Kids Creating Podcasts? Yep!

A few weeks ago, we launched TLR Radio, a student podcast about YA Lit. Each week, we gather five or six students together for about twenty minutes to talk about what they are reading. The conversation is easy and fluid. It is quite engaging. One of the boys who has appeared on the TLR Radio podcast is Jimmy, whose 20% Time project is the NFL Off-Season Guide. Last week, Jimmy decided that he wanted to do a podcast about the NFL off-season transactions. Today, he created his first podcast.

Jimmy and I took about fifteen minutes to go through the process of creating a podcast. We found a recorder that is compatible with Chromebooks, TwistedWave. Jimmy then created a free account on Podbean.com. He also created a cool logo for his podcast on LogoGarden.com. 

Creating a logo on LogoGarden.com

After creating the logo, he was ready to record. He opened TwistedWave, went to the hall, found a quiet space, and recorded his thoughts about the NFL off-season thus far. 

The TwistedWave interface, ready to record

Jimmy then saved the sound file to his Google Drive in MP3 format. Now he was ready to sign in to his Podbean.com account, upload his podcast file and publish it.

Uploading the sound file to Podbean.com

As soon as he published his podcast on Podbean.com, Jimmy was able to get the embed code, open an HTML gadget on his website, paste in the embed code, and he had a podcast gadget on his website. Now those who go to Jimmy's website (NFL Off-season Guide) can listen to his podcast. 

This process is another example of the kind of learning these kids are experiencing. They learn new technology tools everyday and use these tools wisely in order to express their learning.