Podcast – Week 10 – Statistics

So, my learning journey is almost at an end. But, we still need to discuss the analytics of podcasting.

So I posted my podcast about just over a week ago. I anxiously awaited to see the statistics regarding listeners. In the time  of a week I have had 6 downloads of my podcast. Some would be sad with that number. I am ecstatic, and let me tell you why.

For me, this episode was a labour of love. In our staff room, we discuss the ever changing demographics and demands in the classroom. Seeing as most of the teachers in my school are past the 15 years of service mark, they are more vocal about the lack of PD that responses to these changing demands. PD is in short demand for practicing teachers. What is worse, good PD is even more scarce. When the topic of my fall class came up in conversation (Trauma-informed teaching), many of my colleagues lamented how they would love to take the class or receive PD regarding this topic. They have observed that the changing demographics would benefit from this type of informed teaching. I would argue that we would all benefit from trauma-informed instruction. While our students are a main focus, we can’t forget that we are humans who have our own stories and experiences. Many of us have experienced trauma. It affects us. We need to recognize, honour and work through this. So, this class sparked the idea of podcasting. I want to share the knowledge I gain with other teachers – in other words, I want to practice open pedagogy with this type of knowledge.

Now, back to the statistics. I honestly thought that most of the views would have been from either my colleagues or from the members in this class. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that only two downloads have come Saskatchewan.

According to Buzzsprout, my podcast has been played more in Winnipeg Manitoba than anywhere else in the world. My podcast was even streamed in the US. The information in this podcast is not country specific, so it could be beneficial to teachers in other countries. I find it really interesting that Buzzsprout gives users this level of statistics. However, it is really useful. If I continue on this journey, I can potentially focus my content to suit the largest portion of my listeners. In this case, my content can be focused on prairie teachers. This is neat because the prairies are normally ignored by many. When Canada is the focus, people tend to focus on either Vancouver or Toronto and area, or both. I get it. They are the largest portions of our population. It is just frustrating because we tend to experience different issues than these regions.

Now, this is not the only statistics I get to view. I get to see what device and app they used. Now, one downside of multiple apps is that I have to individually check each site for comments. In one of the videos I included in my blog post weeks ago, one of the content creators (Think Media) explained that I should examine these comments for feedback and evolve my podcast. Having to individually check each app is labour intensive and annoying. However, it could be worse -before these distribution platforms I would have had to individually post on each app. So, I shouldn’t complain too much.

 

Have I received any comments? No. I have had listeners, but no comments. So, I hope that it was interesting and informative. I have no real feedback on the episode -what went well, what needs work, etc.

 

I have to admit, this process has been really interesting and I have learned a lot. Next post, we are going to summarize this journey and my thoughts.