Here are 5 classroom uses for podcasts that will transform traditional methods into fun, unique and stimulating methods to teach, learn, and communicate. Not only is podcasting fun, it is an extremely valuable educational tool that has endless possibilities to share learning materials with a vast audience! The following are 5 lesson ideas that you can use when incorporating podcasting into your classroom.

#1: Prepare Substitute Teachers
Podcasts present an excellent way for teachers to prepare ahead of time and leave instructions for substitute teachers. Podcasts could allow you to suggest subject matter that should be covered as well as demonstrate how a typical class period runs.

How you can implement this into your classroom:
Record a podcast with a week’s worth of instructions for your substitute teacher to use with your English class. Break the podcasts down so that there is one for each day you will be absent. Have instructions about class assignments for diagramming sentences, homework instructions for reading assignments, class assignments for presenting a poem, and a day for class discussion about the book they read.

#2: Engage Parents
Podcasts are a fun new way to share students’ work with their parents.  You can use podcasts to communicate and engage parents with activities your students are participating in.

How you can implement this into your classroom:
Take your art students to a museum as a field trip. After the field trip, record students’ impressions of the art they viewed. Ask them to talk about their favorite or least favorite piece of art, what they liked or didn't like about it, and how they, if asked, would recreate the piece's subject matter. Then post the audio recordings as podcasts to the school's Web site, and allow parents to access them.

#3: Assign Collaborative Student Projects
Your students will be excited to work in groups when you suggest they use podcasts for the assignment. You can plan group projects and have students incorporate audio or video into their podcasts.

How you can implement this into your classroom:
Find an audio podcast of a play to use in your drama class, such as Our Town. Split your class into groups and have the students choose the parts they'd like to portray. Then play the podcast for each group, and ask them to silently act out the play with only the dialog and sound effects of the podcast as guidance. Create a critiquing rubric including originality, accurateness, blocking, and entertainment value. Ask the students to use the rubric to critique each group's interpretation of the play.

#4: Keep Absent Students Up-to-date
Podcasts can help keep all of your students on the same page, including those that are absent! Absent students can use your podcasts to see class lectures, daily activities, homework assignments, handouts, and more.

How you can implement this into your classroom:

Save all of your math class’ handouts as digital images on your computer. Place the images in a media program and convert them into a video slideshow. Upload the slideshow as a video podcast to the class Web site so that the materials can be available for absent students.

#5: Create School Announcements
Podcasts can be a really fun and creative way for your students to make classroom or school announcements, no matter what age they are! When you incorporate podcasts into your announcements, students can be kept informed with what is going on around them.

How you can implement this into your classroom: 
Let your students host a morning news outlet where they can showcase podcasts they have created.  Students should be encouraged to interview their peers, the administration, and other teachers to find newsworthy stories to report on.  Schools can use the podcasts to make announcements via their Web site.

Can’t get enough and want more examples to integrate podcasts into your lesson plans? All of the content from this post came from the EdTech UNconference workbook “Integrating Podcasts in the Classroom.” You can gain access to 1,000s of other online learning lessons and more with a membership to the EdTech UNconference! 

PS: The LIVE EdTech UNconference online Session "Podcasting for Beginners" with Steven Katz is Friday, October 22 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (USA). Don't miss out! If you haven't yet registered for the EdTech UNconference, click here to learn more and join thousands of other educators around the world who are learning to use technology in their classrooms.