Establishing a podcast culture in the upper primary school

Aims of the project: to empower students to independently manage a podcast show featuring regular weekly broadcasts to an audience within and beyond the school community. Students to share subjects and interests they’re passionate about and potentially make new connections from their audience.

Students responsible for the planning, content, hosting, recording, editing and broadcast.

Identity: Writing, presenting, recording and broadcasting roles

Establishing identity, visiting speakers and experts, use of mentor texts in the form of recommended age appropriate podcasts. Introduce students to cycle that will ultimately sustain itself with students supporting students.

Content: what makes a compelling podcast?

Research/mentor texts: find great examples of podcasts based around the Adam Buxton model of guest interview, ramble chat, produced with jingles and theme music. Add examples of student recorded podcasts on the hosting platform.

Technical: Recording and editing

– microphones and adapters, software for recording and editing (Garageband on the ipad)

Recording space (Year 6 studio) and timetabling organisation – QR code google spreadsheet

Links to creative commons sound and music.

Packaging and distribution using pixlr to create artwork.

Broadcast and distribution: Finding an audience

Ultimate purpose of the project beyond an understanding of broadcast media is to reach an audience.

firstly of children in the school community (as defined by other children, parents and friends) and then other international schools.

Through social media, through edtech and educator network.

Hosting

Podcasts uploaded unlisted on the Year group Youtube channel and collated using padlet which allows for comments and “likes” to monitor engagement.

https://www.teachingideas.co.uk/multimedia/podcasting-0

• Introduce web feeds and aggregators to your students while creating your podcast: Feed readers are becoming one of the most essential tools for internet users simply because of the almost overwhelming amount of content available online. Unfortunately, many people haven’t gotten “hooked into” subscribing to a site’s content yet. This is a skill that is easy to teach along with a classroom podcast, and it is an essential one to our kids’ ability to navigate and access information on the web.

• Discuss good blogging practices while creating your podcast: Because many podcasters post their work in a blog anyway, blogging practices can be introduced through podcasts as well. Emphasizing the importance of including links and responding to content found in other places are skills that show children how to “connect” the information that they are discovering and to continue conversations with others. The skills necessary for effective participation in threaded conversations can be taught while commenting on blogs/podcasts as well.