No, I don’t mean write out every word you’re going to say. That would lead to a boring podcast. But you should have an outline. You can fill in the details while you’re recording. Remember you are a content expert so have a little faith in yourself. You’ll be more spontaneous and entertaining.

A podcast is an audio-only Program On Demand. You don’t have the luxury of graphics so you’ll want to keep the program short and to the point. I suggest focusing on a specific learning objective. Teach one thing well and then move on to another pod.

Let’s say we wanted to teach the student the Boolean logic of the AND operator. The learning objective might be “The learner will demonstrate correct evaluation of simple AND operations with 100% accuracy.” The AND operator joins two truth values which are idenpendently TRUE or FALSE. This gives us a total of four different combinations to teach.

TRUE AND TRUE

FALSE AND FALSE

You know the rule of an AND operator is the express is only true when both truth values acted upon are TRUE. Resulting in;

TRUE AND TRUE = TRUE

FALSE AND FALSE = FALSE

So we have four cases to teach. One is special because its the only one that evaluates to TRUE. Now we need to find a way to ground the rules into their understanding to help them remember the rule and the four cases. This is where you can use your imagination and a little humor if you so desire.

Let’s see. To go on a trip to the Black Hills we would need both a car and gas. At least this is a working assumption. Now we can give a real-life example everyone can understand.

GOT CAR AND GOT GAS = CAN GO

GOT NO CAR AND GOT NO GAS = CAN’T GO

That’s it! You have your learning objective, rule, four cases, and real life examples. Jot these down and you’re ready to start recording your pod. Well, at least you know what you’re going to say.

If you don’t care for my car and gas metaphor I’ll offer one more. Imagine two smooth black pebbles. These represent truth. You can pick them if you like. If your hands are empty they both represent falsehood. So a pebble in hand is true while an empty hand is false.

PEBBLE IN LEFT HAND AND PEBBLE IN RIGHT HAND = TRUE

EMPTY LEFT HAND AND PEBBLE IN RIGHT HAND = FALSE

Its like asking if there is a pebble in both hands!

I’ll talk more about the technicalities of recording another time.

I love my cellphone but I hate intrusions. Its a Palm Treo 755p. It is much more than a phone to me. Its a personal manager. I manage my schedule with it. It has taken pictures of my girlfriends grandchildren and videos of my brothers. It has all of my contacts on it and I haven’t even begun to use all of the installed applications. Phone reception is great and it has a real qwerty keyboard. That is my favorite feature because my significant other texts me often and deserves a timely reply. Best of all its got plenty of battery life!

No, that is not me in the video.

Don’t be a slave to your cellphone. You don’t have to answer just because it rings. Thanks to caller id you can see if its someone you need to speak with at that moment. If not, they’ll leave a message if its important. You can always call them back later. Better yet! Turn it off when you don’t want to talk.

Has your cellphone ever rung in an important meeting? I’m sure it has. Once while I was entertaining some folks with some guitar songs a phone began to ring. To be honest I was a little upset so I stopped singing and learned it was my own phone. OOPS! My Treo has a toggle switch on top that allows me to easily switch from ringing to vibrating. Its a great feature. Use it. If you don’t have one turn the ringer off in your software before meetings and classes.

How about those students whose phones ring in class. How annoying! I’ve even seen students take the call. Now I’m laid back enough to allow there are times when this is necessary but they are the exception. I find it a good idea to role model for my students by making a point of turning the ringer off at the beginning of class and asking them to do the same.

I do give my cell phone to my advisees. I want them to know I’m within an arms reach if they really need me. So far they haven’t abused the privilege. If one ever does I can always screen the call.

Why don’t I use the iPhone? Its an excellent product but its limited to only one cell service and its not mine.

I, like most professors, was hired to teach because of my discipline specific expertise and not because of any teaching ability I might possess. I tried to mimic my own professors but found that challenging at best. 

Those early days were filled with anxiety which I fought by over preparing for my lectures. Fortunately I started teaching at Kalamazoo Valley Community College which had a strong faculty mentoring program. I was paired with a senior member of the faculty charged with the responsibility for my success as an instructor. I was lucky to be assigned to the Chairperson of my department. He was genuinely interested in my success as a classroom teacher and later became my best friend and business partner.

One of my first lessons was to learn the ROPES of classroom instruction. Its really quite simple and effective. ROPES is an acronym for:

REVIEW

OVERVIEW

PRESENT

EXPLAIN

SUMMARIZE

It works like this.

The review sets the stage for new learning by reestablishing a common ground of understanding upon which new ideas may be grounded. It provides a welcome starting point and gets everyone ready like mental horses at the starting gate.

The overview serves to introduce the new ideas and gets the mental juices flowing in anticipation like the previews at a movie. It creates a feeling of anticipation and gets learners ready.

The presentation is a statement of a new idea or concept and is followed by a detailed explanation. Its best to take one concept at a time relating it to others previously discussed or understood.

Finally the new material is reviewed in brief to emphasize what is important to know. This is an important step because it reinforces learning while noting accomplishment.

I try not to lecture these days but sometimes I can’t think of a better alternative. When I do I still try to follow the ROPES.

It seems this outline can be effectively used in podcasts but I rarely find it used. That’s too bad. Its always worked well for me. Try it!

Above all else make sure you don’t give any boring lectures!