Doug Dickinson, School of Education, Leicester University
2 May 2007
View "Podcast: Make Yourself Heard" on YouTube.
Podcasting is audio on demand delivered to you automatically which can be listened to or watched (with a vodcast) anywhere, anytime on a suitable device.
It is a simple (that is what makes it so powerful) technological thing to do and allows students to learn in a way which has been placed on the 'back-burner' as other, powerful technologies have come to the fore.
No throwing babies out with bathwater here - Consideration of podcasting give students (and teachers) a positive sense of audience and the potential of raised awareness of the responsibilities and excitement of personal publication.
The Podium software, with its intuitive interface, allows users to concentrate on the quality of the context and content instead of focusing on the technicalities of the production. There is, however, built into the software, many additional features which allow 'poders' to produce sophisticated podcasts of a professional dimension. These features, including, upload of images with each episode, import of MP3 files, scripting etc make a significant difference to the concept of ownership of the completed podcasts.
Doug Dickinson has 40 years experience in teaching in primary education, now an independent ICT consultant working on all aspects of enhancing teaching and learning. Doug lectures at Leicester University School of Education. He has, during the last four years, spent a good deal of time working in Northern Ireland, Hong Kong and Trinidad on a wide variety of topics. He is education consultant to Softease.