Podcasting in Middle School: A Case Study and Implications for Teacher Education

Abstract

Currently, podcasts in education are used by instructors to deliver content; additionally, most research is about university courses. This paper presents a case study of the curriculum research, development, and implementation of student-created podcasts in two classes offered as a continuum at a middle school. The first course was seventh grade English; the second was eighth grade computer literacy. In English, the curriculum was already strong and established. In computer literacy, the curriculum was in experimental stages. Student-learning considerations and results of implementation are described, as well as the different approaches used by both teachers and the resulting student outcomes. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for teacher education when preparing other educators to use this emerging technology.