Podcast Pedagogy: Bringing Podcasts Into the Classroom

This week, we bring you a special episode of Writefully So.  What makes this episode so special? Well, for starters, we have a special guest this week from the California State University, San Marcos Faculty Center, Dr. Jimmy Young.  Secondly, we are stepping out of our usual format to bring you an episode targeted at educators of all levels who may be interested in using podcasts as a teaching or learning tool in their classroom.  There is a lot to consider, and while we cover much of it, there is still quite a bit we could address in a future episodes.  In addition to sharing his time this week, Dr. Young shared a number of additional resources you may want to consider adding to your reading list after listening to this episode. 

First, an article that discusses the use of podcasts in a Social Work education classroom: https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/technology-articles/power-podcasting-social-work-education/

The following NPR episodes discuss ways to start and, subsequently, structure your audio stories:

"How audio stories begin:" https://training.npr.org/audio/how-audio-stories-begin/

"Understanding story structure in 4 drawings:: https://training.npr.org/audio/understanding-story-structure-in-4-drawings/

Additionally, we have a sample class activity wherein the class listens to a short podcasts and scores it as a group using the assignment rubric (great way to establish expectations and verify that students understand what those expectations are). Here is a short podcast episode that our colleagues have used:

"These Days, Family Trees Look More Like A Forest (16-minutes):"  https://www.npr.org/2011/07/05/137627840/these-days-family-trees-look-more-like-a-forest)

 

Lastly, here is a blog from which Dr. Young adapted much of his own podcast assignment.

https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2014/01/16/podcasting-for-social-work-students-part-1/

 

Ultimately, podcast tools vary widely, we've used podbean, Audacity (audio recording and editing software), Open Broadcasting Software (OBS), Zoom, and Anchor.fm.  However, there is a wide variety of tools out there that can be used to record and share your podcast. 

 

*Quick editors note, if using Zoom to capture podcast audio, make sure to set the advanced audio settings to record each guest as a separate track.  This will allow you to mix, edit, and adjust the quality of each individual's audio without affecting the entire recording.  It has come in handy; especially episodes like this one where we were plagued with recording an network issues.*