When I began the process of learning about podcasting by reading Will Richardson's section on podcasting and following the four trailfires set out by Joanne, I felt pretty comfortable and confident. Ah-ha! There it was again, that "honeymoon" stage, which seems to be occurring quite regularly throughout my EDES 501 journey. Inevitably that honeymoon stage is always followed by those affective domain feelings of doubt, confusion, and anger. The Focus on Inquiry document created by Alberta Learning dedicates an entire chapter to the importance of reflecting on the "process of inquiry." These cognitive and affective domains can be incorporated into any kind of reflection and process of learning and there is a very good metacognition (thinking about your thinking) chart that outlines thoughts and feelings as students are introduced to something new (p.38-40). Sorry, back to my learning, though it was worth mentioning. Thinking to myself, hah, this seems pretty idiot-proof, all you need is a microphone, access to the web, and something to talk about. I downloaded Audacity with no problem, began playing around with recording myself singing, making inappropriate sounds etc.(if you ever saw Tom Hanks on SNL's Wayne's World with Aerosmith as a roady testing the microphone you'll appreciate that) and then tried to export a test podcast as an MP3 file.
I had quite easily downloaded Lame for Audacity and installed it, even got a message saying the installation was successful. I knew from reading Richardson's podcast section and also Joanne de Groot's "How to Create a Podcast" hand out (which I obtained at the Kamloops-Thompson TL Conference way back in 2007) that all I needed to do now was to go to "File" then "Export as MP3" save it on my computer as an MP3 file and then upload it to my blog. Easy-squeazy, right? Yeah right! I spent A LOT of time over a few days trying to figure out what I was doing wrong or what step I was missing to no avail. A resounding, "Could not open MP3 encoding library" appeared over and over and over . . . I did feel a little better when I found out a few of my classmates were having the same difficulties. Misery loves company!
When I began the exploration of podcasting I had really only listened to a few and had never created one myself. I listened to Joanne's podcast at the beginning of the course where she described the course in detail and also to a couple while exploring a few of the blogs recommended by Joanne. Will Richardson gave some examples of some podcasts that were created by kids for kids like "Radio Willow Web" (P. 113-114) and "Coleycasts" (P. 114). He also suggested to check out the education podcasts available from iTunes. I accessed StoryNory from the iTunes site and my kids and I listened to a couple of stories narrated by "Natasha" with her cool accent. Their favourites being "The Midas Touch" and "The Frog Prince." They wanted more, but I had to get back to work. Here's the link if you want to get your kids hooked:
http://storynory.com/ .
Now at the end of my reflection on the process of learning about the tool, I do feel I have made quite a bit of progress. I'm comfortable accessing a variety of podcasts, sharing them with family and friends, and also creating them and embedding them into my blog. Yes . . . I finally did it. Joanne's advice to move all the Lame files into the Audacity file worked . . . eventually. I did have to try it a few times to figure out where it was saved and where to send it, but I did it! And I think I could do it again! How's that for learning!
Discussion of the Tool in Terms of My Own Personal Learning
As a learner in regards to podcasting my biggest stumbling block was converting the Audacity file into a MP3 file as discussed above. Thanks to Joanne's advice of moving all the Lame files into my Audacity folder, I was finally able, after a few attempts, to archive my podcast and embed it into my blog. It was fairly easy to create the podcast, though it's not fancy, and embed it into my post thanks to Annabelle's link to "How to Embed a Podcast into Blogger." Thanks Annabelle.
Having my daughter share her poem via the podcast also allowed me to expose her to the technology as well. We had a lot of fun and laughs recording our first podcast together. It's remarkable how embarrassed we both felt listening to our recorded voices. I wonder why so many people dislike listening to themselves on recording devices? Along with the podcast, I was also able to scan her poem and download it onto our computer, which I then added to my blog. She was pretty excited to see her poem published online and listen to the podcast as well. I was fairly proud of myself as well at finally having succeeded in getting the podcast onto my blog.
I definitely intend on sharing this part of my blog post with her grandparents. Though when I think of using podcasting to stay connected with our family, it is more likely that we will continue using Skype to "see" and "talk" with one another.
On the other hand, my kids loved listening to the Story Nory podcasts. I do see us continuing to use podcasting in this way, listening as opposed to creating. As Richardson point out, "The success of podcasting comes from the fact that not only are they east to create, they are easy to consume as well" (p. 111). He also points out how easy it is to download podcasts onto your iPod or MP3 player and take it with you to listen to perhaps as a commuter or at a later time. This took me way back to the early 90's when I was taking a Human Anatomy course at university and was required to memorize every bone, muscle, nerve, blood vessel, artery, etc. in the human body. My strategy was to record myself reading my all of my study cards onto a tape, plugging it into my walkman, and then heading out for a really long walk or run. And it worked! Not only did I memorize it all, I got into pretty good shape, too! Talk about a win-win situation.
In the end after all my trial and errors and exploration of podcasting, I feel my learning was indeed extended. I would be quite confident creating another podcast and taking the necessary steps to share it. I certainly learned a lot about saving, finding, and exporting different kinds of files and I noticed when reading the instructions on how to embed the podcast I knew what I was doing. So . . . some things are definitely getting easier!
Discussion of the Tool in Terms of Teaching & Learning
In terms of implementing podcasting as a teacher or teacher-librarian it's pretty easy to get excited about using this technology with students. Having just witnessed my daughter's total engagement in the creation of our small podcast, I can only imagine the excitement if students were able to make a classroom podcast that was updated regularly and published for anyone to read. Suddenly their audience shifts from only their teacher to anybody who finds their way onto the class podcast or blog. In his article "Classroom Audio Podcasting," Wesley A. Fryer explores how teachers can motivate their students to write or want to write through the use of classroom podcasting. "One of the most basic and powerful ways to increase student motivation to write and communicate is to change student perceptions of audience." Perhaps through podcasting we can reach those students who are not motivated to write just to impress the teacher and get a good grade. Staff at both the high school and elementary schools here in Chase are noticing that students are satisfied with just doing enough to get a passing grade. Maybe the thought of a "global audience" will engage more students to get writing. Fryer does mention that some administrators may be somewhat hesitant to the fact that students are sharing their audio podcasts directly online. My thought on that, I think the benefits greatly outnumber the risks. In most cases the educator would be apprised of what is being podcast to the web. As well, Fryer states, "The potential of publishing for a global audience is precisely the characteristic of podcasts which gives them so much motivational power for student writing."
Fryer's article can be found at Tools for the TEKS: Integrating Technology in the Classroom,
http://www.wtvi.com/TEKS/05_06_articles/classroom-audio-podcasting.html. He covers quite a bit in the 8 pages including the definition of podcasting and 10 benefits of podcasting in the classroom. Important and on everybody's mind is the fact that podcasting is relatively inexpensive. Cost is most likely the first question admin will ask the teacher or teacher-librarian if they are wanting to implement a new technology into the classroom or library program. The only equipment that may need to be purchased is the microphone, and most schools have one of these already. He mentions free downloadable programs like Audacity, Podifier, and Creative Commons that will enable students to create, archive, and share their podcasts. The fifth benefit of classroom podcasting, is that it "provides a window into the classroom." This would be a terrific way for the teacher and students to share what they are learning, researching and creating at school with parents and community members. I would also think it would help with student confidence when it comes to public speaking. Listening to themselves on their podcasts they can really evaluate their speech in terms of how fast they talk, how loud or quiet they are, how they enunciate words, etc. Most students experience a tremendous amount of fear getting up in front of their peers to deliver a speech. Perhaps podcasting would be one strategy to help overcome their fears.
Fryer also discusses privacy concerns and copyright issues. Privacy issues would not be too much of a concern as the students do not have to give their name if they wish to remain anonymous and also images are not included in podcasts. Copyright issues come into play if students want to download music into a podcast, but Fryer offers sources such as Podsafe Music Network http://music.podshow.com/ and FreePlay Music http://freeplaymusic.com/ for these instances. Also, classroom podcasting can allow students to learn about Creative Commons licensing as well http://creativecommons.org/.
From a student perspective, podcasting is fun to create, but can also be an excellent tool for reinforcement and studying. Khe Hew in his research paper, "Use of Audio Podcast in K-12 and Higher Education: A review of research topics and methodologies," (June 2009) found that the most common uses of podcasting was: 1) Instructors podcasting lectures or supplementary materials, and 2) Material for students to review and listen to again as many times needed if they don't understand something or missed it completely. I can attest to that as a student, listening to Joanne's podcast, pausing it take notes, and the same for the" . . . In Plain English" videos we have been watching on the various Web 2.0 tools. I cannot imagine listening to all this information ONCE in a lecture and not being able to go back to listen to again and again.
I found another good article in Academic Search Complete by S.E. Kramer, "Instructor How-To Tech Guide: Podcasts," outlining how podcasts work and that they give students a voice and build independence. Kramer talks about a class, Coulee Kids from Wisconsin, that published a series of four podcasts to troops in Iraq called Letters to Soldiers. Also interviews with a group of women in the community, The League of Voters. Talk about real, engaging, genuine "Inquiry" learning. Not the old regurgitate the textbook kind of learning that is still prevalent in some classrooms today. Once again, the teacher of Coulee Kids, Jeanne Halderson feels, "Having a real audience is the biggest benefit. If they're just handing an assignment to a teacher, it's not a big deal, but if everyone in the world can hear it, it ups the ante." Kramer also lists some useful tips for podcasting in the classroom which may be helpful for those who have not tried it with their students: http://web.ebscohost.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=106.
I have talked to my daughter's grade 4 teacher about working with class on some kind of technology. Last year I created a wiki on Honeybee's with her grade 3 class and it was an amazing experience. They were always excited to see me and work on their wiki. I believe podcasting might be the right choice this year. As I mentioned earlier it's relatively easy and inexpensive. Finding the time to get in there and do it will probably be the most challenging part! But, definitely worth it.
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