The Ways Educators would use podcasts/vodcasts in Classroom Podcasts and vodcasts Lindsey Hagen, Sarah Buratti, Kelli Rasmussen, leKeisha Weimerskirch Research Questions In your own words, what is a podcast and/or vodcast? A podcast is an episode program delivered through the Internet. They can be audio or video episodes and are free to download. I would be willing to use a podcast and/or a vodcast in my classroom. If yes, please answer the following two questions. How often would you use a podcast and/or vodcast in your classroom? What projects would you use podcasts/vodcasts for? (Choose all that apply: lesson activities, guest speakers, virtual tours, allowing students to create and update their own, other) I know how to create a podcast/vodast. Podcasts and vodcasts can only be used for grade five and up. What specific benefits do you see from the use of podcasts and vodcasts in the classroom? What specific disadvantages do you see from the use of podcasts and vodcasts in the classroom? In what ways have you seen or heard podcasts and vodcasts used in the classrooms? Introduction A podcast is an audio file that people can download onto their computers. Where did the word come from? It is a combination of “iPod” and “broadcast”. A vodcast is similar to a podcast, except it has video. The words/ideas arose in 1999; however wasn’t fully accepted until 2004. They can both be constantly updated with information from schools and non-profit organizations. Method For our research we collected our data by using www.surveymonkey.com Our sample size was 22 Winona State education students. All participants were asked the following ten questions. In conclusion, we found that over ¾ of educators are willing to use podcasts and vodcasts in their classroom. They would be most likely to use them for virtual tours and for when they have speakers. Also, about 60% of the education students who participated in the survey predicted that the students in their class would produce their own podcast or vodcast. The biggest surprise in our survey was that only 23% of the students who participated knew how to create a podcast. This shows that although there are many different types of technology available for teachers to use, including free ones such as podcasts and vodcasts, many educators do not know how to use or create them. Since our survey was only taken by 22 people, it would be more accurate if it we had a larger sample. It would also be interesting to compare our results of education students to present classroom teachers to see the current occurrences. Resources ResourcesApple. Podcasting resources. Retrieved May/12, 2010, from http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/fanfaq.html Palamar College. (2010). What are podcasts? Retrieved May/12, 2010, from http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/whatarepodcasts.htm Podcasts. (2010). Retrieved May/12, 2010, from http://www.topbits.com/podcasts.html Princeton University. (2009). Podcasts and vodcasts. Retrieved May/12, 2010, from http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/multimedia/vod_pod/ Ready...set...vodcast! (2009). T.H.E. Journal, 36(7), 20. University of Wisconsin Madison. (2010). Engage- transforming teaching and learning through technology. Retrieved May/12, 2010, from http://engage.wisc.edu/pod This graph shows that 81.8% of educators are willing to use podcasts/vodcasts in a classroom and 18.2% are not willing to use them in a classroom. These results come from question 3 of our survey of 22 people. The Ways Educators would use podcasts/vodcasts in Classroom This chart shows that the most popular way educators would use podcasts/vodcasts would be for virtual tours (81%). Also, 71.4% of educators surveyed would use podcasts/vodcasts for guest speakers.