Panic about Podcasting? Pshaw!

Edugadget, one of my favorite new Ed-Tech sites, tackled podcasting about 10 days ago (yes, I’m running a bit behind in my blogging). It has a very nice write up about the evolution of podcasting and some interesting thoughts about its future. However, the conclusion is summarized by the title, “Don’t worry about podcasting… yet”. His point is that since there isn’t any great software out to create podcasts and it’s still a slight challenge to post them, educators shouldn’t bother jumping on the podcast wagon. I do agree that it isn’t as easy to create podcasts as it will be in a year, but I’m not sure that’s a reason to simply shelve the technology for now.

Thinking about the process that I do to create a podcast, there is nothing so complicated that a middle school student couldn’t handle it. Our middle school students have tackled garage band without ever once having a teacher help them out. They’re wizards with that program by now. I have no doubt at all that they could start creating podcasts with little to no help of mine. However, if I was going to point them down that road, I’d definitely make sure that I was there to guide them along.

Just because a new technology isn’t user friendly yet, doesn’t mean that teachers should simply avoid it. Treat it the same way you treat any piece of technology: one more tool to employ in the appropriate situation. I firmly believe that teachers don’t need to know a piece of software to teach students to learn it. Podcasting is no different at all. So while you may not need to “worry” about podcasting, don’t avoid it either. Check it out, thinki about it, and determine for yourself if your school can benefit from it.