Pod-Casting in the Language Arts Classroom

My prior experience with pod-casting has mainly involved me catching up on missed NPR programs over the internet. Before now, I hadn't thought it could be so easy to actually upload my own students voices onto the internet. In chapter eight of Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, he outlays the simplicity and variety of podcasting in the classroom.

My intial question was this: how can I use podcasting specifically in the language arts classroom for authentic learning or assessment. Then I realized what a powerful and effective method of presentation assessment this tool could present. Students could record themselves reading their own poetry and podcast it for all the world to hear. They could write plays and monologues and then perform them over the internet. At last we could reach that final stage of the writing process - publishing - and finally make it authentic.

Beyond literary writing, my students could read their narratives aloud, discuss the topics outlined in their feature articles, argue the opinions put forth in their editorials or give their speeches aloud to a very real audience. Or, I could use pod-casting to have my students reflect on their own writing processes. Literature Circles could also be podcasts. It seems the possiblitiees are endless.