Podcasting-+Garage+Band

Podcasting - Garage Band[[image:garageband_podcast.png width="200" height="199" align="left"]]
Garage Band is a software application that was developed by Apple Incorporated. Garage Band allows its users to create music and podcasts. Although many may think that this application is simply for musicians or inspiring musicians, Garage Band is a wonderful software program to incorporate in our everyday classrooms.

Podcasts, in particular, are an interactive, creative, and memorable way to help students learn the curriculum. A podcast is in a sense of video or show that can be broken up into parts or episodes to be shared on the Internet.

Teachers in today’s classrooms have the ability to provide information to their students through podcasts. Since it is the classroom teacher creating and editing the podcast, he/she can confirm that he/she is only sharing relevant information about the material the class is studying. In addition, podcasts are a great way for teachers to grab their students’ attentions. Teachers can use this feature as an introduction to a new topic, for example, to help engage the students and get them to ask questions.

Not only can teachers produce podcasts for their class, but also the students can easily learn how to create and edit their own podcasts for class projects or assignments. Podcasts are a great method to organize and put together group projects. When creating and developing podcasts, students must be assigned roles that will eventually lead into their group’s overall video. In addition, students will develop social skills while working with their group to complete a successful podcast. Finally, students who struggle or become nervous when presenting projects to a whole class will benefit greatly from using this strategy. Since the podcasts are already organized and contain all the necessary information needed to present, students will be able to relax and simply press play to share their findings to their class.

Some additional ways that Garage Band can be used in the classroom is during reading fluency exercises. By having the students record their voice in this application, they may be able to recognize areas where they may need to improve their fluency. In addition, if Garage Band is used throughout the year, teachers can listen to hear the fluency improvements of particular students and compare them to their first few recordings.

As you can see, there are many benefits of using Apple’s Garage Band application in the classroom. Therefore, in your future teaching, take a couple of class periods to share with your students the different features of Garage Band. Also, walk through with your students the process of creating and editing a podcast. Finally, try developing a few podcasts as a class before allowing the students to create their own.

For additional information on the Garage Band application, visit these sites: [] []

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-Sarah Grassi