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On Wednesday, The New York Times printed a story about a class at Longfellow Middle School in La Crosse that had podcast several class discussions through an iPod. That class also was featured in a Jan. 18 La Crosse Tribune story.
Podcasting is the act of posting a sound recording online. It can be heard through a computer, or downloaded onto an iPod, a device marketed by Apple Computer.
The story noted that iPods, blogs and other interactive technologies are starting to be used more and more in education.
What does it all mean? Jeanne Halderson, one of two Longfellow teachers using iPods, described her students this way to a Times reporter: “Their audience has moved to the entire world. The students find that exciting. It’s a lot more motivating to write something that the whole world can hear, rather than just something for a teacher to put a grade on.”
The other story appeared in both the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun. Written by a Chicago Tribune reporter, it noted that La Crosse is one of 19 cities throughout the nation that is poised to have a local vote on the idea of withdrawing troops from Iraq.
Baltimore and Chicago are among several cities whose local councils have either opposed the war or called for a troop withdrawal.
La Crosse’s council overwhelmingly opposed the idea of a troop withdrawal, but the measure will go to the voters in April.
In the opening paragraphs of the Tribune/Sun story, local resident Al Knorr is featured. Knorr, a 79-year-old retired clinical social worker (and World War II veteran) spends some time each day with a large cardboard “Stop the War” sign attached to a wooden broomstick.
Voters here and elsewhere will have to come to their own conclusions about the war. But the interesting part of the story is how technology and the media have opened a window that allows communities to see what others are doing.
And, as the Longfellow teacher described her students, our “audience has moved to the entire world” as well.
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