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“Podcast approval due today!”
“Final copy of podcast due on Friday!”
Welcome to this week’s assignments in Jeanne Halderson’s seventh-grade language arts class at Longfellow Middle School. She and team-teacher Elizabeth Ramsay teach all subjects to 58 seventh-graders.
Last fall, the class became the second in the U.S. to create, edit and produce “podcasts.” The word combines “ipods,” portable audio devices for listening to and recording music, and “broadcast.”
“It’s kind of a like a radio show and a magazine put together,” Halderson said.
Students write reports on an Apple iBook laptop computer, which every student uses in class. Topics have included a book report on “The Giver.” And a science report on dissecting crayfish. And a poetry slam.
They narrate the report, in their own words, using a microphone attached to the laptop. They attach photos electronically.
They save their reports — text, sound and photos — along with classmates’ work. Each student has a chapter.
Then they post the class report to the Internet. People around the world can view their reports by logging on to a Web site called www.itunes.com.
Thousands have checked out their work. Many have written, some from as far away as Korea and India. Some want advice about using the technology in their classrooms. Others want to learn more about American culture. Some journalists want to write stories.
Education Week magazine has already published a story about the class’ podcasts. The New York Times will run a story about them next week.
Halderson, one of 300 Apple Distinguished Educators in the United States, did much of the work to make the podcasts possible. She has been given about $100,000 in grants to help with costs of the laptops and equipment. She attended conferences and collaborated with other computer whizzes to gain the technological savvy required to create podcasts.
But she did nothing to attract the national media attention.
“The reporters came to our site on their own and were impressed with our kids’ work,” she said. “They can be proud of that.”
They don’t waste time with pride, though. They come before school, after school and during lunch to refine their podcasts.
Tuesday, Halderson hosted a phone conference with Ted Lai, a teacher and podcast expert in Temple City, Calif. Topic: sound quality on their podcasts.
Mitch Voter, wearing a black AC/DC shirt, asked Lai about how high to set the volume while recording.
Natalie Weber, wearing a green Longfellow basketball jersey, asked his advice about a planned podcast to explain podcasting.
Megan Wichelt, wearing a brown glittery shrug sweater, asked Lai about cutting out dead space in her podcasts.
All pleased their teacher. “We’re truly at the stage of refinement,” Halderson said.
Dan Simmons can be reached at (608)791-8217 or dsimmons@lacrossetribune.com.
Find it Online
For instructions about viewing the students’ podcasts for free, visit www.lacrosseschools.com/longfellow/sc/ck/.
For articles about the class, visit www.thejournal.com/articles/17607 or www.lacrosseschools.com/longfellow/sc/ck/info/news/Education%20Week%20.htm.
