Student Driven Podcasts

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Comment by Lois Smethurst on May 1, 2009 at 11:49pm

Grade 5 & 6 students in our school have a weekly live radio show on a community radio station. The show is a mix of students telling about their interests, stories, quizzes, interviews with visitors to the school and Skype interviews with students and teachers from international schools. Extracts from the show are then podcast to our blog and ITunes.
I have been looking for other examples of elementary student podcasts, to share with the students, so this Ning is great to link fellow podcasters.
You can find links to our podcasts on http://berwicklodgeps.globalteacher.org.au
Lois

Comment by Janice Friesen on April 25, 2009 at 2:50pm

Hi,

I am a campus technology coordinator (the job is supposed to be more curriculum oriented than tech oriented) at an elementary school. A year ago with encouragement from people from Seedlings I created a podcast for our school called The Bluejay Authors' Collection (http://bce2.eanesisd.net). I felt that I needed to be able to do this if I was going to encourage teachers to do them with their kids and I had never tried anything with audio.

The first year it was pretty teacher directed. I came up with the topics and plans and assisted kids as they made the podcast. This year it is more student directed, but not as much as I would like it to be, but I am not sure how to change it. This year each week I choose about 4 volunteers from 4th or 5th grade. I try to rotate between the two. On Monday they come at lunch and we write a script, then on Tuesday and Wednesday during lunch they record all of the pieces and then on Thursday we put it together and post it. So that the whole school is involved we rotate between K-3rd grades and I ask those teachers to come up with something that they want their kids to share. It can be reading something they have written recently or being interviewed about something that is happening. Each week is different. Last week two fourth grade girls interviewed some kindergarten students about planting a tree for EarthDay. Two weeks ago four very creative girls came up with a detective show about a Second Grade economics unit. So far I only have lunch to work with the kids and so that limits things. I hope you will listen and comment!

Janice

Comment by Barbara on February 25, 2009 at 6:02am

My students create podcasts on all kind of topics: social causes, copyright and plagiarism, and even poetry. It has been a great learning tool for all of our middle schoolers. I'm glad to be a part of this group, so that I can learn about more ways to use podcasting.

Comment by Lucy Gray on December 29, 2008 at 3:06pm

Larry Anderson graciously includes me in a begining podcasting panel at NECC every year; it's been a treat to work with a bunch of very knowledgeable people. Our resources might be helpful to you all and can be viewed here: http://podcastingforbeginners.wikispaces.com/

Comment by judibea on December 25, 2008 at 11:54am

I have joined this group as I am NEW to actually using podcasts. I guess they call us digital immigrants and I am learning the language. I am trying to figure out how to utilize podcast and how to "search" the world of podcasts for research purposes at the high school level. I am excited about what you have shared so far though: posting book reviews online, posting student created news reports---WOW! Congrats you guys!

Comment by Michael Dahms on December 19, 2008 at 6:51pm

My highschool computer graphics students are creating a podcasts based on a children's story they wrote and illustrated. Step one, is writing a "Never before seen/heard children's story" (age appropriate/grades 3-6), which, can be, based on a theme - educational/informational/or fiction - their choice. Step two, after developing their storyboard, illustrating the individual pages using Adobe Illustrator (can be any draw/paint application). Export as png files and placing individual picture files into iPhoto (I have an Apple iMac lab - comes pre-installed with iLife). Step three, is placing the pieces together. In addition to demonstrating, I show my kids this link http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#garageband-podcast-51 which they can view multiple times to understand the concept of making- building a podcast. Using a Mac and Garageband to create a video podcast make's it easy for the kids to build their multimedia project. They read from the script/story they wrote using the built-in microphone. Listen and edit their recorded voice using headphones. They then place the illustrations they created, sequentially in the appropriate place based on their audio narration. The fun part is exploring all the sound effects in GarageBand and exercising restraint when enhancing their story. Depending on their story, students can add “Farmyard animal sounds – cows, sheep etc., chirping crickets for night time, traffic sounds, applauding crowds and many more options. After inserting an album cover, and editing chapters, they “Share to iTunes” From iTunes they can preview finished work, submit their work to me for assessment and even email to themselves as an attached file which they then often add to their own ipod. With this project I also require them to create a print copy (they make a mini-book) which they get to take home, and the podcast then leads into website design – I use iWeb. This is the second year I’ve done this with my class and I hope to have them finished with this project early February.

I’m curious how Brian Licata gets his students podcast to show up in iTunes. Having students and their parents accessing work online is my next task to figure out. Tips / tricks anyone? Links to examples?

But first, Christmas Holidays.

Comment by Nancy on December 5, 2008 at 2:58pm

I train staff how to use podcasts with students. We are a Windows district so we use Audacity. A popular project right now is having students create podcasts in which they review books. The podcasts are then posted on line. In a second grade class, students created poetry and then read the poetry in a podcast which was posted on line. They created a poetry cafe. Teachers in world languages created podcasts for students to listen to as a review from class. Students test their foreign language ability by creating podcasts of conversations.

Comment by Brian Licata on November 11, 2008 at 4:33pm

I am using my 6th grade class to make a weekly school newspaper that we record and edit through Audicty, then upload to a server which feeds to iTunes so the entire school can listen to it on their iPods. There is also a blog where 8th graders post the paper online and let people comment

Comment by Linda Cleveland on August 4, 2008 at 6:54pm

I teach sixth grade social studies in the Pinelands of NJ. My students spent this past year learning how to create, edit, and upload podcasts using Audacity. We started by using the free software Audacity. They were able to download it at home if they wanted or use the computers in school. Students could also borrow microphones to use at home. They turned out some very cool projects.

Comment by Lisa Parisi on July 9, 2008 at 7:46am

We use podcasting in our fifth grade classroom often. Children decide on topics, write scripts, and record the podcasts. This year, we are going to teach them how to edit and add music. We will be working with the band director to make the music to add.

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