An anomaly of my generation...

As a member of generation Y, I have experienced the transition from Beta to VHS to DVD to the near death of movie rentals entirely. I grew up listening to “books on tape”, bought my first ghetto blaster at Canadian Tire in 1997 and observed the development of cell phones that have now become some people’s lifelines.

Today, society imposes an idea that we be contactable at all time, keep our lives on small electronic devices, and do away with that which does not plug in. Having been through all these transitions in my lifetime, one would think that I embrace technology and have a great understanding and appreciation for the potential that all of these inventions have to offer. However, that would be inaccurate.

I still have that ghetto blaster from 1997, and yes, it still works. In fact, I still buy CDs for it. I bought my first cell phone at 23, I don’t own an ipod or have a Facebook page and occasionally I even send cards in the mail. And no, I don’t live under a rock!

Needless to say, I completely understand that I don’t belong in my generation and I recognize that as a teacher I’m going to have to be a lot more open to the world of new technology. I do appreciate the value of these technologies and the opportunities that they can provide, but I also want to be cautious with how I use them in my classroom. It is important to have some time during a day where students aren’t wearing earphones, aren’t plugged in and aren’t looking at a screen.

So, podcasting… the 21^st century’s version of “books on tape” but this time you can hear all sorts of people talking about all sorts of things. In a grade 4 or 5 classroom I might use podcasts as one of the methods we obtain information. I like that it is a medium where people are required solely to listen and absorb information. Podcasts provide an outsider’s voice and a period of time free of visual stimulation.

A site such as, Harpercollins Children’s Podcasts, http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/kids/gamesandcontests/features/podcast/ would be a great source for students to listen to authors talk about their books. It may also be interesting to find podcasts where the authors are reading from their books. I can see the utility of podcasts in other subjects as well. David Suzuki has a podcast on CBC called The Bottom Line www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/bottomline.xml and if the material was applicable and age appropriate, you could listen to a discussion as a source of information for a particular science unit.

Instead of the students creating their own podcasts, I think I would teach them how to use the recording equipment without the online element. Making recordings could be another form to represent information they’ve learned. I would include recording as an option when doing a book report or a science project but it would not be a required component. However, I do see the recording technology useful for students who have difficulty with the writing process. Therefore I might use recording as an adaptation for someone who couldn’t complete long writing assignments.

In sum, I would say that recording technology and podcasts can be valuable tools in the classroom and it is the job of the 21^st century teachers to be informed on a variety of useful tools. Just as a classroom has a variety of different learners, a teacher must use a variety of different methods with different tools to provide an interesting and engaging classroom!