Week 8- The Sound of...Podcasting

This week in EME2040, we learned about podcasting. Podcasting has a variety of different uses, such as using it in presentations for schools, communicating with others, and creating different sounds. When ever I heard the term "podcast," I assumed it was very hard to create sounds and presentations, and then send them to others. I learned that it is relatively easy, and there are a number of programs that will aide in the creation of podcasts. We worked on Garage Band in class to create different sound files, along with Audacity. Furthermore, we explored different websites, such as the Freesound Project, which is part of the Creative Commons movement that offers copyright free sounds.

Podcasting offers a variety of benefits to education majors. I have had experience with it in the classroom in the past. My history teacher in high school used to broadcast podcasts to prepare the class for the AP test and I found it very helpful. Using sound files in the classroom can promote better study habits, because students can listen to letures at their own convenience and replay parts of the lecture. Teachers can also add different content to their podcasts to aide in learning, including historical speeches and even videos using Vodcast. Podcasts also encourage students to read more through audio books, thus helping in the area of reading comprhension.

I obtained the following video from YouTube. I chose this video because it explains the benefits of podcasting in education. It describes how the classroom has evolved from simply downloading sounds and playing them to the class, to creating entire lectures and podcasting them. It also shows how to subscribe to an author's podcast through iTunes, and the tools needed to create your own podcast, such as a microphone and correct software.