Using iPods and RSS feeds in the classroom

Gimmicky? Perhaps, but at the same time this is also an opportunity to move away from the iPod Zombies (Neal!). Podcasting is useful and hopefully these examples will show you how simple they are to use with the help of online tools and how effective they can be to use with students.

How to use Podcasting and RSS

We will post a mini step-by-step tutorial later but for now watch these brilliant videos by Commoncraft:

Gcast.com

You have probably gathered that podasting is more than simply creating an MP3 file and uploading it online; that it enables you to set a channel using RSS to share your creations to anyone that subscribes and that they will receive all the updates automatically when they connect. Gcast.com is a free service where you focus solely on creating the content e.g. a discussion, monologue, interviews, jokes, poems and music, then will Gcast.com finalise all the technical issues for you. Another great thing about this site is that it also has a music website Garageband.com which seamlessly integrates with Gcast.com which means that you can import fantastic music into your podcast at the click of a button. The music you store on 'MyPlaylist' can be accessed on both sites - simple!

In a nutshell:

• register with Gcast.com
• register with Garageband.com
• upload your creative MP3 files or record content via phone (oh yes, you can do that- great for 'Last Minute Ideas' channel!)
• select the order of tracks including music added from Garageband.com
• click create podcast

Real example: the A-Level class

This example was used with an AS class (16-17 years old) of 18 students. It is a mixed ability ranging from grades A-D. They are used to different approaches to teaching e.g. creating movies, presentations, teaching mini-lessons  and using peculiar 'games' for improving communication skills. They had just completed the first half of a History course and the intention behind creating a podcast, a radio show, was to encourage students to consider what they had been taught over the past couple of months.

Details of podcasting project will be published on the 18th December.

Ideas for future podcasts:

• Last minute revision: the teacher uploads mini-ideas (2-3 minutes max) which emphasises a key point or idea
• Revise [your topic]: Fact based radio documentary with interviews and debates, similar to an ordinary radio programme
• Tomorrow's World: the class creates an entire show together about how issues in e.g. History, Geography etc will impact on the future (terrorism, global warming, fair trade and globalisation)
• The Movie Vault: students analyse the relationship between book and film
• How to...write the perfect essay: students share their ideas and examples of e.g. introductions, argument etc.
• How to...work independently: students explain what they do to work well in groups as well as how to use write realstic targets
• How to...get an A*: groups provide concrete ideas for exam and revision techniques
  

Has anyone else used podcasting in the classroom? How successful was it? What was the impact?