Building a technological basis for your students can be a high task if you don't know where to start. In some cases, educators can assume that students have more knowledge about the technology than they really have. However, it may be very beneficial to present students the most social aspects of technology at an early age. In this case, podcasting can help close the gap between the curriculum in class, technological education and real world applications.
Tequilla Richardson, technology coach of the Annistown Primary School of Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia, and Lorna Elizabeth Baldwin, also technology coach and teacher in Annistown Elementary, discuss how they organized their podcast programs for their students, the obstacles they faced in doing so, and how the podcast program has impacted the students in general.
Primary students to podcasts hosts
Creating a podcast at any stage can be a difficult task. Appreciating the format of the program, knowing what their issues will be, understanding the rhythm and cadence, aligning guests, production and publication … The list can follow and follow.
Doing this with primary students may seem almost impossible. However, given adequate training, they can become hosts of podcasts with much to say. As Baldwin points out, dividing a podcast format into simpler parts can help relieve the process, which leads to excellent conversations.
“It is difficult as primary school that children speak as if they were radio personalities,” says Baldwin. “They have no idea what is happening. So I had to divide it into three separate entities in my school. We talk about social studies, events that occur in the community with our school, and then we have this thing called 'Portrait of a graduate.' It is our topic for this year.
How is an episode of real podcast?
“(We would say) let's make a podcast of three or four minutes talking about what it means to be a leader, and they would talk about it,” says Baldwin. “Then (Tequilla and I) we made a cross schools about empathy, which means being empathetic. We took around six of our third grade students and talked to us. We had the webcam, it was being recorded for the podcast.”
Not all issues are predetermined. Students are encouraged to present their own as well.
“I tell the children that if they have an idea they want to talk about, deliver it,” says Baldwin. “We will write a script for you, and then we will continue and produce it.”
Students and teachers collaborate in a shocking project that helps students talk about what they know in a relatively stress -free environment and under the guidance of their educators. In this way, they are introducing themselves in the finest technology points, while improving their communication skills and learning more about themselves, with each other and the world around them.
How can you create a podcast program
Build a podcast program may sound discouraging, with equipment to buy (if you still do not have it available), an element of time to discover (when to rehearse, when to edit) and the question of how to put students on board and get involved. If you are interested in creating a podcast program that involves your students, Richardson advises you to look for someone who has already started one.
“I actually had another coach of IT to visit me,” she says. She knows I have a podcast. She has listened to Lorna, and she (wanted to do this). She came to see me and choose my brain in terms of things to think about, the purpose of (the podcast), the equipment to use, that kind of thing. So I think he really starts to approach someone who is already doing it successfully and see what he implies. “
Baldwin also points out that when making a podcast, helping students understand the format can make a difference.
“From the student's perspective, learn that it is a conversation and not a (rapid fire summary is important),” says Baldwin. “What you want and I strive for students to understand is to forget that microphones are there and talk to each other as if they were talking to their friend. I think the children get trapped (coming with their scripts) and just want to read their part.”
It can be difficult to obtain an organic reaction from a primary school student when putting in an unknown situation (or that they get a lot of training). With the correct approach, students can better understand how to be at the time and adopt the conversation.
With respect to the programs used, Richardson and Baldwin keep it relatively simple.
“Riverside is the editing piece where you gather the episode with your music and all things,” says Richardson. “Then it is published in Spotify. Therefore, it is a real thing live, like a Spotify radio station, you could look for it and follow us and the children have the opportunity to leave their mark on the real world.”
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