Students integrating audio to coursework

Barbara Ganley's podcasting post shows a discerning eye towards the iPod phenomenon, showing that it's not always the pushing of content that podcasting is best for, but that the recordings can be pulled and reused by learners to create new content. I particularly like the idea that students should be able to submit essays and coursework electronically so that they can integrate audio and potentially other multimedia to bring those essays to life. (Does that remove part of the writing skill in conveying the emotion of those featured on a podcast or video, though?)

This is the kind of recycling that I have been keen to start encouraging Scottish teachers to do with audio, certainly, but also video, from the BBC Creative Archive. They are already encouraging schools to reuse content, write music for video or encourage pupils to be Superstar VJs, creating music videos for music.

Having talked to several sources at the Beeb, they are keen to release more material in this way to allow educators to pull, reuse and push their new material back onto the web under the Creative Commons archive. We're already beginning a similar revolution over at the MFLE, where languages teachers can reuse images and soon video to bring their lessons to life, and to give their students some film production to do as homework instead of worksheets.

Comments

[Barbara]

Ewan,
Reading your response to my post and your previous entry had me nodding and thinking that yes, podcasting, or for that matter multimedia writing or blogging in the classroom is really never about pushing out content but about teaching process, and students creating new content. I am repeatedly amazed how when I talk about such things at workshops and conferences, people look at me as though I've said the most extraordinary thing, as though I am brilliant beyond words. Of course all I am is a teacher doing her job, thinking about what we're trying to help our students learn. It's common sense as so much of this work on the internet. How interesting it will be to see how what some are calling Academy 2.0 (http://www.srwu.net/index/2005/10/search_tags_and.html)
and http://wrt-brooke.syr.edu/cgbvb/archives/2005/10/i_mean_to_respo.html) will emerge over the next months and years, yes?

I'm very much enjoying following your work over on that side of the ocean.