Put a Mic on It! How to Introduce Podcasting into Your Class
Mateo Sancho Cardiel, Social Sciences, Human Services, and Criminal Justice
We often emphasize the significance of amplifying student voices. Taking this notion literally, I decided to conceptualize a writing intensive course where I teach Introduction to Sociology with a special guest in the classroom: a microphone. I chose to transform the traditional approach to formal and informal writing and, on one hand, assign a podcast final project and, on the other hand, record and edit our weekly in class discussions. The outcome far exceeded my expectations. These are some of the lessons I learned from the experience:
- Enhanced engagement: Students exhibit a heightened level of attentiveness during discussions due to the recording process, fostering articulate and cohesive participation. The silence while “on air” was impressive and so was the quality of the participation.
- Promotes content review: Listening to themselves and the very nature of the editing requires repetition, and that fosters a more intimate understanding of the material, becoming a natural and thorough review.
- Portable and shareable format: Facilitates easy sharing among peers and family, fostering pride of their work and out of the class conversations.
- Expands literacy skills: Encourages exploration of new literacy avenues such as sound editing and speech condensation, complementing the traditional approach to formal and informal writing.
- Encourages creativity and human involvement: Requires students to incorporate complementary elements like music or soundbites connected to the course content, fostering creativity and human engagement, thereby circumventing over-reliance on AI.
- Maybe the most important one: students loved it!
Of course, for the instructor, this requires some extra effort and skills to deal with the technology that recording and editing a podcast entails. But it was totally worth it. Here are some basics:
The microphone: I use El Gato Wave 3, and here you can find the full package. Get a grant to acquire it…
The recording/editing program: It’s called Audacity. IT can install it in the class computer and it is the one that you will find at the library’s podcast booth.
The extension that you need to record some music/audio from your computer: It’s called Chrome Audio Capture
And, if students are comfortable putting their work out there, this is Spreaker, a free podcast server.
Would you like to try?
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