GPB Resources and Video Distribution Systems

Image retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1092198/Young-gifted-lost-40-years-Bernard-Braden-remarkable-record-Sixties.html

              

     Kennesaw Elementary School utilizes a video distribution system for the school’s electronic bulletin board, television stations, and videos. In the past, a school news program was also distributed in this manner. The distribution system is currently in working order. The media specialist is in charge of the distribution system and teacher requests are directed to her. Cobb County School District has pre-set the television station channels, but the media specialist is knowledgeable about how to modify the channels if needed. The school uses a digital system which runs video through the classroom VCR’s to the LCD projectors. Television monitors, although no longer needed, remain in the classrooms because it costs $85. per television for the labor to remove them. Previously, videos and cable segments were sent from equipment in the media center to classrooms, but now the classrooms use Georgia Public Broadcasting’s (GPB) partner Discovery Education Streaming. Media center staff once had to turn on videos for teachers who requested them to be sent to their classrooms at a certain day and time, but now teachers can access videos on demand in their own classrooms with a free password and username. GPB offers free webinars on how to use Discovery Education, formerly known as United Streaming. The resource offers a digital streaming service including over 9,000 videos and other multimedia content available online for teacher use (GPB Education, 2011). Gone are the days of pushing that t.v. and video cart from classroom to classroom!

                Kennesaw Elementary and Cobb County School District also reap the benefits of the GPB education website, which offers Georgia education news, instructional videos, and a plethora of educational resources. Rather than give a broad overview of the site, today I’d like to focus on three specific resources available on the site: “Financial Football,” “This Day in Georgia History,” and “Georgia WWII Veteran’s Oral History Project.”

                One excellent resource is “financial football” a financial literacy video game with professional graphics and exciting sports-themed intro. Players customize the game by selecting their home and opposing football team, age level and game length. In between action packed ball plays, players answer questions such as “What is a finance charge?” and “Money markets and cd’s are what kind of investment?” For someone who could not care less about football, I must admit the game sounds of referee whistles blowing, crowds shouting and bodies crunching are very exciting. If the New Media Consortium Horizon Report for 2011 is correct, game-based learning will be huge in the next 2-3 years, and this one has good appeal and is an excellent example of combining learning with gaming.

                The GPB education site also provides “This Day in Georgia History”, featuring biographies of three famous Georgians that change daily. Today Juliette Gordon Lowe, founder of the girl Scouts, Duane Almann, band leader, and Von Gammon, UGA football player are featured. Clicking the link below the famous Georgian’s photo to “learn more” brings students a professional video and sets the subject in historical context on the Georgia History Timeline. Resources for additional learning include vocabulary words from the video, classroom activities, and links to other articles and suggested readings. For Duane Almann, brief pieces of music play in the background while commentator Stan Deaton of the Georgia Historical Society speaks about his contribution to Southern Rock music. Teachers can use the video, audio, or text only version of the biography. Students could create their own visuals to play during the audio only version, or design a short skit.

                Another excellent digital tool is the Georgia WWII Veteran’s Oral History Project. Personal narratives, letters and photos are easily accessible for students. One veteran is James Sedlack, Technical Sergeant in the Army Air Corp, who shares his story of a Romanian noblewoman (one of the king of Romania’s relatives) giving him musical instruments and caring for a wounded soldier on her estate. Photos of veterans as young men and women during the war, and at the time of their interview are included as well. The project includes interviews with Holocaust survivors and should be used with sensitivity. A warning on the introduction video cautions users about graphic images & discussions. Not many World War II veterans are still alive or healthy enough to share their feelings and stories in person in the classroom.  This tool is powerful because it preserves voices which might otherwise be lost and makes them accessible to anyone wanting to learn from personal accounts of those who were there.

                The latest offering on the site is the PBS LearningMedia virtual library, recently mentioned  in a School Library Journal article. It provides “instant access to thousands of classroom-ready, digital resources including videos and interactives perfect for the Interactive Whiteboard, plus audio and photos, and even in-depth lesson plans” (PBS Learning Media, 2011). It includes subject areas such as the arts, science, social studies, mathematics, and health. In sum, this free GPB website is a fine example of technology used to engage students in learning and has many valuable resources for teachers and students. Peace out.

References:

GPB Education. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.gpb.org/readingrainbow/term?     page=698
New Media Consortium. (2011). NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition. Austin, TX. Retrieved from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2011-Horizon-Report-K12.pdf

PBS LearningMedia (2011). Retrieved from http://gpb.pbslearningmedia.org/

School Library Journal Staff. (2011, October 11). PBS launches free online resource to help boost student achievement. School Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/892349-312/pbs_launches_free_online_resource.html.csp

Flower image retrieved from http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk46/sherig9/flower-2.jpg

Blog 4: Social Networking

A lot of times when people think of social networking, they automatically think of MySpace and FaceBook. The reality is that social networking encompasses many different activities and applications. While MySpace and Facebook are ways to network socially on the web, so are sites like Delicious, LibraryThing, a plethora of 2.0 web applications, and many others. Considering the wide range of social networking applications and uses, it is not surprising that the number of schools reporting to use social networking applications is increasing. As reported by the American Library Association, (http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2008/jun2008/AASLsurvey.cfm) some preliminary findings state that 53% of schools use some sort of collaborative tools to assist in instruction. 50% of schools report the use of the intranet, 41% of schools report the use of podcasts, 29% of schools report the use of instructional blogs, and between 15% and 20% of schools report the use of online instruction and social bookmarking.

Considering the fact that the popularity of social networking is, in fact, growing, we must consider the safety or our students and patrons as they access this information through the internet. The School Library Journal offers some insight and information about how to keep teens safe while joining in on online conversation (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6574015.html?industryid=47060).

• One site, Connect Safely, was created especially for adults by Anne Collier and Larry Magid. It provides awareness and education, plus it is available in Spanish!




• Get Net Wise – Social Networking Sites offers some great tools for parents of student that engage in social networking. There is even a section titled “Resources for Parents.” The helpful site features some how to tutorials for Facebook, MySpace, and Xanga.




• NSTeens – Post-to-be Private has a great online video to help teach teens about online privacy issues.




• Social Networking Basics is a fantastic site for both adults and teens who may not have any previous experience with social networking.




• StaySafe.org for Teenagers is an important site to assist teenagers in learning to protect themselves from spammers and hackers.




• TeacherLibrarianNing is a superb blog community designed for school library media specialists.
  
  
  As educators we must consider the implications and possibilities of incorporating social networking. The research suggests that it’s coming! What we do with it is up to us.
  
  References:
  
  http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/
  
  http://www.ala.org/ala/newspress/news/pressreleases2008/june2008/AASLsurvey.cfm
  
  http://www.mmischools.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=59618
  
  http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6574015.html?industryid=47060

The Skinny on Media Center Web Pages

Librarians have embraced web pages as a means to reach beyond bookshelves to wherever their students access the Internet. Jurkowski found that 87% of librarians responding to his survey on LM_Net have a website for their library (2010). For a librarian setting up a new web page, the main question to keep in mind is, “Does this information/link/image/web page support my students’ learning?”

Tips for Media Center Web Pages:

·         Free software (Nvu & Mozilla SeaMonkey) for web page creation (Jurkowski, 2010)

·         Keep it current

·         Present unbiased comments and balanced materials

·         Double-check accuracy of your information

·         List page’s author and whom to contact for assistance (webmaster’s email)

·         Let students and other end-users test it for ease of use, etc. and use their feedback for improvements

·         Use a simple design

·         Ensure it can be used by low-vision and hearing-impaired students

Uses for Media Center Web Pages:

·         Promote your library media center – e.g. links to state representatives, school board members; book fairs, library events

·         Advertise new materials – upload an image of that newest, hottest graphic novel to bring students in

·         Promote, organize, and provide discussion space for book clubs

·         Offer professional development models for teachers

·         Post summer reading lists and have a summer reading giveaway (Stephens & Franklin, 2007)

·         Provide links to subscription databases, government websites, and GALILEO (Georgia only)

·         Provide catalog access, ability to place holds, view student’s account

·         Imbed child-friendly search engine or links to these

·         Post library media center policies such as IUP and library use agreement

You can add so much more, but remember to keep in mind your original question, "Does this support my students' learning?" You can find the current weather on a billion other websites. Stick to what matters.

Resources:

www.mozilla.com

www.nvu.com

www.seamonkey-project.org

http://www.bwscampus.com/upper/library/index.aspx - example of a good library media center webpage


References:
Jurkowski, O. L. (2010). Technology and the school library: A comprehensive guide for media specialists and other educators. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Stephens, C. G. & Franklin, P. (2007). Library 101: A handbook for the school library media specialist. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

To be or not to be...A School Library Website?

I work at an alternative school that is possibly in the ten percent of media centers not having a website. Currently, we have links to Reference, Career, and Test Prep materials on our Destiny (OPAC) homepage. But providing a list of links is not enough (Jurkowski, 2010, p. 70). Does having web presence mean that our school's media center has a website or not? Due to time and money, the media specialist is using the resources that she has to the best of her ability. Our media specialist is also the reading teacher and has to teach classes just as the other teachers and has students working on NovaNet (an online instruction program) as well. This is only the school's second year having a media specialist. Plus, she has a lot of hats to wear and has some additional duties, too.

I am going to suggest that students at our school take this on to give back to the school. Our students are required to complete a senior project for their English IV class and this would be a great assignment for someone who does not know what to do and has some experience with technology. They can start it off as a blog or Wiki since our school district has specific software that they would like for us to use and only our webmaster for our school's website has been trained to use it. Or they can create a website for the media center using free sites as some other schools in the district. The student will also need a mentor so the webmaster could work with the student and make sure that the Wiki, blog, or free website is linked to our school's webpage just as Destiny currently is.

To start, the media specialist in a similar situation needs to work with the person on what features and links he or she wants to include on the Wiki, blog, or website and how it should be designed. Our school serves many grade levels and those users will have to be kept in mind. Also, with me being the parent of a child with a disability I would want to make sure that all students are able to use the website according to their abilities. For example, alternate text and textual transcripts can be included for the visually or hearing impaired (Jurkowski, 2010, p. 73).

Once the person knows what to include then he or she should look around at other media center websites within and outside of the district using the following questions that Pat Franklin developed to help her high school students with media literacy when evaluating Web sites (Stephens and Franklin, 2007, p. 105):

• URL of Web Page _____________________
• Name of Web Page ____________________
• Is the title of he page indicative of the content? Yes/No
• Is the information useful for your purpose? Yes/No
• Is the purpose of the page indicated on the home page? Yes/No
• Did the information lead you to other sources that might be helpful? Yes/No
• Is the information current? Yes/No
• Does the up-to-date information matter for your purpose? Yes/No
• Does the information appear biased? Yes/No
• Does the information contradict something you found elsewhere? Yes/No
• Did the pictures enhance the content? Yes/No
• Who created the page? ____________________
• The author is affiliated with what organization? ___________________
• What is the domain of this page? ____________________
• Are you positive the information is true? Yes/No
• How can you prove it? ____________________
• Write one fact you found on this Web page: ___________________

After the evaluation of other websites and features and links are decided, then the student can work on and show the media specialist what he or she developed. Any media specialist going this route will definitely have no question whether or not it has a school library with a Web 2.0 website.


References
Jurkowski, O. L. (2010). Technology and the school library: A comprehensive guide for media specialists and other educators. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Stephens, C. G. & Franklin, P. (2007). Library 101: A handbook for the school library media specialist. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Media Center Web Pages

Back in the dark ages, right after I got my first job out of college, I had my first opportunity to see the internet. I worked for a large real estate firm in Atlanta doing corporate marketing. At that time we were considered fairly tech savvy, although we still had to hand paste our logo onto all our marketing materials to get them ready for the printer. One girl in the office was lucky enough to have internet access because she had to submit the classified ads to the newspaper each week. I can still hear her computer as the slow sound of dial-up filled the room. One day our boss was not in so we all crowded into her cubicle so we could see what all the fuss with the internet was about. As I studied my first webpage I could not help but feel, how can I put this nicely, profoundly disappointed. That was it? That was the internet. It seemed like nothing more than a giant ad for companies with the resources to market themselves. Of course, we didn’t have much time to “surf the net” to see what all was available. And back then webpages and graphics were nothing like they are today. It would be like comparing the first Atari home video games (remember Pong?) to a Nintendo Xbox 360 or a Sony PlayStation.

I am quite simply amazed at the changes that the last 18 years have brought in terms of technology. (I am also amazed that I have been out of college for 18 years but that is another story!) Now virtually every business, politician, organization and event has their own website and school media centers are no different. In fact, our textbook, Technology in the School Library, states that close to 90 percent of school media centers have websites and, because of new options and technologies, this number is expected to be close to 100 percent in the next few years (Jurkowski, 2010).

The question then becomes not should the school media center have a website, but how can the school media center website be the best it can be and best serve the students and staff?

Content, obviously, is extremely important. In fact, it was listed in almost everything I read about effective website design. Many different elements can be included in a good media center webpage. It is important to post the basics like hours of operation and contact information. I personally think it is a good idea to include an e-mail address and phone number in a prominent spot. I get extremely frustrated when I cannot find the contact information on a website since that is often the initial reason I go to a site. Other ideas for content include pathfinders, books and reading promotions, presentations, speeches, instructions and blogs. School Library Websites, http://schoollibrarywebsites.wikispaces.com/, is a great wiki with a lot of ideas for content. Not only does it give a lot of links to established sites (some good, some bad) but it provides numerous links to different ideas. One suggestion I loved was “Book Trailers.” Similar to movie trailers these short films would be great to place on your homepage to pique reader interest. See a sample below.

Other tips for designing an effective webpage include making sure you keep your audience in mind. A site aimed at a third grader will need to be different than one aimed at a high school student. Schools that have a large range of ages can use a common home page with links to different areas for different ages (Jurkowski, 2010). Simplify, simplify, simplify. If a page has too many elements it becomes distracting rather than helpful. It is also a good idea to visually highlight important information (like e-mail address and phone numbers!) Make sure and limit your color palette and pay attention to readability when selecting colors. Red and blue mixed together are difficult to read and red and green are impossible for someone who is color blind. Color should always be used judiciously (IJ design, 2011). Finally, it is a good idea to keep pages short, satisfy user’s needs immediately (avoid lots of clicks to get to something simple), make sure your page is easy to navigate and check the usability of your webpage by testing and retesting (Diane, 2010).

References

Diane, L. (December 8, 2010). Top 10 Web Design Tips and Tricks | TechnoZeast. TechnoZeast | The Technology Blog. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from http://www.technozeast.com/top-10-web-design-tips-and-tricks.html

Jurkowski, O. (2010). Technology and the school Library (Revised Edition ed.). Lanham: Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Top 10 web design tips - IJDesign. (n.d.). Green Web Design - IJDesign in Denver, Colorado. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from http://www.ijdesign.com/Top-10-Web-Design-Tips.html

Image courtesy of TechnoZeast.

Wikis on the Web

Ward Cunningham created the first wiki in 1995 and called it the WikiWikiWeb after a shuttle bus at the Honolulu International Airport. Wiki is a Hawaiian word meaning quick. Since then, the wiki has gained popularity and is widely used today.

To be painstakingly honest, I had not used a wiki until I enrolled as a student at the University of West Georgia. As a matter of fact, I had only heard of wikis once before that, and I have been in education for thirteen years! Now that I have used wikis, I would love to use them more often.

There are a couple of options available to consider when you have decided you want to create a wiki on the web. The following websites were returned from a search on wikis:

• 
  
  
  Wikis for Everyone - Wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com/) (HIGHLY recommended!)




• 
  
  
  wiki.com (http://www.wiki.com/)

There are also some wikis that you may want to contribute to, like wiki - Wiktionary (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wiki) or Wiki - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wiki).

What are Wikis?

A wiki is a web-based, collaborative tool. They allow multiple authors to contribute to a written document. John Orlando describes a wiki as an easy to use Web 2.0 application that is more effective and less time consuming than many traditional learning management systems (LMS).

Information to Consider When Utilizing a Wiki

The content on a wiki is viewable by everyone. Caution should be taken to ensure that accidental deletion of a contributors work does not occur. Depending on how a wiki is set up by its administrators, editing may be allowable for everyone, or just those with accounts.

If you are using a wiki, like Wikipedia, to retrieve information, be cautious that the information may not be accurate. Remember, the Wikipedia wiki is set up to allow anyone to edit content on the wiki. There is no accuracy filter on these wikis. Therefore, the wiki is only as strong and reliable as the community that contributes to the wiki.

How Can a Wiki be Used?

There are many uses for wikis; the sky is the limit! Many websites offer suggestions for wiki use to help get those creative juices flowing. Wiki in a K-12 Classroom (http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom) and Wikis in the Classroom: Three Ways to Increase Student Collaboration (http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/wikis-in-the-classroom-three-ways-to-increase-student-collaboration/) include the following examples:

• 
  
  
  Science Fair Projects - You could possibly set up a wiki for middle and high-schoolers for Science Fair Projects. Students could post ideas and brainstorm for the big event.




• 
  
  
  Collaborative Textbooks - With educational budget cuts and concerns all over the world, you could set up a wiki to create current educational textbooks. The California Open Source Textbook Project (COSTP) is using a wiki for this purpose to offset their $400 million dollar textbook textbook budget. You can visit the project at World History Textbook (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/World_History_Project)




• 
  
  
  Student Portfolios - This would be a great place for students to display and discuss their work with others. Peer editing and collaboration could result in an improved skill set.




• 
  
  
  WikiOrganization - You can use a wiki to organize a plethora of files to incorporate into a large paper or projects.




• 
  
  
  Collaborative Understanding - A major project completed by several students, or even an entire class, can be accommodated on a wiki. The example giving was a collaborative music education project in which students could add media files of examples of the different styles of music as one part of the major project.




• 
  
  
  Collaboration Between Teachers - Teachers can post an idea and then build on it collaboratively. Common planning is sometimes difficult to accommodate, so the wiki would allow for collaboration on a tight time schedule.




• 
  
  
  Literature Circles - Literature circles could be created around a variety of interests and age groups. A middle or high-school group of student may wish to discuss a current novel, while upper elementary students may want to practice for their local Battle of the Books competition.




• 
  
  
  Course Information - This use of wikis would allow students and/or parents to access the information about a class or lesson of study. This could be especially helpful to high-school and college students.




• 
  
  
  Resource Repository - This would be a great place to store information related to the educational topic. A variety of files, such as videos, websites, articles, and etc., could be housed here for student use.




• 
  
  
  Student Projects - This is a great place to exhibit model work. Often times students need an example of what quality work looks like before they begin a project or assignment.

References

Courtney, N. (Ed.). (2007). Library 2.0 and beyond: Innovative technologies and tomorrow's user. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Orlando, John (2011). Wikis in the classroom: Three ways to increase student collaboration. Teaching with Technology. Retrieved from: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-with-technology-articles/wikis-in-the-classroom-three-ways-to-increase-student-collaboration/

Wiki in a K-12 classroom. Retrieved from: http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wiki_in_a_K-12_classroom

Podcasting in the Library Media Center

Image created at Wordle.net

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.