Reflection of the Podcast

My partner and I decided to use the podcast we prepared of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of Red Death” as the anticipatory set to our lesson. When we did the podcast of the full reading, it took about 16 minutes. Dr. Luongo suggested that we summarize the reading and incorporate an important quote from the poem. We had already decided to use the podcast in our lesson, so we tried hard and with a summary brought it down to 4 minutes and 36 seconds. This seemed perfect for the lesson so we were confident that the clarity of the podcast and an appropriate graphic representation of the poem would be effective. However, during the lesson, once the first minute passed, I realized that it was still too long. It only seemed shorter probably due to the fact that I kept hearing it over and over again. The students started to look bored after a while. That was not good! I thought about turning it off early, but I let it play since a very important quote was amongst the last lines. I think that it would have been better to summarize the summary and make it to 2 minutes maximum to execute the lesson more effectively. The idea of using podcast was unbeknownst to me, but I realize now that it is very productive. Through its use, one can both emphasize the reading instruction and at the same time be able to watch the students' reactions to the podcast. This helps a lot with class management since reading during the lesson limits student observation time. To improve future lessons when using a podcast it would be essential that the time be shortened to about 2 minutes. This would improve the use of podcast and allow students to maintain focus throughout the podcast and be more productive during the lesson. I really enjoyed using podomatic for my podcast and will continue to use it once I start teaching. CAN'T WAIT!!!