Podcasts in Education - Talking Teaching with Danny Hauger -

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In an ever-evolving world, we are always looking for new ways to learn and new ways to teach. Even outside of the education sphere of school and universities, people are hungry for knowledge and new ways to consume it. But it’s within those schools and universities that we find those who are hungry to share knowledge as well, like Danny Hauger does using podcasts in education.

Hauger’s been in the podcasting game for a long time. Even in his college days, he was broadcasting and operating radio stations, all preparing him for a life behind a mic.

“What’s really cool is that I’ve had a relationship now with Podbean for over a decade, starting back when I was the general manager of Titan Radio, at CalState Fullerton, which is the second-biggest university in California. California kid born and raised, I’ve been writing music for a decade and I’ve been podcasting since my college radio days, so I started out in comedy sketch writing – because everyone in college thinks they’re so funny, and that was a fun time. Started posting episodes and encouraging other students to podcast, and we were kind of amongst the early adopters of the medium, posting other shows from other Djs that were also students. So it was always tied into this sense of education. I was a radio/TV/film major, and I just love the idea of keeping these episodes archived for posterity.”

As he’s moved into the classroom, so has his podcasting expertise. And he’s found that not only do the students learn from his podcasts in education, they learn from the act of podcasting as well.

“My students and I will sit together on microphones in the classroom, which is a phenomenal way to back up the sense of bringing learning home by teaching. It’s a wonderful way to reinforce your own learning. When they find out they have to come record with me, they’ll come in prepared. They’re not going to want to walk in and stutter on the microphone, so it’s a great way to practice, like, oral communication skills.

“I generally will do this before every unit test, and I’ll sit down – I talk pretty quick, I don’t know if that’s becoming apparent – but I talk really fast, and I know, like, there’s no chance that that you’re going to catch everything I said. So if I sit down for seven to ten minutes, recap what was key before an assessment . . . I did my masters’ on this very subject, and found that student scored eight percent better when I provide a podcast as opposed to when I didn’t. And they go home and they listen to it – it’s not homework, it’s not required, but they know that it helps. And I can see that it helps now because I’ve conducted the data.”

Of course, his podcasting audience has grown to be more than just his students. He and his cohost, Tavis Beem, have taken podcasts in education one step further. Their podcast together, Inspiring Teachers, aims to inspire, celebrate, and educate other teachers out in the world.

“We are always talking teaching. Our wives are both educators as well, and I asked one day, “Why aren’t we recording these conversations? We’re talking about it so often, I bet other people would find a lot of common ground here.” And what we started with two of us became inviting people at our school, and then it became inviting nationwide acclaimed educators and award-winners and authors, and exploring this “why” of teaching. Why do we do this, where there are so many other careers that we have come from and could have chosen and could also engage in?

“And it became a study of why teachers teach, what they want students to learn from them, besides just the lessons of the classroom, and why it is that we all share in this community, which is now more connected than ever through social media and the internet, where we’re not isolated islands anymore. The ideas that we share and develop can become classroom-changing across the nation and possibly around the world. So we’ve had some really fantastic guests – over fifty in the year now – and it’s been a really cool study of how many really passionate good-hearted people there are out there that are choosing to teach professionally.”

Whether it’s for class, for teachers and students, or for his love of music and spreading knowledge, Danny Hauger doesn’t see a future in which he’s not podcasting.

“It’s been a focus on education, it’s been on music, it’s been on sharing, it’s been on giving gifts to the world. And I wanna thank Podbean because they’ve been rock-steady beside me this whole time, so I’ve never thought about going to a different venue. They really supported my creativity.”

Podcasts in education provide opportunities for new learning and teaching methods, enabling both students and teachers to improve how knowledge is shared and learned.

To learn more about Danny’s music, podcasts, and love of teaching, check out his website and various weblinks here: