Podcasts have become an increasingly popular method for consuming content. There are approximately 135 million podcast listeners in the United States, and 70 percent of adult listeners engage in podcasts with their children. What do these numbers mean for schools? Producing a podcast offers an easy and convenient alternative to keep families and community members informed about your school or district. Podcasts avoid email overload and confusing school website navigation, and provide consistency across schools when it comes to updates. The flexibility of podcasts eliminates time restrictions, allowing families to listen whenever they have time.
Here are five steps to get started.
Step 1: Inform the Appropriate Channels and Create a Vision
First, make sure all district administrators or essential officials are aware that a podcast is being produced. Then, you can start to think of a podcast vision. The name is one important consideration. It should be something that is easy for people to remember; one way to accomplish this is to include the name of the district or school somewhere in the podcast name. Keeping the name simple allows for more families and community members to find the show.
Step 2: Decide on the Episode Format
While many podcasts stick to one structure, feel free to experiment with the variety of formats and see what works best. Here are some popular options:
- Staff interviews: Allow staff to recap events (athletics, extracurricular activities, classroom projects, or initiatives) to give parents and community members a glimpse into some district highlights.
- Student interviews: Bring in a student’s perspective on an initiative, and make sure to get parental consent before involving students in the podcast. One way to consider students’ privacy is to use only the student’s first name.
- Community interviews: Highlight partnerships with community organizations, like the town library or local businesses. It’s a great way to continue to bridge those connections and celebrate the work being accomplished. For example, in a previous district, we interviewed a local restaurant that partnered with our postsecondary students to give them work experience.
- News: Have an administrator share a quick update or important information for parents and community members.
Step 3: Set Up the Technical Logistics
Once your vision has been established, it’s time to choose a hosting platform, the space that manages, stores, and distributes your episodes. There are a variety of platform options to fit different podcaster needs, including popular platforms such as Spotify for Podcasters, Podbean, Buzzsprout, and Libsyn.
There are several factors to consider when choosing a hosting platform. One important consideration is pricing. Many platforms are fully free or free with restrictions on the number of episodes or minutes per month. You will also want to consider the platform’s user interface. How easy is it to upload and share an episode you created? Finally, you’ll want to think about storage capacity. Is there a limit on how many minutes or episodes you can save?
Step 4: Start Recording
Expensive equipment and dedicated studio space aren’t necessary. Podcasts can be run on little to no budget by using existing equipment and spaces.
Microphones are essential for the information presented in an episode to be heard. However, a large, expensive microphone is unnecessary. A podcaster could use headphones with an attached microphone or even just a pair of wireless headphones. If you want to invest in something smaller, there are a variety of budget tripod microphones that plug into a computer for easy recording.
The room setup is extremely important to recording. When arranging a room for a recording session, you want to do a sound-quality check. Do a test recording, where you determine if the voices are easily picked up by the microphones. Listen for any background noises, like bells or hallway conversations. Small spaces, like offices with a door, or even small classrooms are great for recording, as larger spaces tend to cause an echo.
Similar to hosting platforms, there are many types of recording software available to use. I recommend that you start with something that is open source. Audacity is a longtime free option. Adobe recently launched a free education podcast platform called Adobe Podcast. Another option is to record meetings via a virtual conferencing tool that your district already has, such as Zoom or Google Meet, which allow for recording.
After each recording, it’s important to reflect. Identify opportunities for improvement, and review any challenges that you experienced while recording so that they can be fixed for the next recording.
Step 5: Edit, Publish, and Share
When considering edits, it’s important to decide if anything needs to be removed. For example, if someone shared confidential information in an interview, that is something that can be cut from an episode. Otherwise, you can listen back to the episode and decide on phrases or sentences that can be eliminated to optimize flow and conversation.
Many of the free recording platforms, like Audacity, offer built-in editing, whereby you can highlight and remove parts of the episode. While there are premium editing software options out there, it’s best to use accessible tools when you start out. Adobe’s free platform offers editing options like reducing background noise and increasing the clarity of the microphones.
Once your episode is edited, it’s ready to be published. When recordings are uploaded to the hosting platform, they can be immediately shared. The platform will create a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed, allowing your podcast to be shared to popular apps, like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
With published episodes, you can start sharing links to promote the show. If you have a district social media channel, the links to the new episodes can be provided with each release. If a parent subscribes to your show, they will continue to receive alerts when new episodes are published, allowing them to stay up-to-date with district happenings.
Final Considerations
Producing a podcast is a great opportunity to celebrate the different initiatives, events, and people in your school or district. While initially it might seem like a lot of work, the process becomes easier the more you record and share episodes. After recording my first three episodes, I became more comfortable and natural with the process and felt ready to release them publicly.
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