Adventures in Podcasting

Since this was my first time attempting to create a podcast, I had many apprehensions. "Podcast...that's pretty involved, right? Only experts do those, and I'm not even sure what it encompasses." I felt a little like I was experiencing my first day of school...the jitters set in, though there wasn't really any rational reason for it. So I jumped in...the waters were easygoing, though, and minus a few hiccups it seemed fairly straightforward. 


Adam and I first drafted some questions we thought would be informative; they had to produce enough meaningful content for developed discussion and cover the topics we had been thinking about in class so far. Since Adam and I have had varying experiences with digital writing (he being more of an expert online presence and me being a novice), we kept the questions fairly generic. After some revision, we settled on asking each other the following three questions (in various forms): 

• What are some overarching questions you have about digital writing? 
• How have you incorporated digital writing in past classroom environments? 
• Do you think we as teachers should approach digital writing differently than traditional writing?

Next we had to figure out some technicalities of the software. Learning by trial and error, we each attempted to record using our knowledge from other programs. Adam's recording software was on an iPad, while mine was on a MacBook. No major issues arose -- we didn't completely break any hardware -- but we did run into some obstacles. This may have been a positive experience, as I know I will be dealing with inevitable roadblocks in technology when students begin to go out on their own to write. We did not ask questions, as I'm sure a high school student would do, but changed several settings and hoped for the best. This feeling of ineptitude with technology was new, since I generally feel at home with it. I personally didn't mind, since we had time to complete the assignment, but I noted the confusion and frustration that could at any minute rear up for a students unfamiliar with related technologies.  I feel that watching a quick tutorial on YouTube might be the best solution to cover the broadest range of experience levels. If anyone was still struggling I could have students help each other or I could walk them through the process. This was one example of a time when learning the technology was paramount to the lesson, though not the complete focus. I would like to spend less time learning technical features and more time recording, but I know that with more use the technology would become secondary.

We threw out the first few rounds, since the recording looped on itself or recorded in multiple layers. We also didn't know how in-depth to make it, but we did mostly impromptu speaking which made it laid back...it was a good introduction to podcasting, since we weren't as worried about what to say, but the process of recording it. It didn't have to be perfect, which was a useful lesson to learn in conjunction with editing.

Because we are in the preliminary stages of creating the podcast, it is difficult to judge my process and the difficulty this project posed. I am still learning how our conversation will turn into a cohesive interview, and what features we can take advantage of with Garage Band. I have a general idea of the final product, but it's all up in the air at this point. 

Classroom applications

I would love to use Voicethread for responding to literature or to comment on other student projects. It seems to accommodate auditory learners...many like to talk through their thoughts and cannot write as fast as they think. I also love the idea of students reading a piece of their writing aloud to hear their voice or errors that they wouldn't catch just through reading their writing silently.