Betty’s Bytes

Students in two senior English classes have just completed a unit by writing, recording, editing, and posting podcasts of interviews. What an exciting adventure in both classes! The students were so engaged that they did not realize how hard they were working, while they recorded, added music, edited, and posted their podcasts. View their submissions by visiting the blog created for that purpose VBCA Student. The students reviewed an interest survey and selected either a famous British politician or scientist to research, or a nonfiction book to read.  Once the students made their selections, they brainstormed questions to answer via their research and then used reference books and online journals to research, write, and report orally on their choices.  These reports took the form of an interview in which students made connections between modern world issues (political, environmental, or economical) and made inferences based on their research as to how their subject would respond to such questions.  The interviews were then recorded as podcasts and posted to a blog where students were able to listen to one another’s final products.  (English Virginia Standards of Learning covered included E 12.2.1, E 12.2.2, E 12.2.3, E 12.2.4, E 12.2.5, E 12.2.6, E 12.12.1, E 12.12.2, E 12.12.3, E 12.12.4, E 12.12.5, E 12.12.6, E 12.12.7, E 12.12.8, E 12.12.9, E 12.12.10, E 12.16.3, E 12.16.4, E 12.16.5, E 12.16.6, E 12.16.7, E 12.16.8, E 12.16.9, E 12.16.10, E 12.16.11, E 12.16.12 along with a variety of Technology Proficiencies.)

As teachers, we prepared for the first podcasting experience in our small alternative high school by taking classes, collaborating with expert users, reading Will Richardson’s book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, and researching the Web. The students wrote, rewrote, and practiced their scripts. Then, we used the free downloadable program Audacity to record the interviews for podcasting.

Perhaps the most valuable lesson that we as educators learned was that the students were self-directed, involved, cooperative, and collaborative because they were truly engaged in the learning activity. It was a joy to see students revise, re-record, and edit because they wanted to do so, not because it was a requirement.