January 2008 — News
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Podcasting from the Seashore in Cape Cod
Every year fifth graders in the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District in South Yarmouth, MA spend five days at the seashore. For some, according to Lory Stewart, director of instructional technology, it's their first trip to the beach, in spite of the fact that they live on Cape Cod. Likewise, many have never been away from home, let alone for four nights.
This year's trips will integrate two technologies--podcasting and digital cameras--to capture the seaside experience and allow it to be shared with the larger district community of parents and residents, many of whom are retired. "Our taxpayers support this project," said Stewart. "Most of them know that it's a really great experience, because the kids just love it."
Capturing Experiences Outside the Classroom
Stewart started her experimentation in new forms of multimedia learning last year by providing a digital camera and training to each of 17 teachers. The entire purchase cost about $8,100, which included Olympus 5 megapixel cameras with gigabyte media cards, rechargeable battery packs, and two days of instruction.
When the classrooms returned from their field trips, said Stewart, "They used the digital images to report back on what they had experienced at the seashore. They did storyboards. They really went nuts with the digital imaging."
This year she added Olympus digital recorders for about $8,000. "I really thought going with podcasting would be the next level of telling people what they did with their experience," said Stewart.
Since each class goes in a different month, students and others will be able to see the variations in animal, plant and sea life from a 5th grade perspective through three seasons of the year. "What is it like to experience the seashore in January, when it's 10 degrees?" said Stewart. "They see totally different animal tracks, for example. The kids in the fall with the leaves on the ground might not necessarily experience that."
One teacher has had her students write poems about their experiences. Those will be recorded and posted online. Eventually, she'll also have the students add the digital photos into the podcast to make it roll like an automated PowerPoint presentation. "The images transition while they talk," said Stewart.
Easy Publishing with Tool Factory
The district uses Tool Factory software as an interface between the digital output from the cameras and recorders and the online posting. Tool Factory also provided the in-person teacher training on the use of the technology.
That includes Tool Factory Workshop and Tool Factory Podcasting. Workshop is a suite of kid-friendly programs, including a word processor, painter, spreadsheet and database. It also includes modules specifically for teachers, including Bank Manager to work with collections of clip art, and Administrator, which allows for configuration of the other programs. A network site license is $1,999.95. It runs on both Mac OS X and Windows systems and comes in both English and Spanish editions.
