Anchor: A Student-Friendly Podcast Tool

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Listed on the American Association of School Librarians’ “Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2019,” Anchor is a free podcast platform that is excellent for beginners and students. Upon the advice of some trusted teacher friends, I tried this medium in my classroom last semester with great success. Both an app and a website, Anchor allows students to create, upload, and share their work to the world, providing a real-world audience. Podcasting fits the Engage foundation of the National School Library Standards perfectly as students need to think, create, share, and grow in order to produce quality work.

Podcasting is a hugely popular venue for voice–one that has multiple entry points–making it a great project for students. To use Anchor, simply sign up for a free account, click New Episode, and begin recording. Podcasters also have the option to upload audio, store clips in a library, and collaborate with others through voice messages. Anchor even provides free transitions (music and sounds) to use, making the podcast more polished and pleasing to the ear. After a podcast is created, creators have the option to let Anchor distribute the show (to itunes or Spotify, Anchor’s parent company) or they can upload a link to a website, into blogs, or (in the case of students) to Google Classroom.

Podcasting has many formats, and can be used in a multitude of school assignments. Here is a list of a few ways podcasts can be used in the classroom to great effect:

·      Interview Shows: Students can interview teachers, students, administrators, or other stakeholders in a news program format.
·      As an alternative to the standard essay: Students can create podcast series on events or people in history, on literary characters, or as documentaries.
·      As showcases for collaboration around student-led initiatives and advertising of the great things happening in and around a school.

Benefits and features:

·      They can be individual, partner, or group endeavors.
·      They highlight students’ voices, and their ability to create kiln-ready shows for the world to hear.
One of the important features of podcasts is that they often require either expert commentary or research. In the case of students, Anchor provides the perfect venue for students to take on a multidimensional project that requires investigation, curiosity, collaboration, and iteration. As a no-cost project that is challenging and rewarding, podcasting is a win!

Anchor's Dashboard may be found here.
Richard Byrne's Tutorial may be found here.



Resources

American Association of School Librarians. (2019). Best websites for teaching & learning 2019. Retrieved from https://standards.aasl.org/project/bw19/
American Association of School Librarians. (2017). Engage. Retrieved from https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/SharedFoundations_Engage_2017.pdf
Byrne, R. (2018). How to create a podcast. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NfKlcP_Yxg






Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 5, 2020 at 8:51 PM

    My school's technology learning coach JUST told me about Anchor at the beginning of this week! I have tried podcasts before with my high school students, but we used WeVideo and only used the audio recording/editing feature. It was okay, but not great. I'm excited to try something made specifically for podcasts! Great resources.
    Ashley Walker

    ReplyDelete
  2. ForWard Readers: Reflections from a First Year LibrarianMarch 7, 2020 at 4:33 AM

    Hi Linda,
    I'm definitely going to give Anchor a try! Most of the students I work with LOVE to hear the sound of their own voices, so I am sure I could find a few who would go bananas for podcasting. I especially would like to highlight some precocious younger readers. One of the kindergarten classes I work with has some very strong readers and writers, and I think allowing them to share their work would be powerful.
    I also went to a PD many years ago where an artist-in-residence talking about how to produce an old-fashioned radio show. He did a "Lone Ranger" radio show, but I see that he is now doing a WWII radio show performance. He made sound effects using everyday objects, and multiple people participated in the production. I can see this being such an awesome learning experience for students' reading fluency and for investigating primary sources in Social Studies. AND it would lend itself so nicely to a podcast.

    Shelley Christ Ward

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shanna AlexanderMarch 8, 2020 at 2:04 PM

    I like that you brought up that this can be used as an alternative form of an essay. Many students want to be YouTubers and other types of content creators, but what they don't realize is that many of those people have to make scripts to read off camera before they can sit down to film. This would be a great way to get student to engage in learning and pick up a few life lessons a long the way!

    ReplyDelete

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