If you aren’t taking advantage of Podcasts both for personal and professional development, you are missing out on a world of amazing production from incredibly talented and driven people all around the world.
Admittedly I’m kind of a podcast junkie. I spend far more time listening to podcasts these days than I do listening to music – a fact which the youth in me partly laments, but which the student in me can’t get enough of.
When Apple ripped podcasts out of iTunes and put them in their own standalone app, I was devastated by the awful change.
Until I found Downcast:
Podcasts are so much more than just someone sitting in front of their computer talking at a microphone. If you haven’t done yourself the favor of exploring podcasts, download the Downcast app right now and get started. There are people who have spent their lives becoming unsung experts in any given field, and all they want to do is share their expertise with you.
It’s also incredibly easy to turn a podcast around and bring it into a lesson. Imagine having a never-ending supply of new CDs with rich new material on it for your students.
That’s what podcasts are.
Whether you’re using them to teach fundamental math concepts, revisionist history, or getting waaaay too deep into Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit (check out the Tolkien Professor) – you’ll have access to way more than you could share with your classes if you were teaching for the next 300 years.
As teachers, if we’re not enriching our own lives, we’re not enriching our students’ lives. Take the initiative to step outside of the realms you’re comfortable with and check out some podcasts on topics you’ve always dreamt of exploring.
How about a podcast on cooking? There are tons. Maybe the basics of Arabic? فكرة جميلة
You can then turn the idea around and encourage your students to bring podcasts to you. What you’ll find is that by encouraging them to seek out podcasts on their own, they are simultaneously becoming self-motivated learners.
The same concepts that English teachers across the world try to encourage through reading can be brought into podcasts. The only difference is that podcasts are far more accessible as your students can listen to them while they walk, run, or drive to school. They can listen when they’re cleaning the house or at the gym. Podcasts allow people to be active while still absorbing information.
How do you use podcasts in your professional or private life? I’d love to hear about it – let me know below!
[…] With the launch of the EdTechTV Podcast, my brain has been pointed directly at podcasts, podcasting, and podcasters over the last few weeks. I’ve been a podcast fan for years, and a couple of years ago I did a post on using Downcast as a podcast player. […]