Instructional Podcasts

A podcast is a great instructional tool that I think will be used more in the near future in the K-12  classrooms.  There are podcasts on almost every topic imaginable.  A podcast can be an informational source for teachers and for students.  Teachers can use podcasts to learn more about an upcoming topic or about professional development.  The podcasts can be used for students to have an auditory way to learn information on their own schedule.  It is also easy to create your own podcast.  It would be useful to create podcasts of lessons or strategies in order to help students who were absent from class or need to hear the lesson again when doing work at home.  This would be very useful for students with learning disabilities.  It would allow students to focus more during class than worrying about getting all the notes down the first time around. It would be great when accompanied with notes.  It would also be useful for teachers to read material for a student who is visually impaired.  For foreign language learners, teachers could post podcasts in the foreign language for practice.  It would also be a fun project for students to put speeches into a podcast showing their language ability.  Students could also create a radio advertisement for certain topics using the technology of a podcast.