Podcasting…and other revelations!

Podcasting…I am surprised to learn that I had the completely wrong definition and understanding of what a podcast was. Similar to many things in this new age, you hear a name of an application so much that you think you know what it is. What I have learned is that you really have to experiment with any application to truly understand what it is and what it does. I learned that podcasts can be audi or digital in form and are a type of internet broadcast. I had no idea that they were serial shows or recurring in nature. The podcast I chose among the many I examined, to use in my classroom is the “Just Vocabulary” Podcast that can be found in the ITunes store under the Education link. This podcast brings you two new vocabulary words per day. I can see this being used in both a high school or college course. In the high school students are preparing for their SAT and Regents exam. Vocabulary is one of the areas many students struggle with especially the non-readers. Students that read are more frequents exposed to vocabulary. This podcast is approximately 2 minutes in length and gives students exposure every day. In the same way this could be used in an undergraduate class to prepare students for their teaching exams. Although college students read very often, much of the assigned reading may not include advanced vocabulary. This preliminary exploration has opened my eyes to a whole new world of learning. These podcasts can even be downloaded and synched to your ipod daily. This would be a great bell-ringer exercise for any classroom any age.