Podcasting Tips for Teachers

If you're a professor or educator looking for innovative ways of teaching, try these podcasting tips.

Podcasting involves making a recording of your lectures and making these available for download on the internet.

Here's the podcasting tip for educators: Record two versions of each of your lectures.

1. The first is a straightforward recording of your lecture. Simply record yourself while you read your lecture.

2. The second is a recording of the actual delivery of your lecture in class (assuming, of course, your students give permission).

Your lecture podcasts are not meant to replace classroom participation. They're mainly there as additional help material for those who wish to relive the class they cut, or rather, missed.

True, a recording of the actual class session cannot replace experiencing the moment firsthand, but at least you'll be able to capture the divinely inspired modifications in your lecture. You'll also immortalize in electronic form those unforgettable encounters between teacher and highly interesting students.

I remember my Marketing professor who, after being bombarded with questions by a pushy student, quipped: "I enjoy being asked so many questions, especially when I can't answer them. I enjoy it so much, I remember the incident just before exam week." The class laughed.

Yes, you can read the above text, but it's different when you actually hear it.

Anyway, I challenge teachers out there to try it. Watch what happens when students know they'll be on a podcast. Will they be more creative in their answers? Will they participate more? Will they tell their friends to listen in? Will they write about it?

Will companies targetting your students want to advertise in your podcast? :-)

So many possibilities. All that's left is for you to try it.

[ First posted on 11/07/2005 by Manuel Viloria ]