Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

There are many benefits to having students podcast in the classroom. These are simply a few to get you thinking how podcasting could positively impact your learning space.

1. Helps Students with Engagement

   • When students love what they’re doing they become instantly engaged. If they get to pick the topics, they listen to they feel those are interesting.

2. Improves Listening Skills

   • It can be hard to find ways to foster listening skills, but podcasts offer a great way to improve this skill.

3. Promotes Student Independence

   • Letting them choose what to listen to or talk about promotes student independence.

4. Promotes Reflective Thinking

   • Not only do students listen out of interest, but this is taken a step further when students are asked to reflect on what they were listening. This involves skills such as thinking, writing, and reading.

5. The 4 C's

   • Creativity—with podcasting, students are given the opportunity to bring out their personality and prior knowledge on the subject they have chosen. If students are given the creative liberty to create a podcast, they are given the freedom to choose how to deliver said topic or subject to their listeners which fosters creative thinking.

   • Collaboration—podcasts can be used as small or large group projects where students work together in order to create the podcast.

   • Communication—the goal of a podcast is to communicate an idea or topic. When students create a podcast, they must communicate effectively and clearly in order to get their message to their audience.

   • Critical Thinking—with a podcast, a student is given a few guidelines for creating their topic and the possibilities are limitless. This enables students to think critically as to how they want to sequentially produce their podcast.