On Podcasting...

I listened to parts of several podcasts this week, and I really enjoyed the experience.

First, I listened to teachers teaching teachers because Rick has such a high opinion of this particular podcast. I enjoyed it a lot. Some of the people invited on talked over each other a little, but that is to be expected I suppose. We become so accustomed to professionals talking on the radio that we notice when someone is more of an amateur. However, the subject was interesting and I really enjoyed how informed the participants were, and how clearly they were able to connect the ideas to their own classrooms.

Next, I searched for what high school students could do with podcasts and I found Hilltop High LancerTalk. It is a pocast created by the video production class at Hilltop High, somewhere in California. This podcast was very professional. It was a kind of school newsletter radio show and included an interview with the new football coach about the upcoming season (it was a little old). I though it was really well done, a great way to communicate with the community, and a very fun project for the students involved. They used music and guest appearances, and generally sounded like they could have been on the radio.

Lastly, on a whim, I searched for a podcast about Capoeira. Capoeira is a Brazilian art form combining kick boxing, dance, music, gymnastics, culture and ritual. It is also a hobby of mine. I didn't expect to find anything, but I immediately found the Capoeira Resources Podcast amoung several others. This podcast was made by a Capoeira group that wanted to share the new music it was creating with its community members and the Capoeira community at large. The sound quality was a little low - I think they used a single microphone of only okay quality to record the music of a big group of people. But that may have been intentional since most Capoeira groups sell CD's of their music (which would be higher quality).

I think having my students create a podcast sounds like great fun. Here are a few ideas:

1) Create a radio documentary about being a teen parent in America today. This could involve all sorts of interviews.
2) Maybe a radio drama unit. They could listen to some radio drama and try and create their own. They would have to write and produce it themselves.
3) Maybe a radio news letter like Lancertalk, the podcast I found, about what is going on at the school.
4) Maybe they could create a radio drama of one of the books we are reading? That might get into copyright issues though, eh?

If I was going to create my own podcast? I think it would be really interesting to interview different immigrant populations around the twin cities. I have so many students from so many different backgrounds I could start with some of them. It would even be a podcast I could use in my classroom to educate my students on twin cities immigrant populations.