The Joy of Podcasts – using podcasts to enrich learning!

With the rise in the listening of podcasts, educators may wish to consider curating their own content to enrich their students and help fellow teachers. This is what we have been doing with regards the teaching of Economics and we would recommend it for others as well.

Every teacher is faced with a specification for their subject that is often packed with content and it is therefore difficult to go into much depth given the time constraints on the teaching timetable. For example, in Economics, students are expected to know about the views of Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Friedrich Hayek. These are very complex ideas and therefore in class, you will only skim the surface of what they wrote and believe. Therefore in order to go into more depth, we decided to set up a podcast called ‘Economics in Ten’ that would give students the opportunity to learn beyond the specification.

The process of putting together a podcast might seem daunting for educators but once you get started, it is relatively easy to do. All you need is one good microphone, some basic recording equipment and a quiet room to record in. Once you have recorded, you must then find a podcast hosting site and again this is relatively easy as there are many podcast hosting sites out there. The one we use for ‘Economics in Ten’ is Anchor. Once you have uploaded it onto the hosting site, they will then place your podcast on the platforms that you would normally listen to podcasts on such as ITunes and Spotify.

With so much time pressure on staff and students to get through the content of courses, the rise of podcasts have given teachers the opportunity to offer additional content to their students. Not only that, the podcasts can be shared with the wider teaching community and this has certainly been the case with the ‘Economics in Ten’ podcast, where it is being listened to in schools across the world.

It is clear therefore that there are many advantages for educators but it also opens up other ways that you can interact and engage with students and fellow teachers about your subject. Through the ‘Economics in Ten’ handle, we have also set up an Instagram and Twitter account – @EconomicsinTen. This has given us more opportunities to share knowledge about our subject and engage in debate with students, which enriches learning. Many educators might not be very comfortable on social media but if you want to enthuse and motivate students, then you should use all the avenues open to you.