Podcast Blog

Podcasts are a terrific way for my students to access television and radio broadcasts about themes that dovetail with what I'm teaching. For example, I teach a war literature unit around All Quiet on the Western Front. The podcast "Wired for War", featuring Terri Gross' interview with an author about his book on robots used in battle, relates to the theme of dehumanization of the enemy. Strategists in Nevada are guiding manless missles towards human targets, entirely distanced from the damage they inflict. Seinfeld episodes are another podcast treasure. In the past, I have waited to tape a re-run of a particular Seinfeld episode illustrating, say, dramatic irony. It would obviously be much more convenient if podcasts of Seinfeld exist. Last year I extended the teaching of Lord of the Flies with a unit on human nature and human behavior. Students wrote on the implications of several experiments about human nature including the Milgram experiment, the Zimbardo prison experiment, and the "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" experiment. If podcasts of these (or more recent experiments) exist, I wouldn't need to continue ordering DVD's from Facing History and Ourselves and Netflix. Plus, students could repeatedly view the experiments about which they're writing.

In addition to finding podcasts on relevant themes, I can see having my freshmen journalism students "syndicate" their writings via podcasts. I'm not sure how this differs, though, from distributing their writings via blogs. I could also have students listen to podcasts of masterful interviewers like Oprah, Charlie Rose, and Terri Gross, to hone their own interviewing skills. When it comes to writing opinion pieces (or simply assessing if the media is balanced), it might be useful to listen to a podcast of a debate like the one I heard today about the criminalization of HIV.

Another advantage of podcasts is that students can access them on their own outside class time. Or, if they're working on their I-Search Project in the library, for example, they can access podcasts relevant to their particular topic.

Two last brainstorms: students could, use GarageBand to make their own podcast 1920's projects about Prohibition, automobiles, fashion, fads, etc, all of which could include narration, music and artwork (photos and possibly statistical graphs?) Finally, students could listen to stories read by professional actors, on Selected Shorts podcasts. I used to take students to these readings in New York City, having studied the stories ahead of time.