time each semester for my students to do one. I think my students would have fun being creative and writing their own story.
I was really surprised to see that teachers would use a murder podcast in a school setting. I think my mom probably wouldn’t have agreed with that. She is kind of strict on the types of movies and music I watched and listened to when I was younger.
Overall, I think this was a great module and I am excited to use this in the future. I think this is a great learning experience for me and I hope to see other teachers also incorporate this into their classrooms. This has really opened my eyes.
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