Why Podcasts Are a Valuable Classroom Tool
Podcasts can be a great educational tool for students and teachers alike. They allow teachers the opportunity to engage students in ways that textbooks cannot, and they can also provide new perspectives on everyday learning. Podcasts are especially helpful for visual learners and auditory learners because podcasts ask students to visualize information based on what they hear or read about. Teachers can use podcasts in a variety of ways in order to create a dynamic learning environment within the classroom.
Some of the ways podcasts can be used in the classroom include:
-Listened during class time as a way to introduce new material or reinforce what was learned in previous classes.
-As a warm-up activity. Get students interested in a topic by having them listen to an engaging podcast about a particular topic.
-Podcast links are uploaded into learning management systems so that students can link to them when they are researching a topic
-Podcasts are used in place of or in addition to textbooks for information that is being learned in class.
-Great for a flipped classroom, where students can listen to the material at home and discuss it in class.
Some podcasts to consider using in your classroom include:
-NPR News Now, which updates listeners on breaking news stories 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
-Today in STEM for science and math teachers. It discusses what’s new in science, tech, and math.
-History Daily provides daily historical podcast episodes to listen to. This podcast is great for history classes, as well as AP European History classes.
-The Freakonomics podcast, which explores the hidden side of everything with a focus on things like business, sports, money and more. This podcast would be good for economics courses or business courses.
- The TED podcast has lectures from conferences held around the world. Teachers could share these podcast episodes with students during class time. This podcast would be ideal for language classes, English classes, or history courses.
-The Daily podcast is about current events around the world. This podcast is perfect for social studies classes, AP Government/Economics courses, or English courses.
-History This Week podcast is another podcast that teachers can use in their classrooms. This podcast tells the biggest news stories of each week throughout history.
Podcasts are a great way to increase student engagement and provide effective, interesting learning material. Podcasts allow teachers to reach every student’s learning style, while also allowing them to listen at their own pace. They can be used in the classroom for all subjects. Podcasts can even be teacher created using tools such as Anchor or Garage Band.
