Podcast as an Educational Tool

Podcast can be a very useful tool within the field of education for a variety of reasons. One of the reasons that I like to use podcasts, is that a majority of the time you can get them for free off the internet, which leaves more resources available to use elsewhere within your classroom. They are also made available to everyone, so if a student was to miss the podcast within the classroom, they would be able to watch it at home on their computer or download it onto their ipod or some other type of personal recording device and watch it anywhere the wish to. Podcast also allow students access to different cultures and ideas that they may not come into contact with on a regular basis, they help students become more of a global citizen. The podcast I would love to use within my own classroom was one created by PBS. It is based on a series entitled The War, that they created about WWII and the lives of some of the soldiers that survived the war. I feel this is a great learning tool for students because it is first hand accounts of the war captured on video. This information about the war is becoming rarer and harder to find as that generation of people die off. It also allows the students to make a personal connection to the event because they are able to see and feel what these soldiers were going through during one of the most important time periods of American and world history. It is also created by PBS, which is a very reliable source of information, and not done by one individual or small group of people who may present a biased view of the war. Overall I feel podcast have great potential to be valuable learning and teaching tools.