Simple Podcasts or Audio Recordings on Chromebooks

I’m highlighting some projects I’m supporting as part of the Go Beyond Challenge I started in our district. The ultimate goal is to encourage and share student talent by intentionally stretching in a few specific ways. You can read about the challenge here. 

Last week Dan Huggler, one of our high school social studies teachers took some new steps with a podcast project. I've shared the template for that on my blog before, but it's been updated. Resources and examples you can use are below. 

We called it a podcast, but it’s basically an audio recording of an essay or script the students write. In this case, the teacher gave them two days to research, one day to write their script and one day to record and edit.

Here’s a sample one-minute recording made by two students. Elizabeth grew up in our small mid-Michigan community. Emma is an exchange student from Venice, Italy. I appreciated the conversational tone of their recording. 

Here is the direction template I shared with the teacher. In it, I recommend using TwistedWave* for recording and editing, since it is free (for under 5 minutes) and it works great on Chromebooks. Files are stored in Google Drive, for easy submissions. Steps for the process are listed and a video recording is also provided. 

Make a copy of the template, so you can edit it for your needs. Your main focus on the directions will be the list of requirements. That's where you can make sure students are accomplishing the learning goals you have for them. 

I added some suggestions and questions in the requirement section to get you started. Notice one asks students to explain why they picked the topic. That brief reflection piece is to remind the teacher and students that what they are learning should always connect to their lives or interests in some way. That's one important part of our Go Beyond Challenge.

The example recording embedded in the template is from a senior project we did in another class. 

I also recommend requiring students submit their written script or essay in Google Classroom. You can use the originality report feature to be sure they are submitting their own work.

*The students in the example provided in this blog post used a voice memo app on their phone to create their recording.