Podcasts in Education

Since its introduction in the early 2000s, podcasting has become a popular alternative to traditional radio, with a do-it-yourself emphasis and a democratization of producing audio without a need for advertisers or a broadcaster’s backing. Podcasting has also been a promising learning tool for educators and students. With the popularity of the platform, many have jumped on board to create and utilize podcasts for pedagogical purposes, both in the classroom and for the public. Podcasting for pedagogical purposes has coincided with developments in educational theory such as flipped classrooms, active learning, and digital humanities. While there have been debates about the effectiveness of using podcasts for educational purposes, the majority of the literature on podcasting demonstrates that there are benefits for students learning through podcasts and digital audio recordings. Whether it’s the positives and the negatives of the format, or even just how to create a podcast, literature on podcasting has grown exponentially as more people and scholars think about how to use the medium for learning purposes. One significant hurdle in terms of a creating a podcasting bibliography is that the technology involved has changed over the years since its introduction to academia. While some of the methodology may not be as up-to-date in the older texts, they still have critical information that is relevant to incorporating podcasting into a classroom setting.