Week 6: Podcasting

• Implementing projects like this can be a real challenge for teachers. Based on your experience creating a group podcast, what do you perceive are the greatest challenges to successfully completing a project like this with students?
• What are some things a teacher could do ahead of time, during the project and after the students have recorded to make this process more efficient in class?
• If doing a podcast in class is not an option, what are some other ways you could give interested students the experience of making a podcast in school?

I think there could possibly be many challenges to creating a podcast with a group of students. Student organization is always tricky. If students are doing it in a similar manner to ours, being assured that all students will create their script at home and not let down their teammates is a big one. If this does happen, what does the rest of the team do to ensure their grades are not extremely diminished? These kinds of things must be planned for in advance.
I think that just working with technology in general can be very confusing, so making sure that students are very familiar with the program before they begin to put the podcast together is very important.

I think the most important thing that a teacher can do ahead of time is prepare students for this project by fully explaining the technology being used and the expectations for this project. Give an in-depth tutorial and provide students with a rubric so that they know and understand the expectations explicitly. If a student becomes confused during this project with the technology or what they should be doing, it may take the teacher away from the rest of the class because one on one help would be necessary. During the project there will of course by small problems. The teacher needs to be prepared to be actively involved while students are working on the project. After the project, the teacher may want to take the time to post the podcasts rather than having the students do this. S/he may also want to convert them. Unless it's a class like ours, the content will most likely be more important than the small technical issues and with younger students, it may be too much.

Students can most likely create a podcast in school with a little extra help from the teacher. If they have the topic and the information, the teacher can facilitate the project without taking class time to do it. The student can use a digital voice recorder that is not the computer and complete the audio portion at home. Once transferred to the computer, the student can do the majority of the work on his/her own after school or during freetime. I think as long as the teacher is there to act as a facilitator and the student is taking ownership of the project, it is completely plausible to complete a podcast. The student can even create one for a project by downloading all the programs to his/her home computer.