Podcasting in the Library Media Center

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How to Use Podcasting in the Media Center          By Melissa W.

Image retrieved from: http://blogs.scholastic.com/ell/2009/01/celebrate-200-1.html

History

                Podcasting began around 2004, after audio blogs and the invention of the mp3 file format. In case you don’t already know, a blog (short for web log) is a popular, internet-based means of communicating one’s thoughts and positions on issues, etc.  It is basically an online journal wherein one can spout off to the world.  (Hint: you are reading a blog right now!) After blogs became popular and advances in technology increased the internet’s connection speed, some people began creating audio blogs, choosing to communicate via a digital mp3 recording of their voice; speaking the words rather than typing the words as text (Van Orden, 2008). The mp3 format compressed the audio file so it was small enough to easily download to an mp3 player. Podcasts eventually emerged from audio blogs when new software, Really Simple Syndication (RSS), was written to automatically sync one’s mp3 player each time a new audio broadcast was posted to one’s blog of choice. Listeners subscribe to an RSS feed in order to achieve the automatic update and delivery of the audio file. The name “podcast” is derived  from “ipod,” the popular mp3 player, and the word “broadcast.” The latest evolution of podcasting is vodcasting: incorporating video as well as audio.

Benefits of audio format in education

                A literature search on podcasting in education revealed many scholarly articles establishing the benefits of using an audio format for students. This research was established even before podcasting, yet is extremely relevant due to the audio format of podcasting. My favorite quote describing the excitement of using audio technology from a student’s point of view is from a child who described recording scripts and playing back the recordings of his voice thus: “it’s like being real” (Vasinda and McLeod 2011). Another benefit, described in a 2010 article by Edirisingha, was that, “[students] also liked being 'talked through' tasks in the laboratory or workshop, listening to discussions and opinions from experts in their field, and being encouraged by the voice of somebody they knew and respected.” The audio format can give the listener a personal, emotional connection to the content which may or may not be present in a text format. Edirisingha also finds “there is a significant body of empirical evidence of the impact of podcasting on student learning and staff engagement” (Ibid.). She cites a U.K. research project begun in 2006 that has studied 500 university students and the impact of podcasting on their learning. The study is IMPALA (Informal Mobile Podcasting and Learning Adaptation) and its participants have created podcasts for such purposes as preparing students for face-to-face classroom sessions, teaching students study skills, and communicating ethics standards in the study of genetics. A variety of disciplines, from electrical engineering, to geography, to English language, have used podcasting to enhance student learning.

Examples of using podcasting in the library media center

                It is no surprise, then, that podcasting may also be used to enhance learning in the school library media center.

1.            Since many school library media specialists also function as reading instructors, one use of podcasting is for readers theatre. In readers theatre, a script is made from an existing book and students are assigned roles from the book. An audio recording of their dramatic reading is created, similar to early radio shows. Sound effects may be added as well. Fluency, reading comprehension, anticipating an audience listening to their work, and motivation from working in a group, or “cast”, are established benefits of reader’s theatre (Vasinda and McLeod, 2011). In a ten week study of about 100 2^nd and 3^rd graders, students performed dramatic readings and made audio recordings using inexpensive external microphones and the free software Audacity.  

Two of the teachers wrote their own scripts using favorite picture books from their classroom libraries. Each character’s dialogue in the book became a part. The descriptions became narrator parts. The books from which scripts were written (see Table 3) became class favorites and were chosen over and over again from the classroom library (Vasinda and McLeod, 2011).

This demonstrates that using podcasting for readers’ theatre may increase student interest in the book they are using for the script. Choosing a book new to the students and using it for readers’ theatre may increase their fondness for the book and their desire to check it out from the library more often.

The improvement in students’ reading ability as a result of using readers theatre is also striking:

The grade-level equivalency gain for the struggling readers as a group was 1.13 years after this 10-week intervention. Gains for individual students ranged from one semester’s growth to three years’ growth as measured by the DRA and CRI (Vasinda and McLeoad, 2011).

One website recommended by the authors is: http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm. I checked it for currency and it does seem to be a good resource for scripts. In the study, some students recorded their own scripts, which gives media specialists a chance to apply those technology standards along with the AASL (American Association of School Librarians) and CCGPS literacy standards. One AASL standard suited to creating a readers theatre podcast is: 4.1.3 “Respond to literature and creative expressions of ideas in various formats and genres” (AASL, 2007). The podcasts can easily be emailed to parents or uploaded to the class website for parents to listen.

                A guest appearance from the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company might be a treat for inspiring local students for such a readers theatre project. (They also use podcasts!) You can listen to podcasts of their performances on their website (see Resources below).

2.            Another use for podcasting in the media center is learning about authors. At http://www.meettheauthor.com/, students may listen to authors discuss their works or their own personal stories. Searching on the site is done by keyword and by category. (Note that not all works on this website are child-friendly.) After listening, students could then research another author, perhaps using a print resource such as Something about the Author, and pose as that author to record a podcast biographical narrative in the first person. Students could listen to each other’s podcasts and try to guess which author is being portrayed.

3.            Yet another use would be to have students compare a reading learning experience to an audio learning experience on a similar topic. The comparison could include what made one more appealing than the other, if one learning experience was easier or if more information was retained from one of the formats than the other. Such an assignment would ultimately lead to students’ self-reflection on their own study strategies. For instance, would recording one’s own podcast of the key points in a textbook chapter, and then playing it back and listening to it several times, contribute to retention?

4.            Recording a short story podcast for a visually impaired student or older adult in the community is another way podcasting may be used in the media center. The virtues of empathy and helping others in the community could be emphasized. Students could also be introduced to Project Gutenberg and its admirable founder, Michael S. Hart, for inspiration. Guiding questions such as, “Should all books be available free of charge?” and “If you were an author, how would you react to someone posting an unauthorized audio recording of your work on his or her website?” would lead to critical thinking.

5.            Media specialists can also use podcasting to link disciplines in a lesson, for instance, to link literature and music by guiding students to record themselves singing sea chanties and early 19^th century ballads after reading the young adult novel “Bloody Jack.” (The students could play their chosen song on instruments as an alternative to singing.) In the story, the young girl disguised as a ship’s boy on a British Royal Navy ship, sings various songs from the time period, and many of them are placed at points significant to the story. The podcasts could involve a narrated introduction in which the students describe why their group’s song is important to the story, explain any unfamiliar vocabulary words such as dialect or early 19^th century British and American slang, and research the origins of the song and place it in its historical context.  Students could post the podcasts to a book review website or on the media center’s electronic file collection, linked to the catalog for use by other students.

                To summarize, then, podcasting has many educational benefits due to its audio format, and it is practical due to the low cost of the required equipment and the simplicity of its recording and editing software.  Podcasting has many valuable applications within the school library media center. Brainstorm one for your students today!

Resources

Atlanta Radio Theatre Company          http://www.artc.org/

IMPALA  study                                     http://www.impala.ac.uk

Librivox  - free audiobooks                  http://librivox.org/

Meet the Author                                 http://www.meettheauthor.com/

Project Gutenberg                              http://www.gutenberg.org/

Teaching Heart - for Readers Theatre scripts http://www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm

References

American Association of School Librarians. (2007). Standards for the 20^th-century        

      learner. Retrieved from: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf

Edirisingha, P., Hawkridge, D., & Fothergill, J. (2010). A Renaissance of audio: Podcasting
      approaches for learning on campus and beyond. European Journal of Open, Distance
      and E-Learning, (1), Retrieved from EBSCOhost.


Van Orden, J. The history of Podcasting. (2008). Retrieved from: http://www.how-to-
      podcast-tutorial.com/history-of-podcasting.htm


Vasinda, S., & McLeod, J. (2011). Extending readers theatre: A powerful and purposeful
      match with podcasting.Reading Teacher, 64(7), 486-497. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.