Podcasting or “Good Morning, Vietnam!”…er….“World!”

For those of you who remember Robin Williams in the movie Good Morning, Vietnam, you may recall that he was a radical who did his own thing with the army radio program he was hosting. Podcasting gives all of us the opportunity to do our own thing with our own radio-like programs. I don’t recommend going quite so far overboard as Robin Williams’ character, but I do recommend speaking out, sharing knowledge and experiences, promoting activities and events, and generally helping us learn about ourselves, others and our world by speaking about it.

Richardson (2009) points out that videocasts, screencasts and live streaming are related topic areas, but I will focus on the oral/aural creations of podcasts for this post, mainly because I need to start where I am with this. Inclusion of visuals will come later, when I have developed some confidence and ability in the foundational aspects. Maybe some of my students will help me.

I used to work with a fellow who was into all the latest technologies and learned them inside and out, quickly and easily. He was light years ahead of my ability to understand their implications and use and I’m sure he was first in line to subscribe to the earliest podcasts and to use them in his professional development and in his classroom. I envied his ability to dive right into the tools, absorb them, and then use them with his students. I always had a quick look at whatever new technology he was excited about, but never got into any of them in any depth. It took me somewhat longer to find an interest and the time to investigate podcasts and other Web 2.0 tools for personal and professional growth.

Finding Podcasts
I started subscribing to several podcasts a few years ago, mostly to try them out and learn more about them. I searched and subscribed to some through iTunes and although I don’t always have time to listen to the podcasts right away, at some point, usually on a long plane ride, I manage to hear them. That kind of defeats the point of receiving the latest issue of a series, but it does illustrate the point that podcasts are convenient and portable.

When we are looking for podcasts or helping students to locate podcasts, Schmit (2007) reminds us that since podcasts are different from traditional broadcasts and are not regulated by any particular rules, language and content can be a concern. Searching for podcasts with educational terms will reduce the chance of finding inappropriate material but students still need to learn to search with a critical eye (and ear); teachers still need to preview materials before sharing. iTunes does label recordings that are ‘explicit’ in nature, which is something I had never really noticed before until I did more reading about podcasts.

Creating and Using Podcasts
It wasn’t until a few months ago that I learned how to actually make a podcast in one of our professional development days at school and I had so much fun with it! We used Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) to create the ‘text’ portion of the podcast and imported music clips from Freeplay Music (http://freeplaymusic.com). We uploaded our finished products to MyPodcast.com (http://www.mypodcast.com) Because there were about 10 of us in the lab, sound quality was not exactly the best. This is an important consideration when creating a podcast as Schmit (2007, p.15) points out that “listeners will not tolerate poor audio quality”, and respondents in Jowitt’s (2008) article stressed importance on the clarity, tone and emphasis of the readers’ voices. I was just thrilled that I had successfully recorded a couple of ‘tester’ podcasts and started then to think about ways in which future podcasts could be used at our school. At last....a short podcast.. http://danceclassad.mypodcast.com/index.html

My initial ideas were to create booktalks or book reviews for students and staff to listen to. This is also one idea suggested by Eash (2006) and Jowitt (2008). Just One More Book (http://justonemorebook.com) is a great site dedicated to elementary book reviews with audio but is well beyond the simple podcasts I had in mind. As it turned out, when I was thinking about how to use podcasts, the school year was winding down and with a constant lack of time, I never started creating any.

Now, my Web 2.0 class has inspired and pushed me to consider other options and to get the ball rolling on creating recordings. After all, a new year is about to begin and what better place to start? Kajewski (2006) states that librarians need to be the driving force to implement the new technologies into student (and staff) learning, especially to “meet the needs of today’s young adults, who are far more tech-fluent than most librarians” (p.420). It’s tough to be that driving force, but we must in order to survive and grow. In an international school with high and frequent turnover of staff, it’s always a big job to simply promote the library resources and collaborative skills of the teacher librarian every year to the new (and returning) staff. Perhaps with new Web 2.0 initiatives we can hook a few more people.

Numerous articles and websites provide many different ways in which to incorporate podcasts into the library, the classroom and the school but promoting the library and the teacher librarians is my first concern. Jowitt (2008) presents the process that a New Zealand university followed in order to improve communication with and services to patrons. They focused on instructional podcasts to explain how to access the library catalogue, search the catalogue, use the My Account section, and place a hold. The library also created a walking tour of each of the two campus libraries. Patrons were asked for feedback; respondents were positive and offered suggestions for future podcasts as well as frustrations they encountered that stimulated ideas for improving existing podcasts.

Other examples for promoting the library and reading are book review, storytelling, library newsletter, and creative writing podcasts (Eash, 2006). All of which I feel would be good places for my librarian colleague and I to start.

Ideas for Students
The digital native students that we have in our schools today are very familiar with using podcasts and other Web 2.0 resources, but are not always familiar with ways in which those tools can be used to create academic projects. Students learn to “research, write, develop vocabulary, speak effectively, manage time, solve problems, and grab attention” when they create podcasts (Eash, 2006, p.17). Creating podcasts for authentic audiences gives more meaning to the work and students are often motivated to do their best knowing that listeners could be from anywhere in the world (Eash, 2006).

One fabulous idea offered by Schmit (2007) is for students to create a podcast that continues throughout a semester or a year. Having to work and think in episodes allows students to have an extended view of a topic and the podcasts can also serve as a portfolio of their learning and research. I like this as a supplement to documenting their research process in a blog as this would show more of the emotional aspect to their learning through their speech.

I love Eash’s (2006) idea for having students take MP3 recorders on field or study trips to record their observations and information as the starting point for a podcast to share their learning afterwards. What a marvelous idea! I will need to lobby for a class set of MP3 recorders for these events. We have quite a few for circulation right now, but certainly not enough for a class of 22 to take at once, and I know I will want students to use them on our study trip to Sarawak, an eastern state of Malaysia. Eash (2006) and Fontichiaro (2007) suggest interviews as podcasts and I can see using the set of MP3 recorders for interviewing elders and locals on the study trip.

Podcasts can be used to enhance instruction for struggling learners or those who need additional or extended support (Eash, 2006; Fontichiaro, 2007). Lessons can be accessed any time and can be played, paused, replayed as many or as few times as the student needs. Schmit (2007) provides examples for using podcasts as discussion starters in social studies, vocabulary and pronunciation practice in world languages, and descriptions of mathematical concepts. Fontichiaro (2007) suggests using podcasts for oral exams in world languages or in cases where students with special needs may not be able to succeed on a written exam. Students could open the podcast in Audacity, play the questions on one track and record their answers on a second track. This is a terrific way to differentiate assessment. Fontichiaro also suggests using podcasts to create newscasts for present or past events, or radio plays of moments in literature or historical fiction, complete with sound effects.

Summary
At first I thought podcasts were just fun things to create, but having read about them and listened to them, I now see that they can be an exciting tool in education, both from a user’s and from a creator’s point of view. Now….just to get started……

Caveats
As with anything that is published to the Web beyond our schools, we must ensure the safety of our students and must all be aware of ethical and copyright issues. Students need to use first names, nicknames or pseudonyms only, with no other identifying information in order to protect their identities. Any music or audio clips used must be original or come from a royalty-free site. Just as content coming into our schools must be appropriate, so too does content going out.

References
Eash, E.K. (2006). Podcasting 101 for K-12 librarians. Computers in Libraries (26)4, pp.16-20. Retrieved July 18, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals database.

Fontichiaro, K. (2007). Podcasting 101. School Library Media Activities Monthly (23)7, pp.22-23. Retrieved July 18, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals database.

Jowitt, A.L. (2008). Creating communities with podcasting. Computers in Libraries (28)4, pp.14-15,54-56. Retrieved July 17, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals database.

Kajewski, M.A. (2006). Emerging technologies changing our service delivery models. The Electronic Library (25)4, pp.420-429. Retrieved July 10, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals database.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Schmit, D. (2007). Creating a broadcasting empire…from the corner of your classroom! MultiMedia & Internet@Schools (14)1, pp.13-16. Retrieved July 17, 2009 from ProQuest Education Journals database.