DCSD podcast celebrates 50 episodes
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
The Darlington County School District is working to change the way that teachers and students look at and interact with technology. From going one-to-one in its high schools, one device per student, to conducting a survey to figure out the challenges of using technology in the classrooms, the district is finding ways to show that technology can be a tool and not a distraction.
A year and a half ago two employees, Carla Jefferson and Rhett Hughes, started the DCSDTransforms podcast, which recently celebrated its 50th episode. Jefferson and Hughes say that the podcast has been a fun way to help other district employees discover new tools.
Carla Jefferson and Rhett Hughes record an episode of their technology- and education-focused podcast recently at the Darlington County School District offices. Contributed Photo
“It was one of those things where one said to the other many moons ago ‘We should do a podcast’, just randomly,” Hughes said. “That was when she was in the teacher role and not at the district office and we were just kind of messing around. Now, she is at the district office and I am right across the parking lot. We came out of the DCSD Transforms Conference that Carla put on, we had wrapped up and taken stuff down and we were just standing in the hall talking and I said ‘So, how about that podcast.”
The audience and the topic, teachers and technology, were set from the beginning.
“Both of us have a passion for technology and education,” Hughes said. “If you would survey our teachers, you would find two things that they would say they need help with. Almost always, the first thing they would say would be technology. The second thing they would say is that they don’t have the time to learn it. How do they go out and find technology to use in the classroom if you are not someone who was brought up in that system and you don’t have a passion for it? You’ll find some things, the standards tools that the district uses, but those other little things out there, you’ll never find those.”
Jefferson said that she has a very clear memory of how the first episode went.
“The first episode is funny because, we both have a picture of it now, we sat down and jotted things down on a piece of paper all over the place, what we were going to do,” Jefferson said. “We were like, let’s talk about some tools, let’s shout out some teachers; we just went from there.”
Hughes said that a podcast was an easy medium choice because he knows that, as teacher, it can be difficult to find time to add anything new to the day and still complete all the tasks that are required.
“At the high school level we have seven periods and one fifteen-minute plan,” Hughes said. “Podcasts are a great way for professional development, so are YouTube videos and stuff like that. The problem is if you do a 10 minute, 15 minute YouTube video then that means you have to turn your attention to that and that’s 10 or 15 minutes that you’re not grading papers, not calling parents, whatever the case may be. We thought that if it was podcast, they could just listen to it.”
Jefferson echoed Hughes saying that having something to listen to rather than watch gives teachers several options of when to tune in.
“That gives them flexibility with where they access it,” Jefferson said. “A lot of people say they listen to it in the car on the way to work or during their planning period while they are doing other things to prepare for students. We wanted to figure out how we could share information with teachers in a different way. Reading or watching, those are active skills. Listening isn’t passive but you can do other things while you’re doing it.”
Knowing that they are helping even just a few people in the district makes the weekly podcast worth it, Hughes said.
“We want everyone to listen but heck, if 15 or 20 people are actually listening and enjoying it, it’s worth it,’ he said.
Teachers will sometimes message them or stop them in the halls to say that they enjoy the podcast or the most recent episode.
“I think the compliment we got at the beginning of the school year was probably my favorite,” Jefferson said. “Rhett and I both got messages that said ‘I’m so excited for school to begin because the podcast begins again.”
Hughes and Jefferson said that they wanted to have a fun podcast because they want people to enjoy listening and they want teachers to understand just how much fun using technology can be.
“Emotions are a strong piece of who we are,” Jefferson said. “We remember how we feel during certain times. Humor makes you happy and makes you feel good; it has got to be fun. It is the same thing we say about kids: you want kids to be engaged. If you are not excited about it in the classroom, they take their cues from you. We want our teachers to be excited about technology in the classroom. They take their cues from us and we’re excited so hopefully they are too.”
If you are interested in checking out the podcast, visit rhetthughes.podbean.com.