Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007
Calm and collected, 13-year-old Jinan Ali waited for her cue to go on-air. Then she took a breath and started the show.
Colorful lights blinked on the laptop screen before her as she transformed her narrative poem ‘‘Where I Am From” into a podcast, a digital recording for an Internet radio show.
As a student in Adam Umak’s Language Arts class, Jinan not only got a chance to write poetry and learn about literature, but she also played radio host and producer, scriptwriter and editor, uploading her poetry to the Internet as a podcast.
In the process, she has become a published author with millions in her potential audience.
‘‘I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Jinan, an eighth-grader at Thurmont Middle School.
Umak and several other educators across Frederick County Public Schools, have discovered the potential of podcasts. They use them to enhance classes, engage students and translate classic subjects into the digital age.
Using podcasting in education is a nationwide trend lead by colleges, which were the first to record lectures and class materials and post them online.
Frederick County educators are just now exploring ways to use podcasts in the classroom, said Amy Boehman, a technology curriculum specialist for Frederick County Public Schools.
‘‘It has really taken off in the last four to five years,” Boehman said.
Some Frederick County teachers, such as Umak, encourage students to create podcasts using class assignments. Others have turned class material into digital recordings, so students may download them onto a computer or mp3 player.
‘‘You can use podcasts in any subject area,” Boehman said. ‘‘You can do interviews, or record student research ... Any content that a child learns can be turned into a podcast.”
Boehman started using podcasting last year, when she was a third-grade teacher at Tuscarora Elementary School. Together with her students, Boehman recorded audio exercises in math, language arts, geography and astronomy.
One of her recorded exercises encourages the listener to guess a geographical location from various clues. Another provides definitions for new words and helps students expand vocabulary. The interactive exercises helped engage even problem readers and gave them an opportunity to practice their skills, she said.
‘‘With podcasting they are the star of the show,” she said. ‘‘I wish I had known about it earlier.”
Podcasts give students a chance to display their best work online and then share it with parents and relatives, no matter how far away they live, Boehman said.
Last year, one of Boehman’s students had a chance to share his podcasts with an aunt and uncle who live in Korea.
‘‘What could be more engaging and motivating than creating an actual broadcast that your class, school, parents, community and the world will have a chance to listen to?” she said.
As a technology specialist, Boehman is now training teachers to use recording software called Audacity, which this year is available to all county teachers. The program allows anyone to record a podcast on a computer.
Eventually, teachers in Frederick County may also be able to use vodcasting, a version of podcasting that includes video, Boehman said.
In Frederick County, the biggest advocates for podcasting are teachers who have seen its benefits in their classroom.
Knowing that their writing will appear online, Umak’s students don’t mind doing extra research and spending more time editing their papers, he said.
‘‘They get a kick out of it every time,” he said. ‘‘It’s cutting edge and there’s always been enthusiasm.”
What is a podcast?
