Two Children's Books by Canadian authors (with booktalk podcasts)

For a class assignment I was asked to create podcasts with booktalks for two children's books. The books I chose were Melanie Bluelake's Dream by Betty Dorian (author from Saskatchewan, Canada) and A Coyote Solstice Tale by Thomas King (Canadian author).

Melanie Bluelake's Dream

Dorion, Betty. (1995). Melanie Bluelake's Dream. Regina, Saskatchewan: Coteau Books.

Novel, Ages 9 - 12

Awards, Honours, Prizes:
Saskatchewan, Canada Book Awards, 1995 Nominee Children's Literature Canada
Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award, 1998 ; Nominee; Manitoba, Canada
Silver Birch Award, 1997 ; Nominee; Fiction; Ontario, Canada

Melanie is a ten year old Aboriginal girl who moves from a reserve in northern Saskatchewan into the city of Prince Albert. She is unhappy that her mom forced her to leave her Kokum (grandmother) behind on the reserve. Melanie's mom is determined to finish her grade 12 and make a better life for herself and her daughter. The story is told from Melanie's point of view as she learns to adjust from the freedom of life on the reserve where she knew everyone to life in the city. The book presents a matter-of-fact picture of those living in poverty. In the midst of the hardship of life, there are glimpses of joy--when Melanie dresses up for Halloween, when Melanie makes new friends, and when Melanie makes peace with her mom.

The author of this book, Betty Dorion, has taught on reserves and in the city of Prince Albert. I appreciate the realism and understanding of the socio-economic setting that she brought to this story.

Other books by Betty Dorion:

Bay Girl (1998, Coteau Books)
Strike (2000, Coteau Books)
Whose Side Are You On? (2001, Coteau Books)

A Coyote Solstice Tale


King, Thomas. (2009). A Coyote Solstice Tale. (Illustrated by Gary Clement). Toronto: Groundwood Books.

Picture Book, ages 4 - 9

This is a Christmas tale with a twist. Coyote lives in a little house in the woods. He is preparing to welcome his animal friends for supper when a little girl dressed as a reindeer shows up. The animal friends retrace her footprints in the snow to discover that she escaped from the Christmas mayhem at the mall. Coyote jumps shopping cart first into the fun and loads up with presents for all--only to discover that the cashier wants him to pay for the gifts. Coyote discovers that goodwill and peace are free and he doesn't need or want those presents.

The story is told in rhyme and the illustrations are almost like cartoons. This book is one that children will enjoy reading and rereading to catch the details in the story and the pictures. This is an unusual Christmas book as it pokes gentle fun at materialism and extols the joys of simple things--friends, goodwill, and peace.

Thomas King is an author and a professor at Guelph University in Ontario. In the past he created a hilarious show for CBC Radio entitled "The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour".

Other Books for Children by Thomas King:

Coyote Sings to the Moon (2001, WestWind Press)
Coyote's New Suit (2004, Key Porter Books)
A Coyote Columbus Story (2007, Groundwood Books

Old Wine in New Wineskins

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There is a saying about not putting new wine in old wine skins (I guess they would burst). However, some proposed uses of podcasts with students would be similar to putting old wine in new wine skins. Since podcasts are an audio form of conveying information, they can be akin to a lecture or monologue by one person--similar to a teacher talking at the front of a classroom.

A study was carried out in a psychology class at a university. (Carter, 2009) A control group of students listened to a live half hour lecture while another group of students used a podcast of the same information. The students with the podcast scored higher marks on a test on the material. Students watched the podcast which was actually a vodcast. They could pause and rewind as often as they liked. It was observed that those students who took notes as they watched the vodcast did the best. If listening or watching was simply passive, there was no observable advantage to the vodcast over the live lecture.

Some students suggested that it would be best to record the live lecture and attend it in person so that you could simply listen and absorb information. Then later one could listen to and pause and rewind ones way through the podcast recording again.

Another student said that it doesn't seem right to use 21st century technology to continue using a 19th century teaching style--the lecture. This is where my image comes in, of putting the same old wine (the lecture) in new wineskins (Web 2.0 tools).

I recognize that podcasts can be used in very creative ways. Podcasts may be produced by teachers and students. A radio show could be created. It could be a weekly production which parents could download at home to learn about class news and learning projects. There was an example given of students who read poems on a podcast. Parents and others commented on the individual poems. Students could interview senior citizens or soldiers for Remembrance Day services or history projects. Teachers could narrate labs or the methods for an art class. Then students could follow along step by step with the narration and only ask for help if they are stuck. School divisions could promote the schools in their district through podcasts for each school. When a parent clicked on the name of the school on the city map, the principal would narrate a brief description of the school. All of these are ways in which students and teachers can create their own podcasts for various purposes.

Students and teachers may listen to podcasts. This would be the receptive use of podcasts. When I was looking through the lists of podcasts available at indiepodder.org, it was amazing the variety available. Under Ocean, there were podcasts available on the Warm-hearted Tuna and on Wind Energy at Sea. There were 50 different podcasts under Health--lots for exercising which is something I need right now (too much sitting at the compute

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r exercising only my fingers). There was one podcast about touring August's evening sky--viewing the heavens (how's that for a "location-specific, activity-specific, and context-specific" [Webster, 2009] podcast?). I could see my husband downloading that podcast and taking it with him to listen to while going out of the city to watch the Perseid Meteor shower in August. One last use of podcasts would be to download audio books for students who are struggling readers. At my school towards the end of the year, the school purchased some I-Pods and subscribed to some online book services so that readers in Grade 5 to 8 could listen to the books that they were struggling to read.

Webster (2009) suggests some important considerations for podcast creators. He suggests that podcasts need to be portable, something you can take with you and play anywhere, not only on a desktop computer. He says, "Location-specific, activity-specific and context-specific content opens up all kinds of creative programming and revenue opportunities." (Webster, 2009) My idea of a walking tour on a podcast would be location-specific, activity-specific and context-specific. I came across a podcast on geocaching. My husband and daughter have both gone geocaching (going on a modern day treasure hunt with GPS coordinates and clues). What if your geocaching podcast gave you more clues as you needed them? These podcasts would need to be portable.

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Webster (2009) also suggests that podcasts should be original content that cannot be obtained anywhere else. He decries those media outlet that repackage the goods and ship them out in a podcast. I found many of those podcasts at the ITunes site (ABC News, ESPN, The Economist). Webster says that original would be "anything you can think of that won't fly as broadcast, mass-appeal content that nevertheless has a place with passionate sub-groups of your audience." As I looked over the indiepodder.org site (same as podcastalley.com), I discovered so many of those niche broadcast sites. Under Food, there were many podcasts designed for those who brew their own beer or wine. On both ITunes and indiepodder, there were many language learning podcasts under Education. In some ways, podcasts by subscription can be like radio on demand. People can design their own playlist and mix and match their listening content.

This brings me to Webster's (2009) next point about podcasts. He believes that they should be discrete, short segments of content that you can remix in any order. "Bite-sized, easily digestible content chunks allow the podcast listener/viewer to create their own 'playlist' of content." One reader of Webster's blog post disagreed with him about having short segments. On May 21, 2009, Nashville commented on Webster's (2009) blog that, "The differential advantage of podcasting over broadcasting is this 'long tail' effect; the fact that someone, somewhere, shares your passion, no matter how obscure, and is willing to be a conduit for information and entertainment related to it."

Webster's (2009) last point about podcasts was that they need to be compelling and of great interest to someone (or a large enough group of someone's). Usually independent providers of podcasts are knowledgeable experts or passionate, opinionated communicators. "As blogging gave the anonymous, the famous, the almost-famous, and the used-to-be famous a voice in politics, religion, and everyday life, podcasting adds volume and tone to that voice." (Morris, Tomasi, & Terra, 2008)

In a previous blog post, I discussed my adventures with producing my own podcast. Today I explored the world of podcasts created by others. I spent time at two sites: indiepodder.org (same as podcastalley.com) and I-Tunes. I found that indiepodder.org was more user friendly and faster. It also seemed to have more of the niche programming and radio-on-demand which I expected of podcasting. I tried downloading and then playing one item. It did not work. However, when I saved it and then played, it did work. I liked the descriptions of the programs so that I did not waste time going in to look at programs that I did not like. There were many travel programs which I could see working well for those going to a specific destin

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ation. (Actually, that would work well for going to a museum with a class on a field trip. The teacher could listen to a podcast ahead of time to remember all the information to tell the class.) There were a few on going to Disney World. The PC/MAC Smackdown looked like an interesting podcast.

Then I discovered that I could play and listen right from the site. I could also subscribe to the podcasts I wanted to listen to regularly.

Lastly I tried out the I-Tunes store. It advertises itself as a digital media player which allows one to store, organize, and play digital, music, and audio files. It took about 20 minutes to download. It was rather scarey since my security system kept popping up boxes asking for my permission many times throughout the entire download process. Hopefully I am not endangering my system by downloading I-Tunes. When I finally got into it, I found it much more commercial (after all it is owned by Apple) although it had lots of free things too. As I mentioned earlier, many of the podcast providers were media outlets that were repackaging content in a different format.

Just before I sign off for the night, I want to mention a book (unread as yet) which I borrowed from the library this week. It is the book The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis. Apparently he wrote the book and peddled it to many publishers. When everyone turned him down, he began to present it, chapter by chapter, in a podcast. When this was well-received, Terry self-published his novel. In 2008, his novel won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour.

After seeing this book, I told my husband that I want to write a book--about the early history of Saskatoon-a collection of true stories and

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vignettes for children. I would present it in a podcast and then see where it goes from there. I think that doing that podcast on Friday night has given me a new appreciation for the power and potential reach of these tools I am learning to wield. I'm also seeing the enjoyment there could be in teaching others to use these tools, too. Now if I could only find a tool box big enough to carry all these tools properly.


References:
Carter, Dennis (2009). Podcast trumps lecture in one college study. Posted on E-School News, March 6, 2009. Link: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=57612

Fallis, T. (2007). The best laid plans. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.

Morris, T., Tomasi, C., & Terra, E. (2008) Podcasting for Dummies, 2nd Edition. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing.

Webster, T. (2009). The future of podcasting. In The Infinite Dial blog. Online on May 15, 2009.
http://www.infinitedial.com/2009/05/the_future_of_podcasting.php

From Zero to Hero in less than a day

On Friday morning I did not know what a podcast was. I wrote my panicky post about snap or snow peas (in a pod?). Then I got down to business. By 1:00 a.m. I had created a podcast and uploaded it to my blog. I'm really not much of a hero since I had lots of help along the way. So what was the process that I went through to figure out this new web tool.

First of all, I read our textbook (Richardson, 2006) to see what Will had to say. I felt so much better when I realized that a podcast was like a radio show. I understand radio. When I was a little girl living in southern Saskatchewan, my parents had an old radio similar to the one in the picture. (House on the corner image, Flickr) My parents loved to listen to the news, especially on CBC radio. What I liked best was the children's radio show that came on every morning after breakfast. We didn't have a television (my parents didn't think it was good for kids) so I got my media fix by sitting listening to the show with its songs and stories every morning before I went out to play on the swing or see-saw outside. I don't know the name of the show and my parents are both gone so I can't ask them.

A little later, when I was entering my teen years, I discovered that there was music o

Frank Sinatra via last.fm

n the radio (not just the classical stuff my parents listened to). The first song I fell in love with was by Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy "Somethin' Stupid Like I Love You". This song was a hit in 1967. I found a You Tube video of the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdSER1tvPTQ&feature=related

I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that podcasting was "the creation and distribution of amateur radio" (Richardson, 2006, p. 112). As I went through the Trailfire videos, I realized that it was relatively simple--you needed a way to record audio; you needed to change that audio file into an MP3 file; you needed space on a server to store the MP3 file; you needed a blog to post the podcast to; and lastly, it was helpful to have something to say.

Since I usually have something to say, I started thinking about what I should do with my podcasting power. At first I thought that I could sing harmonies with a CD that my sister, Dorothea, had recorded five years ago. However, that day, besides working on this class, I was trying to finish up a project that was four years old. That project was the Caswell Homes project. Over four years ago, I was teaching in a gifted education class at the Caswell Community School. The Caswell Hill neighbourhood is one of the older neighbourhood's in the

Image by PatTorfe via Flickr

city of Saskatoon. As I was driving through the neighbourhood, I noticed once again how beautiful many of the homes were. I thought, "My new Grade five students next year should research some of these beautiful homes". I got a committee of senior citizens together--those who knew a lot about the neighbourhood. With their help, I selected 25 homes (one for each of my students). The homes had to be old or beautiful or have a story to tell. All were built between 1908 and 1929. Gordie Howe lived in one home. A streetcar crashed into one home. An elderly man was murdered in one home. My students used Henderson Directories to discover who had lived in each house throughout its history. Then they uncovered stories related to the houses or someone who had lived in the houses. One student told the story of the Tidy Diaper Service. Another told the story of a homeowner/dairy farmer who watered down his milk with water from his contaminated well. Ten people contracted typhoid fever and he was charged with a crime.

At one point in this entire process, a community member asked me to rewrite the Caswell Hill walking tour using stories from these houses. I never had time to do this.

Last Friday, I was finally going around to all of the houses from this research project to deliver a final report. The report included a database giving all the dates with the homeowners for each house. Students had interviewed community members and neighbours to uncover stories about the houses. The stories for each house were included in the report.

After walking around the neighbourhood to deliver the reports, those stories and the walking tour idea were in my thoughts on Friday evening as I wondered what I could say on a podcast. Blink, the lights went on--why not make a walking tour podcast? In fact, I could see this as something very workable as a real project. Next year, Caswell School is celebrating its 100th Anniversary. Possibly I could organize five mini-walking tours which would fan out from the school. People could download the podcasts for each tour and listen to the podcast at each house. (You can tell that I get carried away with ideas quite often. I figure that, as Howard Hendricks said long ago, "If [I] want somebody else to bleed, [I need] to hemorrhage." [1973, p. 46])

That evening I began working on making a podcast. One difficulty I encountered was that this was the first web tool for which I needed to use new hardware. (I'm not good with the hardware--where to plug things in, etc.) I needed a microphone to hook up to my computer. I called on my husband and my daughter who helped get a microphone working for me. Then I recorded my first podcast and saved it on my hard drive. Richardson (2006) suggested downloading Audacity which I did. On the Audacity site, it suggested downloading Lame to turn my file into an MP3 file. I did all of this but then ran into difficulties uploading my MP3 to the internet. I went to the OurMedia.org site but after filling in the registration form, was left hanging in cyberspace for a long time. I turned to Google for help. When I typed in MP3 and upload, I was given many choices for additional help. I quickly realized that it was difficult if not impossible to upload MP3 or audio podcasts into blogger. It would be easier if I had a blog through wordpress which allows the user to upload podcasts. I came across a very complicated way in which I could attach my podcast to a picture and then upload the podcast as a vodcast or video file. It was very complicated plus I wanted to upload a podcast.

Then, thanks to Adam Taha's YouTube video called How to Upload Your MP3 on your Blogger or Wordpress Step by Step, I was able to upload my podcast directly into my blog. (Once again the collective wisdom of the internet comes through.) Adam recommended using divshare.com (which took the place of OurMedia.org). I was so pleased when my podcast was in place. I inserted two pictures of the houses that I talked about in the podcast and went off to bed (at 2:00 a.m.) delighted and feeling successful.

I can see why Richardson (2006) suggests creating a podcast and uploading it for yourself before asking your students to do it. It can be a very time-consuming and frustrating process. However, in the end, it is very satisfying to be able to create something personal in this way. I am tickled pink with my production.

References:
Hendricks, H. (1973). Say it with love. Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books.
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

Pods? Would that be snap or snow peas?

Image by tiny banquet committee via Flickr

I am officially scared. With all of the other Web 2.0 tools, I have had a vague idea about them.

Podcasts--no clue! I asked my 19 year old daughter about them and asked if I could borrow her I-pod (I think she has one). She said all I needed was I-tunes. This was very unhelpful since I think I-tunes are some form of downloadable music which I would need to pay for. I am a cheapskate. I hate to pay for anything if there is some other way I can access it. That's why I have appreciated all of the Web 2.0 tools thus far-----they have been FREE! So I am a little worried about this tool.