For my English Methodologies class, we were asked to create a Podcast encompassing one major literary event, a summary of a core text we might use in a classroom, and then connect the core text to the curriculum and classroom resources.  I was really excited for this project, as I had never before made a podcast.  I decided to record on Garageband as it was already downloaded on my laptop and seemed pretty easy to maneuver.

I didn’t realize how long it would take to record my voice, let alone edit and configure the audio files.  Once all of that was done, I prepared to export the file.  Unfortunately, the dinosaur that is my laptop had some problems with this process.  It took 24 hours of me waiting for it to export before I had to force quit, at risk of losing all my work, and shut my laptop down.  I tried once again, and the same thing happened.  I didn’t wait as long this time before forcing it to quit, and then tried a third time.  Third time really was the charm, and my podcast successfully exported and I was able to submit it.  Man was that stressful though!

While I think that podcasting is a super amazing way to communicate information, I don’t know that I would be too keen to assign this as a project for my students.  It took me a really long time to make the podcast, and unless you’re very familiar with the technology, it can be a major barrier.  I enjoyed this assignment, but I don’t think it is an alternative to essay/paragraph responses.  Many of my classmates, including myself, simply ended up writing out what we were going to say before we said it. This resulted in nearly double the amount of work.  For now, I think I’ll stick to listening to podcasts!