Session 7: A Good Educational Podcast

TO BE OR NOT TO BE, A GOOD EDUCATIONAL PODCAST

Since the start of this class I’ve been in search of how the podcast/Blog site could be effectively incorporated into curriculum outside of recording a traditional lecture. After all, a lecture is still a lecture, albeit, a podcast is convenient. When reviewing a majority of educational Blog sites and podcasts, I investigated if the technology promoted an enrichment of learning and facilitated an already good course. In many cases the use of the technology was very keul Dude, and hip Mann, but proved to be academically void.

There are exceptions, such as the Radio Willow Web - For Kids, By Kids. This podcast series is created by kindergarten through 5th grade students at the Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska.

PODCAST REVIEW - Radio Willow Web - For Kids, By Kids

The podcast provides an oratory of the researched works posted on the classes’ web pages. Each podcast is hosted by a student and several reporters. In this episode, fifth grade student Shelby narrates what life was like in the 13 American colonies. The various segments are researched and then narrated for the podcast by several fellow students. Each segment written and narrated by the student offers the listener and reader a sense of what life was like as American colonist.

Segments include titles such as:

• Did You Know - three interesting facts on colonial times: stealing, corn, and social manners
• Vocabulary Theater - this title hyperlinks to a website where a number of Maryland students contribute information and pictures on colonial tools and instruments.
• The Punishment Times - this hyperlink is introduced as a fictious newspaper titled Colonial
Crimes and Punishment. The "Times" explains how the English-American colonies were autocratic and theocratic, with a patriarchal system of justice.
• Wonderful Website - this website on early America was selected by a student as the podcast’s
spotlighted website. The site contains information that includes a map of the colonies before and at the end of the American Revolution, the Hargrett’s Rare Library Map Collection on colonial America and an animated map showing the boundaries of the contiguous United States.
• Do It Differently - A commentary on colonial punishment from one student.

This presentation offers an example of how to integrate podcasting and Blog note publishing into curriculum with a multidisciplinary subject approach. Use of podcasting technology will require educators to rethink their approach to course objectives and reestablish student learning outcomes influenced by the innovative pedagogical opportunity that this new technology provides.

In viewing the majority educational oriented podcasts, there is a feeling of disappointment. A sound all too familiar that has reverberated from the past once again echoes how a new fangled technology by itself will somehow magically change an approach to teaching, increase student learning and establish a fulfilling pedagogical revolution from teacher to student.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

PRODUCTION VALUES
Radio Willow Web - For Kids, By Kids, Willowcast #14, (Dec. 21, 2005) is 11 minutes 45 seconds long, measuring 10.9 MB. The WillowWeb MP3 is posted on the webpage with an embedded player for listener easy access and offers an RSS subscription for podcast.

It is important to note that the podcast production occurs within a learning environment that uses guided discovery. Fifth grade students research, write content and then undertake the creation of a podcast and webpage while maintaining a professional quality that is distinctly impressive:

• Audio was recorded at a good level.
• The voicing was friendly and pleasant to listen to.

The podcast opens with a student hostess announcing who she is and the title of the podcast.

• Upbeat music begins for 5 seconds. (The hostess returns to discuss the 13 stripes on the Betsy Ross flag which segues into the podcast topic of the American colonies).

To help the hostess announce transitions in and out of each segment:

• 5 second audio segues are used to transition in and out of the various segments
• Different types of audio were used as segment segues
• Each segment is 40 - 60 seconds in length
• Sound effects were used during the Holiday Spotlight and Bad Joke, Good Joke segments
• A bad edit occurred after the announcement of Poetry Corner by Hannah. The recording track was stopped in order to cue the background audio of wind
• During Adam’s announcement of the Wonderful Website, he loudly sniffles
• During Joseph’s reading of Do It Differently, he exhales heavily into the microphone twice
• Using a slight delay effect, the last segment is a reading of the first
sentence of the Declaration of Independence. The hostess concludes the podcast by reviewing the signing of the Declaration of Independence, statehood of the 13 colonies and the 50 stars on the American flag
• The hostess announces who made the podcast, where the podcast was made and thanks the listener for listening, all of which is recorded over a music bed
• Music bed pots up and continues to play for 20 seconds - music fades out

The production value that this podcast presents also provides an example of how the educator can use technology standards and goals as part of a multidisciplinary approach within curricula. Radio Willow Web - For Kids, By Kids certainly provides relevant application in grade school education, but it also indicates how this approach can be carefully integrated into the curriculum in a thoughtful way.

OTHER PODCASTS

Radio WillowWeb was one of the premier podcasts by elementary students. The following programs have used Radio WillowWeb as an example for their own Internet audio shows:

Coley Cast - ColeyCast is the brand new radio broadcast created by the students of Room 34 in Murrieta, California.

Mr. Jaffe's 6th Grade - Audio program by sixth graders at Mills Creek Elementary School.

Radio Cambridge - Podcast by elementary students at Cambridge Elementary in San Antonio, Texas.

Radio Gateway - A radio show podcast by Grade 5 and 6 students in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.

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