This "Anchor" will NOT weigh you down!

I've used the audio tools, Anchor and Flipgrid several times and I like each serves a different purpose. I think that Anchor is best suited longer audio events (like conversation and commentary), with a bit of spit and polish, perhaps advertisements and that you want to distribute widely and quickly. Flipgrid seems better suited for shorter audio sharing (short conversations in class, introductions, quick responses).

Anchor is a free podcasting app that make is simple to create, publish and market a podcast immediately. It is built for smartphones or can be used on the web. My colleagues and I discovered it when when we were investigating podcasting equipment. Our goals were ro find a tool that we could use immediately, take on the road (on the spot reporting) and publish immediately. Anchor met all of those requirements. So much so that we put it into practice during Covid, remotely providing instruction to the student and he was able to take the ball and run with it!

I've included a very short screen recording using the Anchor app.

The advantage to using Anchor is that you can start podcasting immediately. It is really a turnkey process because all the technical challenges are gone. More time can be spent preparing for the podcast. For example, the interviewer can reach out to be person being interviewed via text, email, twitter, facebook, email. I also prepared a short podcast with a student.

I've included an outline that we prepared for a podcasting unit. It's pretty thorough but could use a little tweaking.

And if you are so inclined you can find Quarantine BEARS podcast on Spotify!