Learn Outloud: Podcasts for Teachers and Students

Mon 11 2008

Learn Out Loud is an extensive site of more than 15,000 educational audio books, MP3 downloads, podcasts, and videos. The Quick Start guide steers the visitor through the resources of the site, including items for sale and self-publishing opportunities.

More than 250 free podcasts in American History include programs as diverse as The American Experience from PBS, excerpts from Old Time Radio dramatizations of moments in American history (includes an introductory commercial), teaching podcasts from an eighth grade social studies class, and primary source documents such as the Federalist Papers and Thomas Paine's Common Sense read outloud. Documents are sometimes read rapidly with little expression which may limit their usefulness with some age groups and kinds of learners.

Some materials, such as Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech (audio and video ) are accessed through the On-line Speech Bank and include transcriptions.

Learn Out Loud podcasts are mp3 files that may be downloaded or accessed through iTunes, streaming audio, and Feedburner. An Introduction to Podcasting explains various options and gives directions for using them. Free Stuff also includes accross-the-curriculum resources for teachers.

About the Author

Lee Ann Ghajar is a digital history associate in Public Projects at CHNM and a PhD candidate in American history at George Mason University.