Get Those Kids Podcasting!

[Randy Rodgers]

Podcasting has to be one of the most exciting and easy-to-use tools of the read/write web. With a minimal amount of software and hardware, students can create audio or video pieces and share them with a global audience. My daughter has begun a podcast series, called Reagan Reviews. Can you imagine her excitement when her first visitors and downloaders were from the other side of the world, in China? She now has quite the respectable number of followers and subscribers (I am sure it's way more than subscribe to Daddy's blog...), and this has come about with just a small bit of publicity. Namely, I posted information about the podcast in Twitter and on my own blog, and I emailed a few friends. The quality of the reviews she is doing will take care of the rest.
Podcasting allows students to write purposefully and for a real-world audience. They also encourage creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving. Mac users have all of the required tools already built-in. PC users can get started very easily, as well. Audacity is a free audio-editing software tool, microphones can be purchased for a few dollars, standard digital cameras with movie modes are sufficient quality for video podcasts (or, webcams are a very affordable alternative--starting around $20), Movie Maker is included with XP and Vista machines and is very sufficient for editing podcasts, and numerous sites offer free hosting.