Library Lion

I just listened to the most delightful group of 3rd graders’ production of Ms. Edminson’s Weekly Podcast.  It is entitled Eagles’ Nest Radio Episode 1:  Take a BITE Out of Shark Facts. This is a well produced radio show, structured in four segments, with one student, Anna Catherine, acting as host and introducing other students for each segment.  In the first, “correspondent,” Chrisa, takes us to Poetry Paradise with an enticing review of Ogden Nash’s poem, “Sharks.”  In the next segment, Daisy invites us to swim in our own direction by discussing the high number of sharks (60 million) that are killed each year and encouraging listeners to take up the cause of saving sharks.  Next we join William in the “Vocabulary Vault.”  We know we are in the vault due to the creative, echoing sound effects.  While there, he explains what cartilage means to sharks and humans!  Finally, Carter reports during the “Did You Know” segment and informs us that sharks have been around for 400 million years.  Anna Catherine closes the show by inviting listeners to listen to a podcast interview with a shark expert, Mr. Woody Ward.  How could I resist?

This podcast provides ample evidence that podcasting can be used as an effective tool for learning.  These students had to research and know the subject well to produce this podcast.  They had to understand and create the scripts which will keep a listener’s interest and leave them wanting more.  Most importantly, their ownership of the project should give them a great sense of accomplishment, as it is shared, via podcast, with their peers.

As I explored the podcast directories, such as Education Podcast Network and Learn Out Loud, I found several podcasts that could be of value in an elementary setting.   One useful site for me, as a librarian, would be Nancy Keane’s Booktalks Quick and Simple Podcast, which could be used to create interest in books for our students, so I subscribed to it.  Although, from a pedagogical standpoint, many of these podcasts could be useful for teachers, I feel that the podcasts that will resonate with students, particularly elementary students, will be the ones that they produce themselves, like Ms. Edminson’s 3rd graders.

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