Attack of the Pod-Cast People: Part Two

In which our intrepid hero picks up where she left off four years ago.

So much for sticking with the blog! I could go into the five hundred excuses I have for not sticking with it, but the end story is that I dropped the ball and I've been inspired to pick it back up.

[Aside] The format of this blog will change to be more interactive. I will try to post questions, ideas, and research and open up the comments for discussion for any who are interested in participating in civil discussion. I welcome new research and will happily include it if there is a demand for the discussion to go in a different direction. [End aside]

The podcast. Since my last post, the podcast has in no way diminished its popularity. In fact, despite a slump in 2009-2010, podcast listenership is growing. Statistics are suggesting that 10% of Americans aged 12+ are listening to a podcast on a weekly basis, and it's not particularly surprising that those consumers are primarily in the "under 40" age bracket given the technology trends of millenials. Generally, we like our media on demand and we like it at our fingertips and podcasts offer just that. We are also a more health and technology conscious generation and I, for one, enjoy a podcast during a long run to stave off the dreadmill hypnosis. Podcasts are simply the "it" media of my generation.

Let's go to the beginning-- what IS a podcast? According to edtechteacher.org, a podcast:

"is an audio story created to share ideas, presentations, or music. Typically podcasts are linked from a blog, so “podcasting” is often used to denote audioblogging."

 Oops. Should I be recording this? Is this thing on?

Still others add that a podcast is episodic or presented in installments, which really gets at some fascinating publication questions. Is a podcast an (1) ongoing synthesis, (2) a complete unit, or should it be a (3) completed story that is told within installments like a Victorian publication a la Bleak House? (I think my history nerd is showing.)

(1) Ongoing synthesis-- One of my favorite podcasts is the delightfully weird Welcome to Nightvale. Two episodes come out each month and it takes the form of a local radio station discussing the issues, weather, and updates of a small town, Nightvale, in which the paranormal is an acknowledged, threatening, and yet almost mundane reality. It is a fictional creation, and each episode gives another layer to the storyline, painting characters and the setting more deeply with each podcast. There is not necessarily a conclusion in mind (at least, not one that I know of), but there is a building of nuance and deeper understanding.

This format could be closest to audioblogging and could be used powerfully in the classroom as an individual synthesis tool, a classroom debate/discussion tool between an entire class or even small groups and partners, or as a way to develop a story, setting, and characters in the same vein as Welcome to Nightvale. The difficulty is the required planning, as you would want more streamlined discussions, and I would encourage students to come up with pointed questions frameworks before recording. It could include bookclub discussions or even an ongoing assessment tool to determine how students are thinking about and interacting with topics of class discussion. A creation like Nightvale may be harder to pull off, but I would be interested to hear others' thoughts.

(2) Complete unit-- These are some of the most popular of podcasts, including Radiolab and This American Life. These podcasts are often thematic and explore multiple perspectives of one topic. These podcasts stand alone and do not need the context of past or future podcasts in order to be listened to. Essentially, you can consume them a la carte. These also come from existing radio formats (obviously, I'm an NPR junkie) and weren't always podcasts, however, they embody the millenial need to download and consume pretty famously.

These are great for interdisciplinary learning and foster a sense of holistic learning, particularly if the classroom follows the thematic model; students would have to seek out multiple perspectives and "expert" opinions to add relevancy and authority to the podcast. Likewise, they would likely seek out public opinion as these programs also often include "street" interviews to help direct the flow of the program. They would need to study the format to find the most effective techniques at emotionally or thoughtfully engaging the listener and this can always be coopted into writing, reading, and other literacy media.

Another type of complete unit podcast is the audio-narrative or audio-essay. You can find these examples in The Moth Radio Hour (narrative) or This I Believe (essay) though I would argue that these blur the lines between narrative and essay. I have tried This I Believe with middle school and fifth grade students and the context of the radio recordings helped them listen for tone and how to add it in their own writing. Likewise, reading the text of the essay in addition to hearing it aided with learning the written organization and helped those students who struggled with reading still feel they were able to participate in the conversation powerfully and produce great writing as well. Most importantly, it gave all students an idea of the power and scope of their language by demonstrating a community audience that would seek out these kinds of ideas and discussions.

(3) Installment podcasts-- I saved this for last because of the sheer excitement that Serial created for just about everyone who discovered it. If you haven't listened to it, go listen now. It's okay. I'll wait. Serial (and other podcasts like it-- Hardcore History takes on this format with some topical discussions) is a twelve part podcast that tells a story over those twelve episodes, revealing different aspects of a true crime case. It seems the overall theme of the piece was more to do with a commentary on the criminal justice system, but the very human interviews that took place as well as Sarah Koenig's thoughts and responses allowed the listener to get sucked in to the moment and become emotionally invested in this case to the point that it has inspired multiple podcast responses (see here and here and here).

Many educators have already spoken about how they are using Serial in their own classrooms. And I think there's something to be said about critical listening skills, despite my skepticism of getting kids to sit and listen to a podcast four years ago. Likewise, it brings up key questions of civic participation on the ground level, since the success of Serial led to reopening Adnan Syed's case. It also can open up discussions on ethics including race depictions through the media (see here and here) as well as the ethics of popularizing a crime.

As a literacy teacher and a writer, I'm intrigued by the fragmented storytelling that is particularly well done in Serial. I believe strongly in teaching students the basic storytelling framework and then demonstrating how to break it (because to teach kids how to think outside the box, they need to know there's a box). Fragmented stories have always been around but have become increasingly popular, particularly in fiction. One of the New York Times Book Review's Top Ten Books of 2014 (whew! a mouthful) is The Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill in which a young woman recounts her love affair and marriage to a man through fragmented thoughts and memories. While it could have the potential to be circuitous and confusing, it actually reads quite coherently. Another novella that does the same is Marguerite Duras's (you may recall Hiroshima, Mon Amour) The Lover. As someone who has been teaching grade five, I would point out the same technique in Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher in which multiple characters all play a role in describing their classroom situation. A fragmented podcast can give a structural model for a new form of storytelling that could be recreated in a written format.

So, the end point of this particularly long discussion of podcasts? They have many uses in the classroom-- in addition to giving students new information or perspectives, it can teach new organizational or structural formats for writing, give students support for reading and research, and can enable them to produce digital work for simulated audiences while seeking out research, perspectives, and techniques to digital storytelling.

Here's what I want to know-- how and why do you/do you not use podcasting in the classroom? How can you coopt it into the classroom? What programs and audiences do you produce for and how to you present it?