Podcasts Offer the Audience Pupils Crave (!)

Cynicism gone! All is right with the world thanks to Steve O’Hear‘s uplifting article on podcasting in the Guardian:

“Teamwork, enterprise skills, technical skills and technical literacy are still not taught ‘for real’ in the classroom. There are often bogus initiatives that touch the surface but don’t get the kids really working on a meaningful product in the long term. These kids see themselves as podcasters till they leave school, and probably beyond,” says McIntosh.

As a result the project is also helping to raise standards. “You would never be able to tell which ones struggle in ‘regular’ class work,” says McIntosh. He also points out that, while on the surface students are working with audio, producing a podcast involves written work, too.

“Bearing in mind that most podcasts require a script, it’s not replacing the written word. In fact, it’s the opposite because kids need to redraft to make it fit the time slot they are given.”

Good stuff.