Podcasting to learn… and an antidote to screen time?

This post originally appeared on the Christensen Institute blog and is republished here with permission.

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This piece was co-authored with Daniel Curtis.

If video killed the radio star, then podcasting is resurrecting her.

The medium has exploded in recent years. Now it seems like everyone has a podcast, including us, the authors of this article.

Until recently, the youth medium was mainly aimed at an adult audience. But the children have begun to realize.

With waves of concerns about smartphones, social media and student mental health intensified by the recent release of Jonathan Haidt The anxious generationSociety is looking for solutions.

Yes to more free play for children. Yes to less social networks. But since children are unlikely to completely abandon technology, podcasts may also be among the benevolent digital alternatives we need.

Demand trends across all age groups reveal the growing popularity of podcasts. Between 2019 and 2021, the listener base of podcasts in the children's genre, aimed at younger children, grew by 20 percent. Last year, almost half of the young people surveyed between 13 and 24 years old had listened to a podcast in the previous month. an increase of 57 percent from 2018. Now, the media giants like Netflix, amazon and Warner Brothers are entering the fold to meet the growing demand for content.

The potential for podcasts to support healthy development and learning makes this trend worth taking advantage of for children, parents, and teachers alike. As an entertainment alternative, podcasts can swap screen time with thought-provoking audio-based entertainment. In the classroom, educators are leveraging podcasts to make learning more engaging, personalized, and connected to the real world.

A common explanation for the growth of kids' podcasts is that parents took advantage of them during the pandemic to get their homebound kids off their screens. Parents' concerns about the impacts of screen time have not eased since the lockdown was lifted. In fact, it remains their main concern. Research on the detrimental effects of screen time on mental health gives you reason to worry.

But it's not just parents' move away from screens that drives kids to podcasts. Pressure from adults to listen was the least cited factor among children ages 6 to 12 surveyed. The most popular reason: “podcasts are fun to listen to.”

To learn more about the growth in popularity of podcasts among kids, one of us (Michael) spoke with Guy Raz, the podcasting pioneer behind “How I Build This” and, most recently, founder of the podcast studio for kids Tinkercast. The studio was an early leader in the genre with hit shows like “Wow in the World,” a science-focused educational program for kids ages 3 to 12 that began in 2017.

Raz explained that the medium's lack of visual elements is actually an advantage, as it opens up creative possibilities that writers can take advantage of to tell more imaginative and engaging stories.

“You just need a microphone, good writing and some good sound effects, and you can build any world you want (…) The visual platform is inside a child's brain,” Raz said.

According to Raz, involving children in the active story-building process also has real benefits. “This is published research that indicates that audio triggers certain neurological reactions in the brain, essentially triggering creativity because every child's brain imagines the story differently,” she said.

But in addition to the cognitive benefits inherent in audio-based storytelling, podcasts that are educational in nature also promote learning through their content. For example, each episode of “Wow in the World” bases its fun and silly stories on serious, peer-reviewed science. What's more, audio alone does not overload working memory, allowing students to possibly better absorb the message.

Considering their engaging style, educational content, and real-world relevance, it should come as no surprise that many teachers are incorporating podcasts into the classroom.

An important way for schools to address Crisis-level chronic absenteeism rates that have persisted since the pandemic is finding new ways to inspire your students to love learning. The growing popularity of podcasts makes them a promising intervention. And, with the growing repository of podcasts for kids, it's never been easier to customize podcast-based learning to each student's interests, experiences, and readiness.

But modernizing curricula takes time and teachers are busy. To make incorporating their podcasts into the classroom turnkey, some studios develop their own curriculum for their episodes. Guy shared that his school-oriented arm, Tinkerclass, develops lessons to drive project-based learning (or “podjects,” as they call them) which he says helps develop critical skills like communication and collaboration.

Schools have long served as conduits for media freedom by introducing and engaging students in learning that extends beyond school. And when podcast studios like Tinkercast create robust curriculum, not only are these tools more likely to make their way into classrooms, but they're also easier to leverage for deeper, more joyful learning.

Podcasting alone won't solve the screen time problem, but it doesn't have to. An increasing number of screen-free learning tools are emerging to meet the demand for learning innovation without mental health concerns. For example, say child It recently launched ToyBot, designed to encourage students to become more active participants in their learning through dialogue and play.

But at a time when more and more parents are concerned about videos, screen time and social media, a walk around the neighborhood while escaping into a world of audio storytelling could be a practical and important step forward. .