Practical Podcasting

From TeachToolsWiki

Dr. Holly Seirup found a practical application for podcasting in her Counselling Practicum course, part of the School of Education, Health and Human Services curriculum. She had seen and heard her colleagues record themselves, and post lectures to Blackboard for the students to review. Holly decided to put the students in control instead.

Repurposing the iPod Dr. Seirup chose to put her idea to work in her Counselling Practicum. In previous iterations of this course, Dr. Seirup had asked the students to use analog tapes to record counseling sessions so that she could listen in and offer feedback to improve the students’ performance. Holly saw the iPod repurposed for recording voice memos and said goodbye to her cassette tapes. Faculty Computing Services listened to Holly’s plan and provided her class with six microphones designed to work with the students’ iPods. All but one student had an iPod and FCS was happy to lend that student both an iPod and a microphone. A quick lesson in Holly’s class from FCS and the students went off to record their sessions.

Focussed Feedback

While the students were collecting their work, Holly got a tutorial in how to operate Audacity, a user-friendly software designed for simple audio editing. This allowed Holly to collect the recordings from her students and clean up any coughs, sneezes, and blank spaces to make listening to the recording a pleasurable and educational experiences, free from unnecessary distraction. This process also allowed Holly to hear the unabridged version of the students’ work.

Broadcasting the Results

The final step was to broadcast the student work to the class. Each student got to choose from the podcasts they had recorded throughout the semester. Their best work was then posted to iTunesU, a service provided through Blackboard. The students had collected release forms from their subjects. Additionally, only the students registered in Holly’s class had access to this sensitive materials. The class then listened to each other’s recordings and offered peer feedback.

Sound Off

If this sounds like a project you’d like to offer your students, contact Faculty Computing Services. We are happy to provide you with the hardware, software and confidence needed to create rich learning experiences for your classes.

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