What is a podcasts and how can I use one with my students?

Podcasts were mentioned on this blog and I have heard about a few other teachers that are interested. I have also heard from people that have no idea what a podcast is. If you are interested in creating a podcast email me. We have a few teachers that are interested but they are not sure how to use them in their class. If you have any ideas please post them to the blog. Podcasts are basically recorded audio or a radio broadcast saved to a file that can be played back on your computer, mp3 player, or ipod. Broadcast for ipod gave birth to the name podcast. Many podcasts on the internet are recorded daily. People are using them like a blog. You can subscribe to podcasts and they are downloaded to your device everyday without any effort by you. Creating a podcast is very easy. Prepare what you want to record use a standard computer with a microphone and free software and you created a podcast. The podcast can be a few seconds long or you can record your classroom lecture. There are thousands of podcast programs available on the internet. Now students can take your record messages or lessons home. While you are teaching a complicated lesson you can record the narrative for students to review if they need help. If you are going to be absent and you want to make sure the students do the correct thing you can leave the record message to be played to your classes. You can post classroom announcements and updates as podcasts. This is a great way for students that are absent to listen to what they missed. Podcasts can be used by the students. Let the students create reports and record them to podcasts. The podcasts can be placed on the internet. Research has shown that when students are doing projects like previous classes but they are presenting the material with new technology they are more engaged and learn more. What they learned also sticks with them longer. There are many podcasts available on the internet. If you find any good ones please post links in the comments of this blog. The educational podcast network has a number of educational podcasts. http://www.epnweb.org