Instructional design/Ed Podcasts

Introduction

So you have decided to take the plunge and start podcasting for your students. Maybe you were aiming for a one-time thing: Just to assist your learners with a specific, challenging HW assignment. Maybe you were aiming for a regular daily-weekly component: A tool to beef up your regular written announcements on your Learning Management System. Either way, it seemed simple at the time. ‘Well I know how to talk,’ you reckoned, ‘so how hard can it be to simply record myself speaking and share my wonderful voice with the world?”

In reality, after the first time/s you tried recording yourself, you quickly discovered that your impromptu recordings simply did not cut it. You mumbled, forgot to mention something important, lingered on one peripheral component and then rushed through a major theme… and finally after multiple re-dos, you got an incoherent podcast, which simply sounded bad.

This is an example of a podcast that was recorded without using a script (about one-minute long)

At this point or maybe after several more attempts, you figured out that you need a script to get it right (definitely a move in the right direction!), but even then, all you got was a stiff and mechanic narration, which still included numerous stutters and tongue slips…

‘Why? How?’ you howled in anguish, ‘I wrote it all down!’

‘And after all this work and pain,’ you wondered, ‘will my students really listen to my podcast? Will they really pay attention to it?’ How would you ever know?’

This is an example of a podcast - same podcast as above - that was recorded with a script (about 30-second long)

If this little anecdote sounds familiar (or if you aim to avoid it all together), you have come to the right place! Investing about 20 minutes of your time to complete this self-study tutorial will enable you, the K12 teacher, to author a well written, and pitfall-free, audio script for any educational podcast (that is, to take the first step towards producing an effective instructional podcast).

Learning Objectives

After completing this Wikiversity lesson, you will be able to:

Define educational podcast
Differentiate between ‘a text for the eye’ and ‘a text for the ear’ (audio script)
Recognize possible narration-pitfalls

And eventually, after completing this tutorial, given specific writing requirements

You will be able to identify all the key elements for authoring a well-written audio script

Next Step

So if you are a K12 educator who wants to learn the art and science of authoring an effective and pitfall free text for audio narration, you are in the right place. Clicking the Next link below will start your journey for authoring well-written, and pitfall-free, audio scripts for educational podcasts.

Podcasting and Educational Podcasting

The Art and Science of Writing Audio Scripts

Audio Scripts Pitfalls

Assessment

Summary