Example #1 of Uses of Technology in the Social Studies Classroom: Podcasts

As was mentioned in the previous post, technology must come together with history in order to better educate and interest the youth. By doing this, it can allow history to be engaging and interesting, yet still certainly educational. There are plenty of great ways to incorporate technology into education. Unfortunately, there are also many ways to incorporate technology into education that is awful. However, as the world of technology advances at a rapidly increasing rate, better ways of using technology for education are being developed. Uses of short films and documentaries, Google earth, online interactive and collaborative games, virtual reality, and podcasts are starting to show up in classrooms more often than ever before. This post will be discuss of the uses of the last format listed: podcasts.

A podcast microphone.
With Anchor, all you need is a phone.

Podcasts are a great way for students to learn, either by listening to them or by making them themselves. I had to make a podcast for a college history class and really enjoyed it and thought it was a beneficial educational experience. If one is to have their students listen to podcasts, they need to be short podcasts or excerpts from a larger podcast. When students see it is just ten minutes instead of an hour they will be less discouraged to actually listen to it. Furthermore, they can do it on their own time. They can listen to it while working out, driving to or from school, in the hallways between classes, at lunch, etc.

A great and creative way for students to also further their education is to make a podcast themselves. Anchor is a fantastic, and most importantly free, podcast app that can be used by students. It is super simple to use and has basic editing options to make it sound professional. You can also just use your phone to record the podcast. One example how students can use this is to summarize an event in history. Instead of writing a paper, they can make a podcast. Or instead of giving a presentation or another type of project, a podcast can be made. Then the other students would listen to the student’s podcast. I do not want students to use a podcast to avoid presenting to the whole class, because that is an important fear to confront and skill to have. So, I would make sure that if students do make a podcast, the class would have to listen together, or individually and answer some questions about it. The questions would be made up by the student that did the podcast. Another option would be to do a group podcast which could help produce collaborative and team working skills

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