My colleague, Lynn Fuini-Hetten, and I have been producing podcasts for four years – at TLTalkRadio.org and ShiftYourParadigm.org. I recently became curious how many episodes we had recorded, and the answer caused me to reflect on why we’ve been doing this and what were some of the most impactful episodes for me personally. After over 130 episodes (yes, some of those four years have seen less regular posts than others), it’s certainly had it’s costs, both in financial and human resources. There is the purchase of equipment, server space, and design services, not to mention the time to seek out guests, research their work (often reading a slew of books in a year), record the interviews, and edit the final products for sharing. Yes, there are costs, but what are the benefits. Here are three that come to mind:
- Making – Creating these two podcasts and producing regular episodes has kept Lynn and I close to the importance of exercising leadership in our roles as superintendent and assistant superintendent. All of us in educational leadership have responsibilities that involve leadership and management, and leaders often stress over not having enough time for the leadership aspects of the role. (Listen to Bonus Episode 2: Panel Discussion on Leadership and Management in a Learner-centered Environment on the Shift Your Paradigm podcast for some insights.) Designing a podcast episode that is meaningful has required us to interrogate our own practice along with the educational leadership landscape as a whole and focus on producing a resource that supports change in our organization (and potentially beyond). Our making has focused us on the leadership aspects of our roles and work. Which brings us to the second benefit – learning.
- Learning – Admittedly, our initial foray into podcasting was selfish (and probably still is, mostly). We do this first and foremost because we are curious and need to learn more about something. For example, we started TLTalkRadio because we were embarking on an organizational transformation and wanted to access the experts. Our curiosity took us to some interesting personalities (mainstream and not-so-mainstream), and they willingly gave us an hour or so to engage them in a conversation about their work. We started Shift Your Paradigm after learning about learner-centered education on this TLTalkRadio episode. We became curious about the leadership required to lead learner-centered environments, partnered with Education Reimagined, and have had our mindsets shifted and shaped by experts and practitioners across the country doing the work. While we personally have learned much, from both podcasts, that has impacted our practice, it’s about more than our own personal learning. Which brings us to the third benefit – sharing.
- Sharing – Podcasts are shared on blogs and social media; people subscribe to them through iTunes and other services. While we’ve shared this episodes out locally, adding value to our own organization, they’ve also been accessed by many educators and educational leaders from across the country with the same curiosities. Without the podcast, our learning would be confined to, well, just us. What good is that? Education as a whole needs transformation, and if even one person listens to a conversation that inspires them to change something about their work, then it’s been worth going the extra mile to document that conversation and share it to a wider audience. Every episode has the potential for elevating the conversation around education and educational leadership, if even only a pebble in a large, noisy and stormy sea of podcasts, blog posts and other media. And those who gave us their time…they’ve had the benefit of having their voice amplified as well.
As part of my reflection on these years of producing podcast episodes, I share some of the episodes I connected with most deeply. From the past year:
TLTalkRadio
Episode 19 – Changing Change with Charity Allen and Cale Birk – Everything we do as leaders can be a learning experience. How we design that experience needs the voice of the learner…the LX.
Episode 10 – Moving the Rock with Grant Lichtman – We all need to own the transformation process of education, and there are seven levels we call pull to ignite that change.
Episode 5 – A School of Our Own with Susan Engel and Samuel Levin – What can happen when a learner asks a powerful question? A new kind of school can be created.
Shift Your Paradigm
Bonus Episode 2 – Panel Discussion on Leadership and Management in a Learner-centered Environment – Transformation is almost all about leadership, and a different kind of leadership than the school-centered kind we learned about in our leadership programs.
Episode 15 – Big Picture Learning – Deep, powerful, learner-centered opportunities change lives and are built on learner interests, rich relationships with adults and mentors, and put into practice with authentic learning in the community.
Episode 5 – Iowa BIG – Learner agency is the secret sauce of learner-centered education. Once we get that right, the other elements fall into place.
Working with Lynn to make these two podcasts over the past four years has simply been a powerful learning experience. Because of this powerful learning, I feel inspired to keep the learning fueled into the future.
If you have a podcast, what motivates you? Would you consider making a podcast if you don’t already have one?
Connect with Randy on Twitter, the TLTalkRadio podcast, and the Shift Your Paradigm podcast!
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