As part of my doctoral studies, I recently undertook some work focussed on the use of podcasts and vodcasts in educational settings. I must admit, to date I have not really explored podcasts and vodcasts and they have not been widely used in any of the academic institutions that I have worked at.
Podcasts are “a method for distributing multimedia audio and video files over the Internet using the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) format; these can be played back on mobile devices and personal computers” (Jalali & Bialy, 2019, p. 43).
A video podcast, or a Vodcast, is a type of podcast that is produced as a video instead of an audio file.
A concern within our current body of literature regarding the use of podcasts in education is related to how podcasts can be designed to best add value to student learning (Drew, 2017). If you scour the internet, you will find plenty of guidance on how to create a podcast. Many individuals advocate for keeping the length of a podcast short, to keep the audience’s attention. However, some scholars believe that short podcasts “can fail to encourage students to engage in the higher-order thinking” (Drew, 2017, p. 57).
I am very excited to explore the use of podcasting and vodcasting within K-12 schools. I feel that there is a wide variety of different ways that podcasts can be used, in all types of curricula. I believe that the use of these types of media can also help to make learning material more accessible and help institutions embrace the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework (CAST, 2021).
If you have never contemplated creating a podcast before… I’d highly recommend giving it a try. Most smartphones, laptops, and tablets come with a microphone and an audio recording feature that can be used to create your first podcast. Recently I created a vodcast using the Clips application on my iPad Pro. It was really easy to create an amazing project, and I loved the fact that you can turn on live captioning and edit the script that is produced with ease.
What’s stopping you… try out podcasts and vodcasts with your students this upcoming academic year!
References
CAST. (2021). The UDL guidelines. https://udlguidelines.cast.org/
Drew, C. (2017). Edutaining audio: an exploration of education podcast design possibilities. Educational Media International, 54(1), 48–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2017.1324360
Jalali, A., & Bialy, S. E. (2019). Podcasting 101: top tips on educational podcasting. Education in Medicine Journal, 11(2), 43–47.