Podcasting may not be the latest trend but it surely comes under the effective ways of using Internet technology. The term “Podcast” is a combination of “pod” and “broadcast”. The word “Pod” is derived from “iPod”, a portable media player and a product of Apple.
A podcast is a type of digital media which contains a verbal speech, music, or a combination of both. Podcasting is similar to radio broadcasting, it usually has a single producer (or group of people producing it) and the audio transmission is sent to lots of listeners. The benefits of podcasts from an educational perspective are limitless. In addition to reading and learning by lectures, listening to podcasts is an another way of learning. Let’s learn some uses of podcasts in education.
Teachers can create podcasts for distribution of supplemental information or review of previously covered information.
Podcasts are the powerful learning tools for auditory learners.
Creating and sharing podcasts improves students’ effective listening and speaking skills.
Students can create their own podcasts to share their learning experiences with each other and also with students of other schools.
The above mentioned are the few uses of podcasts in education. There are many tools that help teachers to create and distribute podcasts easily. In this article, we provide you with information about those free tools. Keep on reading!
Audacity:
Audacity is a free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for many operating systems namely Windows, Mac, GNU/LINUX and others. It has a large range of keyboard shortcuts for creating and editing sounds.
MP3myMP3 Sound Recorder:
MP3myMP3 recorder is an audio recording software created by Digital Liquid. It allows users to record from any source quickly and easily. Recording from your sound card with MP3myMP3 means you can record a sample sound from streaming audio or video on the internet, record Skype calls for business, create MP3s from Vinyl. With this awesome feature, educators can record any tutorial they listen to on their computer.
Podbean:
Podbean is an easy and powerful way to start podcasting. Podbean allows users to create professional podcasts in minutes without any programming knowledge. Its user-friendly interface allows anyone to upload, publish, manage and promote their podcasts in just a few steps.
Educators can create their podcasts and share them with students and colleagues. It also helps you earn by selling your contents to listeners. Podbean’s website contains many featured as well as popular podcasts by experts from around the world.
PodOmatic:
PodOmatic is the largest community of independent podcasters on the planet. Numerous podcasts are available on PodOmatic: users can browse through them by subject or area of interest. It also allows users to easily and quickly make minicasts, a combination of audio and images.
VozMe:
VozMe is an effective web tool that converts a text into an audio file. Creating an audio podcast is much easier and very effective with VozMe. It carries only two steps: type or copy/paste the text you want as a podcast in the box provided on the website and hit create mp3. It generates an instant podcast for you to download it for free.
Odigo:
Odigo is similar to VozMe but has a few more advantages. Bloggers can turn their readers into listeners as Odigo transforms your blog posts into high quality and ad-supporting broadcasts.
These are a few free tools to create and manage podcasts. We hope this information is useful for you to know about the benefits of podcasts and the tools to create them freely. We’d like to know more tools and resources like these. If you know a few, please feel free to share with us in the comment box. You can also share with us your ways of podcasting in your educational activities. img src