Podcasts
I was instantly excited by the possibilities of using podcasts in my classroom, as well as for personal learning. From a consumption point of view, I would be able to find audio recorded by others, subscribe to it using my Google Reader RSS account and download it to my MP3 player. I can then listen to the podcasts during my morning run or in my car (if I ever finally get around to switching from CDs to an MP3 compatible stereo) or share them with my class. As for creating podcasts, I immediately knew my students would be excited to create their own podcasts on all manner of subjects.
As an application to my personal life, podcasts open up a new realm of delivery of personally relevant information. The website http://www.runningpodcasts.org/ , for example, has podcasts that can help me with my running performance. I am currently stalled out in my running efforts. I can jog 5 km in about 32 minutes, but can’t seem to go on any longer. Podcasts with running tips or motivational messages would be a welcome source of help. My older son has recently attended Free the Children’s We Day 2010 at Roger’s Arena. The event is described by the organizers as:
more than just one day of celebration and inspiration. It’s a one-of-a-kind event and part of an innovative year-long program created to celebrate the power of young people to create positive change in the world. The event kicks off a year-long program of action, called We Schools in Action. We Day is free of charge and open to any school that wants to be part of the experience. In exchange, each school group that attends is asked to make a commitment to follow the We Schools in Action program, which includes taking local and global action throughout the year.
Retrieved from http://weday.freethechildren.com/about/
Speakers at the event included Al Gore, Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr., Rick Hanson and the co-founders of Free the Children, Craig and Marc Kielburger. My son was so excited about the day that it was contagious! Searching with him for podcasts by some of the presenters or other speakers on similar subjects would be a great connection. Encouraging him to record a podcast as an eye witness would also be very powerful and authentic activity. Unfortunately, he is currently at Scout camp, so we won’t be able to do this until next week.
I have always been an auditory learner. One of the most powerful ways for me to learn something is to listen. I discovered this in high school. One of my history teachers would lecture for most of the period and I loved listening to him. I found that I could remember most of what he said and would only occasionally have to look up a date or statistic from my notes. Podcasts, through their auditory nature, have the potential to deliver information that I can personally access, understand and remember. As a teacher who strives to deliver information in a variety of ways for a variety of learners, podcasts could be another tool, offering accessible lessons for auditory learners.
One thing that I’m really excited about is the application of podcasts to the teaching of English Language Arts (ELA) skills. As part of the ELA curriculum, students are expected, “to understand and use information and communications technology for a variety of purposes.” Podcasts certainly fall within the use of communications technology. In addition, in 2006, the B.C. Ministry of Education changed the ELA curriculum to better represent listening and speaking skills. While previous documents focused heavily on reading and writing skills, the new curriculum states that listening and speaking skills need to be just as developed. Yet, teaching students how to be effective oral communicators has proven to be a challenge in my career, and teaching students how to be effective listeners is like trying to catch smoke. Assessing these skills has often come down to assigning debates and assessing how often a child appears clueless after instructions have been given. Apparently, I am not alone in this. Over the past couple of years, our school has invested time and money in providing professional development opportunities to develop the listening and speaking parts of our ELA curriculum. While the strategies provided during these professional development days have proved useful, podcasts are a natural extension. By recording various lessons or delivering content using podcasts, I am providing my students with opportunities to relisten to material and to reflect on listening skills. By allowing students to record themselves, I can listen to many students and have time to respond to their efforts, providing specific links to saved oral material. Students can also listen to themselves, thereby developing a critical ear for oral language. Currently, no teachers on staff are using podcasts to deliver content; neither are students being offered the opportunity to use podcasts as a product option. As a member of my staff or, eventually, as a teacher-librarian, I believe I can make a powerful contribution to continued professional development in the ELA listening and speaking categories by showing my staff how accessible podcasting is and starting a conversation around the possible uses for podcasting in the classroom.
Podcast Creation
I created my first Podcast using Audioboo.fm, a site recommended by Joanne DeGroot. Audioboo is a site that enables people to record audio using portable devices, like an IPhone, and upload them to their computers, as well as social networking sites. Audioboo also allows users to create audio recordings right to the site. After signing up for an account, I needed to install a Java update to my computer, which took under five minutes. With Java updated, I then clicked on the green ‘recording’ button. I was given the option to record right to Audioboo or to download a file. I chose to record straight to Audioboo. Recording was as simple as speaking into the microphone attached to my computer. I did need to re-record once, however, as I did not initially speak close enough to the microphone and the first recording was too quiet to hear. After each recording, I was able to preview my podcast by hitting the preview button. Once satisfied, I was able to add a title and tags to my recording and save to the site. Unfortunately, saving to the site took many minutes. Once the saving was completed, it was stored under “my boos.” To attach the podcast to my blog, I went to ‘my boos’ and clicked on the heart icon next to the podcast I wanted. The podcast came up larger on another screen with an ‘embed’ icon next to it. I clicked on the ‘embed’ icon and got the html code, which I copied and pasted onto the ‘edit html’ space offered when adding a post to my blog. The process was similar to embedding a video.
Overall, I think I will use Audioboo in my classroom. The process was simple and for the cost of a microphone, I can have my students creating podcasts immediately. The one downside is portability. I would love to be able to bring a portable device, like an IPod, on a fieldtrip and record real-time reactions to exhibits. As I currently do not have an IPod, IPhone or similar device, nor do I or the school have a budget for one, podcasting from the classroom will have to suffice for now.
An added bonus of Audioboo is that it functions like a social networking site. It allows users to find and follow other peoples recordings or ‘boos.’ I can use the search function to type in key words. Typing in constellations, for example, led me to Skyponderer and his podcast on constellations. Clicking on the RSS feed button allowed me to subscribe to his podcasts, which means that his new pod casts will be routed to my ‘favorites’ in Audioboo. There is also a function that allows users to search what was recorded by remote audio devices near one another, which would be handy when researching reactions to an event, like an Olympic event.
An Example of Podcasting my Classroom
There are many who are passionate about podcasting in the classroom. Apple, creator of the iPod and iPhone, states that, “when students create a podcast for class, they not only learn the content in a creative way, they learn 21st century communications skills at the same time” (Anonymous, 2008). A related article poses the question, “What sorts of new ways of engaging as literate learners do new technologies offer with regard to connectivity… access to information, and diverse ways of understanding and participating in the world?” (Vasquez, 2010). The challenge here is to stop thinking about ways to use technology to jazz up old assignments and to think about what is valid for learners in our new, connected world.
In learning about podcasting, I was directed to two wonderful sites; the March 5, 2008 update to the website educating alice which contained podcasts of children reading from the book Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz and the site Just One More Book (http://www.justonemorebook.com/) which is a collection of book reviews and author interviews. In exploring the two sites, I was reminded of this year’s round of parent teacher interviews. Quite a few parents had made comments about wanting their children to write book reports. But what does the book report look like in the 21st century? Below is the outline of a book report assignment. The podcast attached to the blog is an example of what the students might create. And yes, for those of you who guessed, the questions are a lead up to an activity in which we try to find the author or an expert on a particular subject and conduct an interview.
Book Report Assignment
Your assignment is to create a book review that can be added to the class website. Your assignment will be done in 4 parts.
Part 1
Choose a novel to review. You need to clear your choice with me or our teacher-librarian.
Once you have chosen your novel, copy the following into your Smart Reading duotang and fill it in before reading:
Goal: | Connections: |
Predictions: | Questions: |
Think carefully about your goal, as it will be your goal throughout the novel. Show your pre-reading work to me before you start to read.
Part 2
Read your novel in chunks. You have 2 weeks to finish the novel, with 1 hour chunks of time in class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Flip through your novel and think about how you will break it up and how much time you will need at home to complete the assignment. Write out your plan and share it with me or with the teacher-librarian. As you read, you need to take notes. Copy the following onto a lined piece of paper and fill it in each time you read:
Evidence of meeting your reading goal: | Images/Important ideas/important passages (think about the author’s message): |
Questions for the author or about the story or subject content: | Reflection on your reading or learning: |
Bring your work to school daily and be prepared to show your progress!
Part 3:
When you have finished reading your novel, you need to prepare your report. It needs to include:
a written statement about the novel that relates to your goal (for example, if your goal was to create images in your mind as your read, you would write about 3-5 powerful images, including as much sensory detail as possible)
a written statement about the author’s message in the novel, including specific justification (There might be many messages. You just need to choose one.)
a piece of original artwork with captions explaining the sensory details and emotion
a podcast of you reading a passage from the text and an explanation of why you chose this passage
a podcast or written statement outlining your top three questions for the author or for an expert on the content covered by the novel
You will have one additional week to complete part 3. You will be given our Language Arts blocks during this week to work on the assignment (this works out to be about 6 hours). Anything not finished in class will be assigned for homework. The Podcasts will be recorded at school during Language Arts or Library time.
Part 4:
With my help, be prepared to upload your book review onto the class website on _______________ (Due Date).
(See the page marked Marking for the marking rubric for this assignment.)
One final thought…
Will Richardson describes podcasting as the “creation and distribution of amateur radio, plain and simple,” (2010) and discusses the use of radio in schools. In searching for information and inspiration on podcasting, I came across the site World News for Children (http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/wnc), which is a site full of news podcasts for children created by the BBC. I was excited about these podcasts, as it is difficult to find quality, accessible news for younger children. However, what is more exciting is using the site to inspire students to create radio newscasts for the school. Perhaps a good collaborative project for a classroom teacher and teacher-librarian...
References
Anonymous, . Podcasting in the Classroom. (2008, March). Techniques,
83(3), 7-8. Retrieved October 14, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1436580321).
BBC. World News for Children. Retrieved from
Edinger, M. In the Classroom: Kid Podcasts of Good Masters! Sweet
Ladies! (March, 2008). Retrieved from http://medinger.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/in-the-classroom-kid-podcasts-of-good-masters-sweet-ladies/
Free the Children. (2010). Retrieved from
http://weday.freethechildren.com/about/
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other
Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Corwin.
Ross, A. & Blevis, M. Just One More Book. Retrieved from
Vasquez, V.. (2010, January). iPods, Puppy Dogs, and Podcasts: Imagining
Literacy Instruction for the 21st Century. School Talk, 15(2), 1-2. Retrieved October 14, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1938474901).
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