Using Podcasts to Create Better and More Exciting Understandings
Here are some more example podcasts from students at Somers Public School DIstrict.
References:
Goodson, L. A. S., Matt. . (2010). Skillen-Small Town Perspectives, Big-Time Motivation-Composing and Producing Place-Based Podcasts. English Journal, 100(1), 53-57.
Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Rozema, R. (2007). The Book Report, Version 2.0-Podcasting on Young Adult Novels,English Journal, 97(1), 31-36.
As I read more about technology in the classroom, I am realizing that there are so many more ways to utilize technology than I originally planned on using in my own unit plan. My original ideas of using blogging and twitter still stand, but I have added more as I move further with reading texts that involve technology in the classroom. Podcasts are a form of technology that is becoming more prominent in the classroom. I had heard of podcasts in the past, but I had never figured them to be something that would be useful for me as a teacher. I had considered integrating podcasts as secondary sources such as news reports for cultural background to novels, but I had never considered getting the students involved in creating one themselves. There is so much information accessible about this resource that it is impossible to not understand and utilize podcasts in the classroom.
Podcasts are becoming a phenomenon in the classroom for multiple reasons. Student motivation in the classroom is important to their understanding and retaining of material. Motivation increases when podcasts are used because students are publishing their own work to a wider audience. Lori Goodson and Matt Skillen (2010) compare this process to an athlete showing off his or her skills (p. 53). Students will want their work to look good as they are showcasing their knowledge and creativity to the world. Robert Rozema (2007) echoes this information when he names three experiences that creating podcasts allows students: writing for “a real audience, a new opportunity for purposeful writing and revision, a chance to collaborate with peers, and…a genre that actually exists outside of the English classroom” (32). Podcasts allow students opportunities that simply creating a written product do not usually allow. Students are also more interested in this type of work because they are using technology that is known to them. Even if it is not known to them, the lives of our students are so filled with technology that they will most likely be interested in almost anything that involves using some form of it, and learning how to use different types of technology will probably come easily.
Every day, students are being immersed in this culture of technology in which they view talk shows and television shows and they listen to radio shows or audio examples of books, websites and the like. Through creating their own podcasts, students will be situated to understand the ways in which cutting, editing, and splicing are used to make an audience hear, see, or believe a certain story. They will learn to be more critical readers and viewers as they begin to understand the ways in which media uses these forms of technology to make them believe that certain stories are true. Podcasts will help students to become more confident in their ability to sway an audience or call someone else’s bluff based on the way in which a text is structured. Students will also be more confident in another way as well. Through podcasting, students will be able to practice their public speaking in a way that they have never been able to before. They will be able to record, delete, re-record and so on until they are confident in what they have created. Then, when they have to present, they will not be as nervous because they do not have to do the speaking at that moment. The positive affirmations that they get from the audience will hopefully help them to be more confident as they go into more public speaking assignments in the future.
Podcasts also involve their own discourse that students will have to learn in order to create effective presentations. This discourse adds to the students’ understanding of the text that they are creating the podcast about (if applied to an English classroom). Texts in general have their own language practices. Through using the podcast form, students will be able to work and play with these practices in order to gain a better understanding of the ways in which the discourse is used in the novel. On the other side of the language spectrum, in his book Crafting Digitally Writing, Troy Hicks (2013) lists some of the elements that a creator of any audio text must understand in order to be effective. These include tone, ambient noise, music, and transitions (90). Rozema (2007) goes deeper into one of these elements – music. He says that having students match music to the language of a text helps to give a more “concrete” understanding and discussion about mood (53). I absolutely love this idea, as assigning mood to text can be something that students struggle with. If you ask any student about the mood of a song, they can probably tell you almost right away. Having students pick a song to represent the mood might help them to think more deeply about how the characters actions and the plotline play a part in this literary element. Also, as students discuss the reasoning behind their song choices they will be learning about the other ways in which the mood of the text can be read and why. This student uses inspirational and uplifting music as a backdrop to discuss doctors, adding to the mood and the idea that these men and women should be seen as heroes.
For my own unit plan, I am planning to use podcasting as part of the end project. One of the biggest parts of surveillance in 1984 is the telescreen. This is a large screen that is in every household and building. Through this screen, the government can see and hear you 24/7, but you can only see and hear them when they choose to share an announcement. The writing portion of the final project will be a research project in which students share information that they found about the surveillance tactics in a country of their choosing and compare this to 1984. They will also be asked to create a podcast including the information that they find. This could be as a PSA that is for the government of their chosen country, or an interruption by an underground faction that is trying to spread knowledge of the government’s actions. Whether this is a podcast or a video recording I haven’t quite decided yet. Either way the students will have to incorporate the information that they found about their country as well as quotes from the novel.
A few teachers have already taken up this idea, and I think it shows that students are enjoying themselves in the creation of videos like this one, adding to their enjoyment and understanding of the novel:
Here are some more example podcasts from students at Somers Public School DIstrict.
References:
Goodson, L. A. S., Matt. . (2010). Skillen-Small Town Perspectives, Big-Time Motivation-Composing and Producing Place-Based Podcasts. English Journal, 100(1), 53-57.
Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Rozema, R. (2007). The Book Report, Version 2.0-Podcasting on Young Adult Novels,English Journal, 97(1), 31-36.
Beginning Plans and Theory
~Twitter
~Blog
Blogs are very important to this unit plan. They will help students to gain a deeper understanding and insight into the characters actions as well as the ways in which certain countries may be facing similar issues to 1984 in the way that their government is run. Troy Hicks writes that “the blog becomes a public document, open for additional comments and easily searchable” (36). Through having students write blogs for this unit, I will be giving them an authentic audience; not only will fellow classmates be reading their work, but others who may be interested in the topic will be able to view the student work as well. Having this kind of audience will give students more motivation in their work as it will be seen by more than just the teacher. The blog format also gives students the chance to interact with people who may have questions or comments about their ideas or writing. Peers and people outside of the classroom can comment on these blogs and help the students to see things they may not have before or to answer questions that the students might have through their writing process.
As students work through the novel they will be coming into contact with multiple words and ideas that they have never heard of before and might pertain solely to the situation in the novel. For these words and ideas students will use their blog. They will have three pages on this blog and one will be for vocabulary that they might not understand. For each word/idea students will write the word/idea, write the sentence it is in, and give a best definition. Students will be asked to view their peer’s pages on a regular basis and give more insight into each of the words/ideas if possible. As the teacher, I will also view these pages and correct misconception while also giving constructive criticism and positive affirmations.
The other two pages in the blog will be aimed towards a role play and research. In the role play section they will write about the ways in which living under the eye of Big Brother and having to live according to very specific rules and regulations makes them feel. They will have to be creative and imagine themselves in the shoes of the characters in this novel. Students can decide whether they want to be rebels, regular citizens, thought police, members of certain leagues, and so on. Whatever they decide they will have to write from that perspectives. During two different points in the unit plan students will be given the chance to write from an opposing perspective. In doing so, they will hopefully be able to see the ways in which government and regulation can mean different things to different people.
The research page will be for students to work through their own research projects into a country’s government and regulations. They will be asked to track their progress including sites, information, new thoughts, questions, and so on in this section. Students will be able to choose the country that they want to research, but it will need to be approved by the teacher. Students will need to look both from the perspective of the government as well as from that of the people it is ruling over.
Twitter is a social media tool that continues to grow with each passing day. Most students will already have Twitter accounts through which they share information, ideas, and questions with their “followers.” Troy Hicks describes the use of Twitter in his book titled Crafting Digital Writing. He explains how Twitter works in that students can send messages to “appropriate Twitter users and communities” through hashtags, which in turn creates a “chatgroup” (p. 142). For this unit, students will use their Twitter accounts for another type of role play. This will be used to mimic the secret notes that pass between Julia and Winston. Students will be asked to write at least one Tweet each week. There will be a class list with the name @SecretSociety1984. Tweets will have to be based upon happenings in the book or their own take on a certain situation. An example might be:
@SecretSociety1984 @Julia I saw your red wristband today. Mtg later below telescreen. #DownwithBigBrother #TrueLoveCantBeHidden.
Students will be using the design principles of Twitter that Hicks describes to his readers in order to come up with the most concise ways to express ideas and garner attention to the subject. They will also be using Twitter to promote their blogs. Hicks says that he uses these types of Tweets to do three things: 1) Indicate “when [he has] written a blog post,” 2) give “some indication of the topic”, and 3) give the reader a link (p. 142). In doing this, students will not only be making sure that their classmates see that they have written a new blog, but it will also be open to the public for viewing and comment as well. This adds onto the authentic audience that will help students to feel as though their ideas are important.
Many 10th grade classrooms read novels that students might find are not applicable to themselves or that they think are boring. In the past, I have encountered this with multiple books in my observations and substitute teaching. One of these books is George Orwell’s 1984. Although I personally love this nocel, I witnessed students who were reading this book saying things like, “Why does this matter to me?” and “What does this have to do with anything?” Students also struggled with the vocabulary in the novel as some of it is higher level while another portion of it is made up language that describes the society in 1984. In order to create a unit plan based around this novel I have decided to incorporate technology in multiple ways. Involving technology in this unit plan is important for multiple reasons. The first reason is because it will create interest for the students as they will be using sources that are not usually made available in the classroom. Secondly, Troy Hicks describes the idea that “students may be ‘tech comfy,’ but they are not necessarily ‘tech savvy’ (p. 20). Students are definitely learning these new technologies at an astonishing rate and are able to understand any updates or additions with an abounding speed, meaning that they are tech comfy. Tech savvy involves so much more though. Some, such as the writer of the blog Technology-Enhanced Learning think that tech savvy means no knowing the ways in which technology can support learning. Others see tech savvy as knowing what is okay to post and what is not. This CNN news article illustrates the ways in which being tech comfy can lead to the opposite of what one would think of as tech savvy. Through using technology in this unit I hope to show students the ways in which technology can be integrated into school to increase learning, as well as teaching them how to step back and think about the repercussions or meanings behind what they are posting to social media.
Students will need at least two social media identifications for this unit plan:
~Twitter
~Blog
~Blog
Blogs are very important to this unit plan. They will help students to gain a deeper understanding and insight into the characters actions as well as the ways in which certain countries may be facing similar issues to 1984 in the way that their government is run. Troy Hicks writes that “the blog becomes a public document, open for additional comments and easily searchable” (36). Through having students write blogs for this unit, I will be giving them an authentic audience; not only will fellow classmates be reading their work, but others who may be interested in the topic will be able to view the student work as well. Having this kind of audience will give students more motivation in their work as it will be seen by more than just the teacher. The blog format also gives students the chance to interact with people who may have questions or comments about their ideas or writing. Peers and people outside of the classroom can comment on these blogs and help the students to see things they may not have before or to answer questions that the students might have through their writing process.
As students work through the novel they will be coming into contact with multiple words and ideas that they have never heard of before and might pertain solely to the situation in the novel. For these words and ideas students will use their blog. They will have three pages on this blog and one will be for vocabulary that they might not understand. For each word/idea students will write the word/idea, write the sentence it is in, and give a best definition. Students will be asked to view their peer’s pages on a regular basis and give more insight into each of the words/ideas if possible. As the teacher, I will also view these pages and correct misconception while also giving constructive criticism and positive affirmations.
The other two pages in the blog will be aimed towards a role play and research. In the role play section they will write about the ways in which living under the eye of Big Brother and having to live according to very specific rules and regulations makes them feel. They will have to be creative and imagine themselves in the shoes of the characters in this novel. Students can decide whether they want to be rebels, regular citizens, thought police, members of certain leagues, and so on. Whatever they decide they will have to write from that perspectives. During two different points in the unit plan students will be given the chance to write from an opposing perspective. In doing so, they will hopefully be able to see the ways in which government and regulation can mean different things to different people.
The research page will be for students to work through their own research projects into a country’s government and regulations. They will be asked to track their progress including sites, information, new thoughts, questions, and so on in this section. Students will be able to choose the country that they want to research, but it will need to be approved by the teacher. Students will need to look both from the perspective of the government as well as from that of the people it is ruling over.
Twitter is a social media tool that continues to grow with each passing day. Most students will already have Twitter accounts through which they share information, ideas, and questions with their “followers.” Troy Hicks describes the use of Twitter in his book titled Crafting Digital Writing. He explains how Twitter works in that students can send messages to “appropriate Twitter users and communities” through hashtags, which in turn creates a “chatgroup” (p. 142). For this unit, students will use their Twitter accounts for another type of role play. This will be used to mimic the secret notes that pass between Julia and Winston. Students will be asked to write at least one Tweet each week. There will be a class list with the name @SecretSociety1984. Tweets will have to be based upon happenings in the book or their own take on a certain situation. An example might be:
@SecretSociety1984 @Julia I saw your red wristband today. Mtg later below telescreen. #DownwithBigBrother #TrueLoveCantBeHidden.
Students will be using the design principles of Twitter that Hicks describes to his readers in order to come up with the most concise ways to express ideas and garner attention to the subject. They will also be using Twitter to promote their blogs. Hicks says that he uses these types of Tweets to do three things: 1) Indicate “when [he has] written a blog post,” 2) give “some indication of the topic”, and 3) give the reader a link (p. 142). In doing this, students will not only be making sure that their classmates see that they have written a new blog, but it will also be open to the public for viewing and comment as well. This adds onto the authentic audience that will help students to feel as though their ideas are important.
Teaching Students in the Modern Age
There is no question that technology is becoming an integral part of our society, especially for the younger generations. We see students, both those who are struggling and who are excelling, constantly turning to technology for education and fun. IPhones, Twitter, FaceBook, gaming systems, and even popular gaming websites abound in today’s culture. As a future educator I have to think to myself, why is this important? Why should I care that kids are constantly on their phones? Aren’t cell phones creating more distraction for students than they are acting as assistance? I don’t have time to worry about that though. All I should really care about, as an English teacher, is that students are learning how to read and analyze more complex texts.
This idea of teaching to a text is where the beginning of the problem exists. What is a text? Are we supposed to believe that texts are solely those pieces of literature that come to us leather bound or paperback? I say no, and so do many others. Melissa Shieble and Dawnene Hassett (2007) describe a text as being “A cohesive whole of a document” (p. 63). This “whole” includes words, images, and design. It also includes the cultural context that is the foundation of the text. Each author writes with a specific purpose and no matter how we think we are reading/writing, we are always doing it to push an agenda or to support a certain cause. Sometimes this might be a subconscious endeavor, but it is ever present. This cultural context that is included in the “whole” also involves the ways in which both the author and reader interpret the texts. Individual interpretations are going to be based mainly on the individual’s background and social/cultural context. Within this discussion it is obvious that so much more goes into the definition of a text than it being solely the physical book.
As I mentioned earlier, students in our schools are becoming more and more immersed in using technology to participate in cultural contexts. My 11 year old sister is constantly using her Kindle, the computer, and her cell phone. She does not use this technology solely for fun though. She reads educational as well as entertaining books on her Kindle and she does her homework and research on the computer. Who is to say that education can’t exist in the “fun” aspects of society as well as the instructive? Jennifer Rowsell and Anne Burke (2009) describe a study in which they watch two children navigate different spaces of the internet and integrate design, literacy, and learning into understanding the design of these texts. One student, Patty, is a high achiever and loves the websitewww.webkinz.com. The other student, Peter, is labeled as Special Education and he enjoys visiting www.naruto.com. Both of these sites offer different real world experiences and knowledge for these students. Peter is constantly coming into contact with different storylines, characterizations, plot, vocabulary, and so on. All of these ideas (storyline, characterization, etc.) are applied to print based readings in the classroom. He can decode and understand these features, and he even goes so far as to do EXTRA research on Japanese lore because it interests him. Patty is working with a website that teaches her about real-world living such as working with discourses like shopping and advertising. Children on Webkinz see price tags just as they would on any online shopping site, as well as an “+ add to cart” label and a “check out” label “placed with a visual of a shopping cart” (Rowsell & Burke, 2009, p.114). The Webkinz site also involves Patty in interacting with adopting and taking care of a pet. Patty keeps track of the care and keeping of her pet by looking at meters that measure the animals health, happiness, and hunger levels. These words and the information given by the meters, 100% being the optimal level of care, add to the player’s discourse of taking care of a virtual pet (Rowsell & Burke, 2009, p. 114). This can then be applied to Patty’s real world knowledge of taking care of a live pet as she sees the same issues happening when her pets are hungry, sad, or unhealthy as she had online. She will also know how to fix these problems to a certain extent. Both of these students have knowledge that can be applied and developed further in the classroom and the real world, but this knowledge needs to be harnessed, taught, and used. Through classroom-based learning in which these sites are utilized and interrogated, students like Patty and Peter will be learn and begin to see the ways in which the cultural contexts behind the creation of these sites are being used to position them in certain ways. They will then be more critical of their moves and understandings of these sites as well as others that they become involved with.
As teachers, we are still working on learning the language of technology and how to apply this language to our classrooms. Without these basic building blocks, students like Peter are still being labeled as students with disabilities and those similar to Patty might not be using technology in the classroom to the fullest potential. If we don’t know the language, how can we show our students? Anne Cloonan (2011) writes that without being able to describe multimodal texts with the right language, our understandings cannot be “explicitly articulated and brought to consciousness” (p. 24). Knowledge cannot be developed without the correct language. In today’s world, students are constantly being bombarded with News Articles like the Huffington Post and social media sites such as FaceBook and Twitter where anyone can post their opinions as truth. As spreading one’s own opinions and ideas becomes easier, this idea of teaching students the language of digital media and design becomes ever more important. Hilary Janks (2014) describes in her book Doing Critical Literacy exactly why this teaching is important. She tells the reader that texts have social effects which are designed to recruit us into their version of “truth” (Janks, 2014, p. 1). Texts are always “partial” in that they only show part of the story and they can never be neutral (Janks, 2014, p. 2). Even if an author/illustrator/creator does not think that they are pushing a certain agenda or view, they generally are.
Authors of texts support these agenda’s through multiple design choices that readers need to be ever aware of. Janks (2014) states that our job as the reader is to understand the author’s position and decide whether or not to take the same stance (p. 1). In order for this understanding to take place, we need to teach our students how to be critical readers and to notice specific design choices that the author has given us. For example, font, paragraph spacing, italics, bolding, bullet points, headings, and so on can be used to direct our attention to a specific point or to make one view more believable or seemingly important than another. When we add the online component there are so many additions to this list: color, character, facial expressions, movement, music, lighting, shapes, and so on including those that came from print based texts. If we don’t teach students how to read these sometimes subtle clues, then we run the risk of creating a culture that believes everything that they read. This also becomes important in the writing that students are doing as well. Once they learn to read and use the language of design, then they have the ability to make their own writing more powerful and believable.
As for me, I guess this means I should take my sister’s meanderings on the internet more seriously. Maybe I will ask her to show me what she does and explain to me the ins and outs of her favorite sites, songs, books, and so on. I’m sure I can learn something from this student who understands texts so differently from the way I do, but who doesn’t quite know it yet.
References
Cloonan, A. (2011). Creating multimodal metalanguage with teachers. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 10(4), 23-40.
Janks, H. (2014). Doing Critical Literacy, (Section 1, pp1-12). New York: Routledge.
Rowsell, R. & Burke, A. (2009). Reading by design: Two case studies of digital reading practices. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 53(2), 106-118.
Student Blog Activity
Questions that will be answered as this blog progresses:
1. How students are reading and writing online.
2. What kinds of critical and design based understandings of texts students need to be savvy researchers.
3. How students are required to blog for a particular unit.
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