I wanted to share a free resource for educators who are working with young students on literacy. Tons of materials including videos, course modules and more.
https://literacyessentials.org Just another resource for everyone. Have you ever wanted to create a podcast, or have your students create a podcast? Do you simply record an audio? A high-quality podcast needs a bit more work. Let’s explore 10 tools that will help you create one!
Tools for Planning and Scripting A podcast without a plan will turn out messy. You would end up making digressions. You’re already making plans for your lessons, right? You need to do the same for podcasts. You can start with this brainstorming tool. 1. bubbl.us First, you can come up with general ideas, which you’ll connect in a way that presents your big idea. With Bubbl.us, you can create a map hierarchy that will allow you to stay on topic and make complex concepts as clear as possible. 2. WriterDuet Once you have your mind map, you need to turn it into an actual script. If you’re creating a podcast with guests or your students as co-hosts, you absolutely need to provide a specific frame, so you’ll cover all topics within the given timeframe. WriterDuet is an intuitive tool that makes scripting easy. Tools for Recording and Editing Podcasts Now that you have a plan, you need to take action. Check out few tools that make the podcast recording process easy: 3. Audacity (I love this one) This is a universal tool for podcasters on budget. Good news: it’s free. Even better news: it’s very effective and easy to use. You can record an entire podcast with Audacity, and then edit out the awkward pauses and “ums”. If you get stuck or you want tips before you start recording podcasts, you can find the information you need on the forum. 4. Google Hangouts If you’re looking for the simplest free way to create podcasts, this is the one: call your guest via Google Hangouts and record the conversation. There is a catch, though: Google only lets you record the so-called Hangouts On Air, which you need to broadcast live. That won’t be a problem if you craft a detailed script with the tools suggested at the top of this list. 5. Skype Skype is a classic tool for video conferencing. You can invite your co-hosts or guests for a conference call, and discuss different educational topics according to your script. The problem is that Skype doesn’t allow you to record those conversations. However, you can do that with Audio Hijack for Mac or Free Skype Call Recordfor Windows. 6. GarageBand (one of my favorites due to ease... if only my school had Macs) GarageBand is a classic iOS app for editing audio files. It’s simple and free, but it works for basic editing. You can easily use it for editing podcasts and adding fresh sounds in the background. 7. Express Scribe It’s important to provide a transcription of your podcast. Some of your students are not native speakers and they might not understand every word you say. The transcription will make it easier for them to understand your point. Express Scribe helps you transcribe the audio recording without much effort. 8. Freesound How about adding some drama to the podcast? Your students won’t like dry, endless talking. Of course you can alter the tone of your voice to get a dramatic effect, but that won’t be enough. Thanks to this free archive of sounds, you and your students can create professional-like podcasts that capture and hold the listener’s attention. From birds to whisper ambiance sounds, you can find any kind of theme that would fit into your podcast. Tools for Sharing Podcasts How will you share it with your students? Here's a few new ways to do that. 9. Buzzsprout Podcast hosting doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. In fact, you can get it for free. Thanks to Buzzsprout, you can start your own show and share it not only with your students, but with the whole world, too. You can share your podcasts via Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and other media. Plus, you’ll get statistics that show where your listeners are coming from and what devices they use to listen to your podcasts. The free plan gives you hosting for 90 days and 2 hours of free uploads per month. That should be enough for you to try how podcasting works for you and your students. If you want to get indefinite hosting and up to 3 hours of podcasts each month, you can opt for a plan that costs only $12 per month. 10. MailChimp If you want to create a private podcast to share with your students, get their emails and put them in your list of subscribers. Then, you can send the podcasts as exclusive content through awesome email messages. Why use MailChimp when you can simply send the podcast as an attachment? This tool lets you create beautiful messages in the form of newsletters. The free plan lets you send up to 12,000 emails per month to 2,000 subscribers. That should be enough for your needs as a teacher. I have many other suggestions and sites for podcasting. Click here For more information: click here |
Dawn TushInstructional Facilitator @ Pauline Central, Topeka, KS Archives
December 2020
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