Podcast: A Trickster's Treachery

 Hello, dear readers!

We were assigned to create a podcast by our professor! Me and my dearest friend, Buse Beyaz chose to do a storytelling podcast that included some selected words and sound effects! The story we told is about a sneaky crime committed by a magician and it is targeted to teenagers and young adults. I do not want to spoil the story too much since the ending is a bit unexpected, so you can take a listen to it here! The first half of the story is told by my friend, and the second half, by me! You can access my friend's blog here! 

Of course while we were preparing this podcast, we encountered some difficulties. Since we did not have the right equipment or any podcasting/editing experience, it was very hard for us to record (for recording, we used Vocaroo, it is a very nice app and is very beginner friendly!). Plus, it was very, VERY uncomfortable to hear my own voice. The environment did not feel very safe to record a podcast since I was in my own home and had to ensure everyone was silent and not yelling or fighting. I have also felt very unsafe since the podcasting sites (Podbean) we used asked for money in order for our podcast to be private and be shared by link only. I do not feel comfortable with our voices being uploaded on the Internet. My overall experience was stressful and this task definitely triggered a lot of anxiety waves. However, there is one part I had fun while doing, and that is the storywriting, since it is one of my hobbies! I wrote the story by myself, decided on the words and sound effects, who was going to tell which part, and my friend helped me with editing since I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to technology (you can read about my friend's experiences here!)!

Since I am going to be a teacher, I must reflect on my experiences and decide on which activities to give to my future students, and which to dismiss. As much as I enjoyed some of the parts, I would definitely NOT give my students a task such as podcasting. I am not a big fan of exploiting my students, and I do not want to expose their voices or pictures to the Internet judging from how dangerous the environment can be, primarily because of the widespread use of generative AI. Even when you delete a piece of data, there is no guarantee that it will not stay on the data pool forever. Besides, not everyone can have access to technology, the right tools and a safe environment to record their voices. I would rather give my students an in-class paired speech activity instead of podcasting. Thank you so much for reading this far and hearing about my opinions!

Take care!