[Narration]
Student voice and agency are critical components of any successful learning community. NSW Department of Education schools are exploring podcasting as one of the tools to develop these important attributes. The department’s Digital Strategy has a clear focus on developing hybrid learning, where technology creates new avenues to modernise education.
Podcasting gives our young people the opportunity to be creators and reach a meaningful audience, giving their learning a richer context.
There are so many opportunities across all key learning areas where podcasting can energise both the curriculum and the teaching and learning cycle.
It also creates opportunities for the school community to explore digital citizenship rights and responsibilities, asking questions about online security and safety in a meaningful context.
Zig Zag Public School has been using the Technology for Learning Student Podcaster course.
Let's now hear how they are using this technology.
[Students]
“You're listening to a Zig Zag Public School podcast where we are learning for life. Enjoy the insight into our learning made by kids for parents.”
“The podcasts are really fun to make because it's a podcast made by students for our parents at home, so they know what we're learning. And right now we're doing fluency podcasts, so it's talking about our fluency, and Miss Sirisisavath is helping us to learn how to use all these different platforms to create audio, edit it and scrub the audio to get rid of background noise.”
[Teacher]
“Boys and girls, when we did the student podcasting modules through the Technology for Learning (T4L) modules a few months ago as a class and we did all that learning together.
And today I've been able to see you apply everything that you learned how to do on Adobe Audition in a totally new platform because we’re using WeVideo today. So that we can all collaborate to build the podcast together and I've just been so impressed with all of you and your knowledge and how you applied it all.
So let's have a listen to what we've put together today.”
[Students]
“We're so excited to bring you the first-ever episode in a series of podcasts about running Zig Zag Public School. Our first episode is about reading fluency.
“My name is Isolde. And I am Claire.
“We are students in 5/6. Today we will be your hosts while we help you know more about what fluency is.
“You're listening to a Zig Zag Public School podcast.
“It's fun because you get to experiment a bit with what audio sounds better for background noise, or what's better for an intro or an outro. And it's fun like formatting everything, little bits like that, which are really fun.
“With the podcasting, I like doing it because it's fun and it's a little bit complicated. And if I wanted to do something in the future about podcasting, or something like that, it might help me.
Enjoy the insight into our learning made by kids for parents.”
[Narration]
Schools who wish to begin their podcasting journey can search the Universal Resource Hub for curriculum-aligned activities and support.
Teachers can also reach out to the Technology for Learning team. Schools can find support on all aspects of the podcasting process: the hardware involved, and also software and publishing tools appropriate for classroom use.
The Digital Strategy is a way forward, so every school can create a learning culture that truly reflects the world our students live in.
[End of transcript]