Podcasts have become an increasingly popular method for consuming content. There are approximately 135 million podcast listeners in the United States, and 70 percent adult listeners participate in podcasts with their children. What do these numbers mean for schools? Producing a podcast provides a simple and convenient alternative to keeping families and community members informed about your school or district. Podcasts avoid email overload and confusion in navigating the school website, and provide consistency between schools when it comes to updates. The flexibility of podcasts eliminates time restrictions, allowing families to listen when they have time.

Here are five steps to get started.

First, make sure any district administrators or essential managers are aware that a podcast is being produced. Then you can start thinking about a podcast vision. The name is an important consideration. It should be something that people easily remember; One way to do this is to include the name of the district or school somewhere in the name of the podcast. Keeping the name simple allows more families and community members to find the show.

Although many podcasts stick to a single structure, don’t be afraid to experiment with different formats and see what works best. Here are some popular options:

• Interviews with staff: Allow staff to recap events (athletics, extracurricular activities, class projects or initiatives) to give parents and community members a glimpse of some of the district’s strengths.
• Interviews with students: Bring a student’s perspective to an initiative and be sure to get parental consent before involving students in the podcast. One way to respect students’ privacy is to use only their first names.
• Community interviews: Highlight partnerships with community organizations, such as the municipal library or local businesses. It’s a great way to continue to bridge these connections and celebrate the work accomplished. For example, in a previous district, we interviewed with a local restaurant that partnered with our post-secondary students to provide work experience.
• News: Ask an administrator to share a quick update or important information for parents and community members.

Once your vision is established, it’s time to choose a hosting platform, the space that manages, stores and distributes your episodes. There are a variety of platform options to meet the different needs of podcasters, including popular platforms such as Spotify for Podcasters, Podbean, BuzzsproutAnd Libsyne.

There are several factors to consider when choosing a hosting platform. An important consideration is price. Many platforms are completely free or free with restrictions on the number of episodes or minutes per month. You will also want to consider the user interface of the platform. How easy is it to upload and share an episode you created? Finally, you will need to think about storage capacity. Is there a limit to the number of minutes or episodes you can record?

Expensive equipment and dedicated studio space are not necessary. Podcasts can be delivered on little to no budget using existing equipment and spaces.

Microphones are essential for the information presented in an episode to be heard. However, a large and expensive microphone is not necessary. A podcaster can use headphones with a microphone connected or even just a pair of wireless headphones. If you want to invest in something smaller, there are a variety of budget-friendly tripod microphones that plug into a computer for easy recording.

Room setup is extremely important for recording. When setting up a room for a recording session, you want to do a sound quality check. Make a test recording, where you determine if the voices are easily picked up by the microphones. Listen for background noises, like bells or conversations in the hallways. Small spaces, like offices with a door, or even small classrooms, are ideal for recording, as larger spaces tend to cause an echo.

Similar to hosting platforms, there are many types of recording software available. I recommend you start with something that is open source. Audacity is a long-standing free option. Adobe recently launched a free educational podcast platform called Adobe Podcast. Another option is to record meetings through a virtual conferencing tool your district already has, such as Zoom Or Google Datingwhich allow recording.

After each recording, it is important to reflect. Identify opportunities for improvement and review any challenges you encountered during the recording so they can be resolved for the next recording.

When considering changes, it is important to decide whether something should be removed. For example, if someone shared confidential information during an interview, it may be removed from an episode. Alternatively, you can listen to the episode again and decide which phrases or sentences can be eliminated to optimize flow and conversation.

Many free recording platforms, like Audacity, offer built-in editing, where you can highlight and remove parts of the episode. While there are high-end editing software options, it’s best to use accessible tools when you’re starting out. Adobe’s free platform offers editing options such as reducing background noise and increasing microphone clarity.

Once your episode is edited, it is ready to publish. When the recordings are uploaded to the hosting platform, they can be shared immediately. The platform will create a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed, allowing your podcast to be shared with popular apps, such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

With episodes released, you can start sharing links to promote the show. If you have a district social media channel, links to new episodes can be provided with each release. If a parent subscribes to your show, they will continue to receive alerts when new episodes are released, allowing them to stay up to date with district events.

Producing a podcast is a great opportunity to celebrate the different initiatives, events and people in your school or district. Although it may seem like a lot of work at first, the process gets easier as you record and share episodes. After recording my first three episodes, I became more comfortable and natural with the process and felt ready to release them publicly.