Occupation: Primary Teacher
Leading Teacher for ICT, Intel Master Trainer, Currently completing my Masters of Information Technology in Education and just completed Teacher Professional Leave investigating IWBs, pedagogy and coaching.
Interests: ICT in Education, web2.0, global collaboration, constructivist education.
I have a subscription to Odiogo which creates podcasts from my blogs. I thought it might be interesting to hear someone else read my blog posts to me. I wanted to see if I could distance myself enough from the original process of writing, to think critically about the content. I’m not a confident writer and have for years avoided writing anything. And I dread rereading my published material for fear of finding mistakes. I subscribed to Odiogo for fun and for the feedback it might provide.
I’ve subscribed to the Odiogo feed in iTunes and now just to see if I could I’ve embedded a player with the feed directly on my blog.The player looks great and is customisable – the screen is blank but I think that is because I don’t have any art work on Odiogo for my podcast. I will be testing this player again on the students podcasts.
The player is free from Podcast Pickle and was extremely easy to set up. I am a fan of this site!
I have always been a strong believer in the importance of students’ oral language as a key step in their literacy development and in clarifying their thinking while learning. I also believe, as teachers, we tend to gloss over its importance, by not giving enough time in the school program for specific oral language development. For example the Early Years Literacy Program (used in Victorian primary schools in Australia) prescribes an hour for reading and an hour for writing every school day for students in grades P -4. Where is the dedicated time for developing oral language, especially in the early years?
Last year I was the full time ICT teacher for students in P-6 at my school and in an effort to improve my own skills in planning for oral language development I took every opportunity to introduce an audio aspect to the ICT lessons that I taught.
Below are some examples of how to integrate audio in the classroom.
Audio e-Learning and the Curriculum
It is a logical step that we should be spending more time developing students oral language skills if we want them to be good at using language to help process thinking at higher levels. I have selected the major teaching emphases for speaking recommended by the West Australian First Steps Oral Language Program to show how we can implement a digital audio e-learning program for students.
The West Australian First Steps, Oral Language Developmental Continuum was designed to provide teaching strategies to ensure that students achieve the National English Outcomes set out in the National Profiles. (EVANS & ALLEN, 1996).
The list below features an overview of the aspects of oral language that should be developed specifically to improve the student’s ability to use the speaking component of language. The features are common to all phases of development but of course the level of performance and material would become more complex as students progressed.
Major Teaching Emphases (EVANS & ALLEN, 1996)
Components, which are common to all phases of development.
focus on language structures and patterns through songs, chants, rhymes and stories and the aesthetic features of writing
develop student’s ability to adjust their language to suit particular purposes, audiences and situations – structure experiences that challenge students to select and use different styles of language to suit a range of audiences and purposes
develop and extend student’s use of vocabulary in different contexts -promote the use of subject-specific vocabulary
help students to give and receive simple explanations, information and instructions – help students to give and respond to increasingly complex explanations and instructions
Audio e-Learning
Examples of how Audio e-Learning can enhance learning
Record and listen to students – Share with the grade, Podcast those that are popular and publish to web page. (Arrowhead Elementary School) is a great example
Audio e-learning is the ideal way for students to practise language to suit particular audiences. Recorded can work can be shared with the grade, parents, year level, school level, published to the web and or used on a Radio Show. Recording allows for the students to receive feedback and to polish their performance.
When students create a commentary for their Inquiry learning topics, they have the opportunity to demonstrate the use of subject specific language in context.
Screencasting using simple recorders that come with Interactive whiteboards (Notebook Recorder is part of the SMARTBoard software) or free software downloaded from the internet such as “Jing” is an great way to create a procedural text that has a visual and verbal element. Sceencasting records all the movement on the computer screen while it records the student’s oral commentary. Eric Marcos’s Mathtrain website is an excellent example of screencasting. (Mathtrain.tv)
There are many ways that technology can help students develop the components of oral language. The list I have provided is not exhaustive and is growing everyday as technology improves. It can be as simple as attaching a microphone to the computer and recording a sound file for a PowerPoint presentation or as complex as blogging with a mobile phone (Year 10 Agriculture). Photostory and Voicethread are both excellent, free, software where the students’ voice can be the main form of communication.
