There's a Podcast for that...

Have you ever subscribed to a podcast? I did, once. I was in college and lived on one side of the campus, while my classes were on the other side. To take up the time, I began subscribing to podcasts. Then, my subscriptions were usually to broadcasters like Comedy Central so I could keep up on my daily news with Jon Stewart. Today, I like to think I've found more reasonable routes to access my world news.

NPR's podcasts are one of these sources. Though shows like Culturetopia and Story of the Day, NPR dedicates itself to delivering high-quality, entertaining, and in informative news on a variety of different topics from around the world. These types of podcasts are perfect for bringing in context for education.

Take for instance one of the recent episodes on NPR's global news podcast, World Story of the Day, that discusses minor and possibly superficial changes in Myanmar's governing policies. This podcast is created by the foreign affairs desk at NPR, where they choose the top global story of the day from other award-winning global news shows. In this particular episode, the controversial policies of Myanmar's government are discussed, specifically the skepticism that has surrounded some of their recent changes.

Now, how could I use this in my classroom? Well, Burmese is the largest growing minority in Buffalo, and Karen is the thrid most-spoken language in the city. Refugees are sitting in classrooms all over Buffalo. See where I'm going with this?

Subscribing to a news story like this is great because you can listen to it on your own time--and trust me, they're good, so you'll want to--and then use them to facilitate class discussions on cultural topics, while simultaneousely practicing conversational language. Basically, the extent to which you can use podcasts is limited by the topics covered... so really, there's a podcast for that.