Podcasts

I believe Podcasts have a solid role to play in the modern classroom. Students could create a Podcast based on research of a topic as a class project. This could be published to the web to connect to a wider audience. Contributing to authentic learning outcomes as they provide a world wide audience. Learning becomes meaningful and hopefully our 21st century learners will be more motivated by this educational technology.
this sits well within Kearsley and Shneiderman's Engagement theory which is based on the idea of creating successful collaborative teams that work on ambitious projects that are meaningful to someone outside the classroom (cited in Moodle Pilot FAHE 11001, 2009).
Also existing Podcasts can be downloaded for classroom use . Teachers can use the technology to provide learning experiences to students to download and access at a later time and place. These audio files can be downloaded to a personal computer or a portable handheld device and accessed anytime anywhere.The flexibility that they offer makes podcasting a valuable educational tool and goes a long way in forming engageing, authentic learning experiences.

Because school resources for new purchases are always limited Podcasting is also cost efficient as well. A microphone is all that is needed to get started and there are free audio editing software programs available.

Reference
Moodle Pilot FAHE 11001 (2009). Managing Elearning, Active Learning.
http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=641