Podcasting in the Classroom

If you have been following me, you may remember my research on the Flipped Classroom and how I found it be greatly beneficial to student learning.  For those of you getting up to speed, the flipped classroom involves giving instructional content for homework and using class time to reinforce and build upon independent learning.  It sounds a little like taking the book home and reading a chapter before coming to class right? Well advancements in educational technology have allowed teachers to get much more creative; podcasting is a medium teachers use to convey recorded online mini-lectures to students.  Teachers are also doing this by creating videos of themselves teaching to an empty classroom.  Each variety would involve 10-15 minutes of information/content that a student (and potentially their parents) could view on their own time and come to class prepared to synthesize their learning and participate in activities that reinforce learning. 

I currently listen to several podcasts on a daily basis, so I am pretty familiar with how it all works.  For my potential classroom I could post podcasts to my teacher website and have kids listen and answer some questions that would prove their participation in the at home activity.  I see myself blending the use of my podcasts and videos, and others' podcasts and videos to gives my students some variety.  Podcasting, would be the easier to do than creating a video.  Their are several benefits to podcasting:

A. Students have archive of information in podcast they are able to access anytime.

B. I am able to share information and news letters with parents using the teacher website.

C. Students an access podcast just about anywhere, especially secondary students.

D. Podcasts engage students in a new and creative way.

E. Maximizes class time

Since completely my research into the flipped classroom I have intended on implementing the flipped model to my future classroom.  One excellent feature of flipping is that it doesn't need to be 100% flip or traditional lecture styles; a teacher can use the flipped model when they feel it appropriate and as they feel comfortable using it.