CELT | Good Practice Exchange
Transcript for Creative, Engaging Podcasting with Tadzio Jodlowski
‘My name is Tadzio Jodlowski. I'm a Programme Leader for Foundation Year at Hollings or what will now be called STHEM in the future.What I have been doing in the last few years is using podcasts on a regular basis and I know lecturers have been using these as well.I've developed the podcast further and this is what I wanted to discuss.
Now, I have got some items here which I use in my podcasting. So I have some experience working at BBC North before I came to MMU and if you are driving home, for example, and you are listening to something like the 5 o'clock news or something like that, you'll notice that you are quite interested in what you are listening to and if you really think about it,it is because the sound have got different “texture”. Some are in the studio, some are outdoors, some are in big rooms, some are in small rooms.So we are talking about a kind of texture of sound that creates a collage within what they call a “package” in the industry. So using those skills that I picked up in editing at BBCNorth I started to think about how can I be more imaginative in the way I record things.
So first of all I don't record in my office and I don't use the microphone that is on the computer. It is too noisy.. the actual effect isn't very good. So I started to use a head set now on a regular basis and find a quiet corner here or at home in my study to record. Then I chose to try and engage the students.So what I did is I put an MMU logo onto this microphone and then I can go along and actually interview them about the lessons that they are learning, what they think about them. If we are on a visit, for example, the Manchester United Stadium tour we do.So it is about business and how they use strategy and things like this.You can interview students on the way or let them become the actual reporter as well, so this is good so another way of engaging students as well.
I've got used to having one of these in my pocket all the time: a nice digital recorder.So if I get some ideas..if I want to, again thinking of the texture, how I want the package to sound when it is completed I might have a few comments recorded when I am walking through the park, for example, and then in a small room.Then I edit them together on Audacity and make more dimensions within the actual package.And again the smart phone as well is now sophisticated you can now record on there. And I have woven it into my daily practice as well so that I am on the lookout.
[music plays]
What I have done here is I have actually composed a piece of music and I've added this to the podcast at the beginning as a kind of theme tune as well..just a few seconds of it.And it is just to show that we can add our own creativity to it in some way, to personalise it in some way. So I have got this upbeat melody and then you can include interviews with people, with professionals, or with students. You can have a student who is a reporter. You can record actually in the classroom itself and tell the students it is going to go onto Moodle, for example. So you can pull in all these different aspects and get really creative with what you are doing to engage the students really and that the idea.’
Student Perspective
Student 1: When I have been off ill or haven't been in for whatever reason and that next day or that day I've looked at them and listened and had the lecture notes up and gone through it.
Student 2: With the podcasts I think a lot of the personality comes through. You can listen to it while going through the slides themselves and I know that Tadzio's office is always open.
Student 1: It has helped me develop. Even if I haven't understood something in the actual lecture I can go back and look at the podcast.
Student 2: When I need to go over notes and when I'm writing a report I can just go over the podcasts for any material that I need to use in my report.
Student 1: It has helped because obviously if the slides don't explain properly like the lecturer goes into detail whereas with the podcasts as well it develops what is said and you fully understand it instead of just looking 'well what does that mean? whatcould that mean?'