Chris Kretz, discusses podcasting in his article “Podcasting in Libraries” (2007) in N. Courtney (Ed.), Library 2.0 and beyond. Innovative technologies and tomorrow’s user. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Kretz overviews many emerging uses of podcasts in libraries but I’ll highlight two podcasts from his list, which are of interest to use with teens:
Nancy Keane’s BookTalks Quick and Simple is an awesome resource website, dedicated to providing podcasts of booktalks, or “book hooks” for students, teachers, librarians, etc. Users can search through the podcasts by title, author, subject, interest level, or month to listen to a great variety of podcasts. There are also booktalks written by students (hmm, a potential class project!).
Cheshire Public Library Podcast is a “teen-driven cultural magazine. Each episode is an antic mix of movie, book, and music reviews, comedy skits, poems, man-in-the-street interviews, and other surprises” (Kretz, 2007, p.42). This would be great to stay tuned to and model a similar project after!
Through Kretz’s discussion, I was able to pull numerous other suggestions for uses of podcasts that educators could adapt in their classrooms and libraries:
- author talks, scholarly lectures, practical workshops, story recording, upcoming events, interviews… and the list goes on!
And now, from the guru himself…
Will Richardson’s suggestions for podcast uses include:
- creating radio shows with students
- creating online audio magazines
- students reporting on events, interviews, reviews
- publishing and narrating daily lessons, labs, important notices
- recording oral histories and reenactments
- recording special events
- creating audio travel albums
Richardson also led me to The Education Podcast Network, created by David Warlick and The Landmark Project. It is an excellent resource as it offers an ever-growing and wide variety of podcasts, organized by subject and grade level. Click and you shall find!
Finally, a few other suggestions come from authors Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson, whose articles are featured in our course text, Toward a 21st-Century School Library Media Program (2007) © The Scarecrow Press, Inc. I’d like to open with a quote from one of their articles that I think speaks to the power of podcasts: “In addition to motivating learners, Podcasts are a way to convey ideas and emotions that are difficult to express in a text format” (p.163).
Some of Lamb and Johnsons’s suggestions include
- sharing audio projects created by reading buddies
- recording “how-to” projects and language lessons
- listening activities
Final thoughts…
Wow and wow. After feeling overwhelmed by all the ins and outs of learning how these tools work, I tend to get my second wind back after discovering, in the literature, the possibilities that these tools offer me for use with students. The same is true here with podcasting. I am refreshed! I am feeling like I must get back to Audacity and learn more so that I can bring this exciting Web 2.0 tool with me to the library or the classroom next fall when I return to school.
Although many suggestions have been offered in the literature on podcasting, I would like to end with statements made by Kretz: “As podcasting continues to evolve as a means of communication and education, libraries will continue to find ways to include it in their mission” (p.46) and Richardson, quoting Brooks, “As with blogs, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination” (p.118).
No comments:
Post a Comment