Podcast! Encourage your students’ voice

 

Lisa Smith and Steven Bishop facilitated a workshop at Douglas College that opened up discussions about listening and encouraging student voice, examined Lisa’s process of developing a podcasting assignment in her Gender and Youth Cultures class, and provided some basic audio recording information. The workshop included:

  • Listening as practice (activity)
  • A case study of the development, implementation, and showcasing of a classroom podcast assignment
  • Examples of student and expert podcasts
  • Skills inventory (activity)
  • Technical overview of audio recording, editing, and producing
  • Live recording demo with Audacity software and Yeti microphone
  • Full group discussion of how to bring this approach into the class

Link to the PODcast! Presentation

Link to Podcast Workshop Resources (Google Document)

We would like to acknowledge that we live, learn, work, and play on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples of the QayQayt and Kwikwetlem First Nations.

Express Yourself! Consider new, creative ways of engaging your students

ATS is currently running a new series of workshops in time for the summer term called “Express Yourself!” These workshops will provide you with an overview to the specific teaching method by faculty experts, plenty of Q&A, and some hands-on play time. Our goal is that you start seeding the possibilities for your own teaching, contemplating how these ideas will engage and motivate your students.

Here’s what’s on offer:

  1. Presenting with purpose: This workshop will focus on heightening physical and vocal engagement in order to clarify your sound, meaning, and message. We will work from material provided by the group. Bring your own speeches, classroom presentations, or video scripts. We will also provide practice text. Bring your curiosity and come prepared to explore your expressive presence. Facilitator: Thrasso Petras, Theatre dept. April 30, 9:30am-12:30pm, N3260
  2. Going visual: You will be guided through a series of fun drawing exercises designed to amplify your visual literacy. No previous drawing experience is required, only a willingness to make to make your marks! Facilitator: Jason Toal, SFU Teaching & Learning Centre. May 2, 9:30-11:00am, S0620
  3. Thinking through the grid: Lightboard edition: You will discuss the comics grid as pedagogical heuristic using the technology of the lightboard. Topics will include the grid as database, timing system, and standing reserve. You will be asked to draw, but no particular drawing skill is required. Facilitators: Peter Wilkins, English dept. & Dwayne Thornhill, ATS. May 14, 9:00am-12:00pm, N3142 and N3272V
  4. Tablets for teaching: Learn how to use a tablet to facilitate teaching. Brandy will demonstrate how she uses it inside the classroom to improve student interaction and make PowerPoints more engaging. She will also discuss making tutorial videos using a tablet, giving you her software recommendations. Facilitator: Brandy Dudas, Accounting dept. May 23, 2:00-3:00pm, S2801
  5. Podcast! Encourage your students’ voices: Join us for an interactive workshop on designing podcast-based assignments. You will receive a mini-case, outlining process, design guidance for creating your podcast assignments, and technical information about podcasting. Facilitator: Lisa Smith, Sociology dept. June 4, 9:00am-12:00pm, S0620

And, these workshops are open and free to everyone. Here’s how you register.

Podcast Pedagogies – Episode III

In this final podcast of the series, Steven Bishop and Lisa Smith, sit down with Kelsey Huebchen, a Douglas College student who was enrolled in GSWS 2101 and completed a podcast as part of her course work. From an instructor perspective, Lisa discusses some of the benefits of exploring podcasting as a pedagogical and evaluative tool. Kelsey reflects on some of the differences between producing a podcast and writing a research paper.

Listen to the podcast

Lisa recommends instructors keep in mind the following if considering podcasting as an assignment:

1) Introduce the idea early on in the course.

In my class, I discussed the podcast assignment in-depth on the first day of class and had printed copies of the assignment guideline. I took time to go through this with students to ensure that they understood that this was a part of the course and that they would have time to acquire the skills / knowledge required to complete this assignment. 

2) Identify student skills and concerns early on.

In the second course of the semester, I had students work in groups to complete a questionnaire that identified concerns about the podcasting assignment, as well as any existing skills that they already had that would be helpful for this project (for example, do you know how to use the voice recorder on your phone). Following this, we conducted a “skills inventory” of the class as whole. This was really helpful for identifying the different skills that students already had, but also which students might be able to provide assistance to others.

3) Keep podcasting as a subtle, but constant theme throughout the course

Each week, we would listen to a podcast in class. This allowed us to use podcasts as a way to get further into topics we were reading about, but also allowed me to share different kinds of podcasts with students to demonstrate that there were different ways to approach this assignment. Students enjoyed discussing the subject matter in the podcasts, as well as the various elements of production. 

4) Focus evaluation on the planning / organization / research for the podcast.

For this assignment, only a portion of the total grade was based on the actual finished product. Further, students were not graded on the technical quality of the podcast. 

5) Establish a reasonable time limit for the final podcast product.

As an instructor, keep in mind that you will need to listen to ALL the podcasts. Be sure to consider how much time is reasonable for you to spend listening to podcasts at the end of term.

Podcast Pedagogies

Presentation2

A meta-cognitive look at creating an audio-recording based assignment 

Episode II – 8:19 minutes

After our initial meeting, Lisa Smith and I met for a second time with a more decided perspective on how to proceed with creating an audio-recording-based assignment for her Gender and Youth Cultures course. We are capturing the design process with these recordings and our hope is that other instructors and designers will benefit from our work when considering or creating similar assignments. One additional benefit we have noticed is the reflective nature of reviewing what we discussed while editing. Even if we weren’t going to share these recordings, it has been a valuable experience in understanding dialogue, the other person, and how we communicate ideas.

Listen to the conversation

The resources mentioned in the recording include:

Podcasting – A Teaching with Technology Paper by Ashley Deal, Carnegie Mellon University June 4, 2007
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

Gender and Youth Cultures Campus Culture Podcast Project Assignment Guideline Fall 2017

Listen to Episode I – Exploring the possibility of creating a podcast-based assignment

Continue reading “Podcast Pedagogies”