Varsha Prasad
Editor, TeacherTribe.world
Podcasts are transforming the way the audio medium can be used. It has become both an entertainment and a learning medium today, where listeners can use it at their convenience. What began as ‘audio blogging’ in the 1980s, has come a long way where there are podcasts of all genres across various languages.
Today, there is an array of educational tools available for teachers and schools to use, and for parents at home to help guide their children. It can be educational games which are interactive, VR and AR tools, or audiobooks. Podcasts are on this list too! Recently, while visiting a relative, I saw her 10-year-old daughter sitting on the couch, deeply involved in the phone in her hand. She was listening to music… or so I thought. Only after talking to the girl’s mother did I realise that the 10-year-old was greatly into podcasts, where she loved listening to stories and shows related to science. I was also told that podcasts were one of the very few things that kept her occupied for longer durations.
The auditory learner
Tools like podcasts are changing the world around us. For auditory learners, podcasts work the best. For learners who prefer listening to a teacher over reading a textbook, who prefer audio instructions over hands-on activities, podcasts can be of great help.
In schools these days, there are activities and learning tools which cater to most kinds of learners. While kinesthetic, visual and logical learners have tools already targeting them, the auditory learners just had the teachers to listen to. Now, with podcasts available for all age groups, auditory learners can be benefitted too.
Using podcasts in schools
Teachers can effectively make use of podcasts for all kinds of learners. The classrooms can have podcast sessions once in a while where the teacher can get the children to listen to podcasts related to the topics she/he is teaching and later, quiz them about what they heard. The class can just be a few minutes’ hearing session, after which the child can continue listening to the podcasts at home.
Activities like these will be a breather in the classroom, where both the teacher and children are doing something new and different. These can also be used as homework, where the children are assigned a few episodes or sections of the podcast to list to, to be discussed in class the next day.
Creating podcasts
Many universities have found out that podcasts are good tools to improve listening skills, expand knowledge and are positive educational mediums. Schools which have media labs can experiment with creating in-house podcasts where both teachers and children can have separate shows or channels. While teachers can explore creating recorded content for children and narrating chapters in the form of stories, children can create shows and episodes periodically, similar to school magazines.
Benefits of podcasts
Podcasts can be handy for children who want to relearn a few things or revisit a few topics, at their convenience. Like rewinding and playing songs or audio files that we want to listen to, podcasts can be downloaded on devices and be played and listed to at the time that suits the child the best.
Children can be motivated to listen to podcasts that are available online for their age group, depending on what topic interests them. This will get them to focus on the content being given out, in turn improving their listening skills.
On the other hand, I personally feel that teachers are the most benefitted from podcasts. With various genres of podcasts available, including entertainment and educational, teachers can listen to the ones that interest them while traveling home from school, while doing household chores or while in their staffrooms.
Podcasts are definitely good educational tools, which when used effectively, can give positive results. Do you think podcasts can be efficiently used in schools and classrooms? Share your thoughts with me at varsha@greycaps.com.