Jane's blog

This album is powered by BubbleShare - Add to my blog ­On Saturday 10th March I had the pleasure of presenting at the NZRA mini conference in Dunedin. ­It really is a privilege to attend different conferences for different audiences.  The buzz at a reading conference is quite different to that in a room full of early childhood educators and completely different to that in a technology conference. 

I highlighted the literacy values in podcasting in this workshop especially the literature around effective oracy providing the basis for all other learning "writing floats on a sea of talk".  Being able to communicate orally gives students the ability to interact with others, it can raise their self esteem, it can ease frustrations, it can help with problem solving.  The more I look into the importance of oral language teaching the more ashamed I become at how I only ever taught it as an add on.  The poor country cousin to reading and writing.  Without effective oracy even numeracy is effected!  I have attached a pdf file entitled "The cost to the nation of children's poor communication" it is a British publication but it really spells out the urgency with which we need to take oral language more seriously. 

 Podcasting is a great tool for focussing on Oral Language as it provides us with a middle ground that wasn't easily available before.  It gives us the chance to edit and revise our oral work.  Students can listen to themselves, receive feedback, make changes etc.  It makes Oral Language similar to Written Language in this sense.

­Today I had the privilege of running my first workshop on my eFellow­ Pr­oject. I drove an ho­ur from Dunedin to beautiful Garvan House (pictured­) a lovely bed and breakfast ­just outside of Milton. In this picturesque setting, with the sun shining and participants just finishing their delicious lunch, I began a­ workshop on podcasting and oral language. It was tough to compete with the­ surroundings and cosy feeling of full bellies! ­The thing that made this workshop truly exciting for me was that it was to a room full of early c­hildhood educators. Wow! Imagine if we can get technology into the hands of children that young, imagine what we could do with them when they get to primary schools! There would be no way that high schools could restrict access to technology, these digital natives (for want of a better name) will demand access!­

As my research is around oral language and podcasting I thought I would upload my recordings of my initial thoughts at the end of my first week with the Gurus at CORE in Christchurch.  I am walking down the street talking into my hand held recorder trying to sort things out in my head.  I have tried to reduce the 's' noise with Garageband but there still seems to be alot so if anyone has any suggestions on how to reduce the 's' with a hand held recorder please let me know.

I have just spent the week in Rotorua at the Learning @ School conference.  It was great to see the gurus from CORE again and spend time with Dorothy and Jonathan.

You can find my thoughts on the David Warlick Keynote I attended by clicking here .  I also attended a seminar by David in Dunedin the day after flying home from Learning @ School and you can read my thoughts about this seminar by clicking here . 

I think I'm a bit conferenced out now.  No more thoughts for a little while :-).

(You should see this view on a sunny day!)

I have nearly finished my first week working on my own as an efellow and I must say I am enjoying the different point of view.  As a classroom teacher you take it for granted that you must do ten things at once and give half of your attention to most things (while, I must say, doing a superb job at all of those ten things :-) ).  

 This week has been one of adjustment.  I found myself  at first preparing all the things I needed to do and trying to do them all at once with two browsers open and Skype and iChat (and a landline for those users of old technology).  While simultaneously folding my washing and planning a bathroom renovation because now that I am spending time at home I realise it is long overdue! 

But I stopped, looked out my study window, and realised that this is my year to slow down and pay particular attention to one thing at a time.  What a luxury.  It will take a bit of getting used to but I think I might manage it.  One thing it has made me realise is that maybe in classrooms not only do we not allow ourselves enough time to think, but maybe our students would like a little thinking time too?
 

I thought I would record here the process I go through as an eFellow and as a classroom teacher who is embarking on research.  In our classrooms we are continuously undertaking research when we reflect on what is happening in our rooms but not in any formal way.  This week in Christchurch the eFellows were introduced to research methodology and methods and given superb guidance to formulate a research question and a research proposal.  My question is:

In what ways and to what extent does the use of podcasting improve oral literacies in primary aged students?

My next step is to start looking for research around this question.  I'll let you know how I get on. :-) 

This is the first week of the 2007 eFellows.  We have spent a lot of time refining the research question that we want to look at. 

This year is a great opportunity and I am really looking forward to being able to take a break from teaching and take my time reading and learning about this new technology called podcasting and its effects on oral language.