Using Technology to Boost Children's Speaking and Listening Skills

Clayton, Ellie. "Using technology to boost children's speaking and listening skills." Children & Young People Now 2/5.85866514 (2013): 35. Print.


This article focused on a primary school in London which utilized Audioboo to work on student speaking and listening skills. Teachers created a listening/speaking program and found that students were very capable of analyzing and improving their own speech, particularly when they knew their speech was going to be recorded. They noted that students could be adept at identifying and correcting their speech errors when recording their voices.

Students first made unrehearsed recordings about themselves, then identified any errors such as stuttering and hesitation, and then made a second recording. The second recordings were always smoother because students felt more confident as well as motivated to make a better recording. Teachers felt the experience was good for building student self esteem.

Student recordings were uploaded to the Audioboo website, thus being shared with families and the community at large. Teachers also noted that this was an aid to building a better home-school connection. The project culminated with an exhibition of the project attended by parents, students, and members of the community including the mayor.

I can relate to the positive comments made by the teachers in this article. I, too, have found that students are extremely motivated to produce a fluent reading when they are being recorded, and they need no urging to improve a recording if there are errors. This is such a wonderful example of real world learning. Students are not just reading aloud to their teachers, they are sharing their thoughts about something with a much larger community. When students record their thinking, suddenly there is a more practical need for fluency because being understood is an important life skill.

During Library Tech Week, I recently helped students make Audio Boo recordings of a book review they wrote. We used QR codes generated from these codes to stick on the books themselves. The Librarian and I were thrilled with the excitement level students had over this project.  But this article reminded me of the importance of sharing work like this with family members at home! I now plan to share these Audioboo links with teachers who can post them on classroom websites or in weekly emailed newsletters with parents. I also bookmarked this site on some classroom laptops so students could listen to each others recordings as well.

Podcasting in Education

Audio boo is a wonderful podcasting tool and one that many teachers are embracing. Its free, and quite easy to make and post a recording. Podcasts, or radio shows, as Wes Fryer prefers them to be called (easy to understand and not too technical sounding), are a great way to showcase student thinking.

Students can do research and then explain what they have learned about a topic in a podcast. The fact that many people can listen to a podcast makes it exciting and relevant for students. Its only natural to be interested in the feedback from others, and posting a recording like this provides a much broader audience. Students can take a photo of their work and explain the process they went through to create it, or they can record themselves reading a story, etc.,  and then share this with others. Kristen Ziemke, in a webinar about Comprehension and Technology, showed her first grade book clubs making recordings of their conversations. This way she can spend time with one group yet still find out at a later time what students are thinking and saying about their book.

Podcasts are also a great way to explain something new to colleagues. I created the podcast below in an effort to document the process we are going through to teach students how to read images. The next step will truly be to have students do such a podcast to show what they are thinking!


Reading Images Podcast

Tall Tale Radio Comes to 4th Grade

4th grade students studied Tall Tales this year. Each group created a script for a radio broadcast of a tall tale of their choice. Students had a couple of practice rounds before recording. They were enthusiastic and focused during this project. Not only did they learn about this genre, they genuinely seemed to enjoy the process. The act of recording their voices for a potentially broader audience motivated them to do their best work. Links for each podcast were posted to the teacher's website. Below is one sample that I uploaded to Audio Boo.

Tall Tale Radio

Finkel, E. (2012). Flipping the Script in K12. District Administration, 48(10), 28-30,. 

Summary

This article talks about the number of  flipped classrooms taking off over the past five years. In flipped classrooms, students watch videos of their teacher teaching at their leisure and then work on projects and homework during class time. Although some are still skeptical about this untraditional "flipped" model, teachers who are using this model report that student achievement and engagement has soared. This approach allows students who need more processing time to listen to videos at their own rate, feeling free to rewind as necessary and get help directly from the teacher the next day in class. Teachers end up having more time to help struggling students with this model, whereas other students are free to explore ahead and seek greater challenges when they have mastered new material quickly. No longer do teachers try to cover material whole class, keeping everyone on the same topic at once. Students proceed at their own rate. 

For students who lack an internet connection at home, teachers try to offer alternatives such as lessons on thumb drives or DVDs. One school lets students check out laptops with DVD players from the library. Other schools allow students to watch teacher videos during class. Flipped learning does not have to look a particular way, but in order for it to be successful students must also take ownership of their learning. Some teachers are fearful of embracing a new teaching model. Most teachers who are teaching this way have at least 7 years of experience; its important to be extremely comfortable with the material you are teaching. Naturally its easier when teachers collaborate and can share videos and resources. The article mentions that students seem to prefer their own teacher making the videos, although sites like Khan Academy , Atomic Learning, and Ted Ed can provide supplemental material. The early pioneers of the flipped classroom encourage administrators and districts not to micromanage, and stress that giving teachers autonomy to meet student needs will yield the best results. 

Reflection/Application:

It is probably a sign of the times that the concept of flipped classrooms seems a little passé now! Yet  there is ample opportunity in my own district for more teachers to undertake this.Flipped classrooms embody the "guide on the side" style of teaching.  It seems more prevalent at the middle and high school level, yet I know this works with primary students as well. This week I helped a 1st grade teacher make a video of her reading test questions out loud, and then I showed her students how to access the video on an iPad, press pause after listening to the question, and then they would write the answer on their paper. The classroom teacher and I were so impressed with how focused students were, how a few students didn't need the recording, although  most did; some rewound to listen to things twice. This gave me a glimpse of how powerful teacher videos can be because they allow students to be more in control. I also appreciated learning that although tech positions are critical to successful flipping, districts with less income are getting around the digital divide by using thumbdrives, DVDs, etc. 

Professional Learning Networks Designed for Teacher Learning

Trust, T. (2012). Professional Learning Networks Designed for Teacher Learning. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 28(4), 133-138.

Summary

This article talks about PLNs, Professional Learning Networks, specifically for teachers. PLNs allow teachers to connect and learn from  other teachers all over the world. Teachers share their collective wisdom in these forums, find resources, provide support and advice to each other, as well as chances to collaborate with one another.  The author emphasizes that teachers must model for students collaboration with others, continual learning and studying of best practices.  PLN's can take two forms, information aggregation such as following other educators via blogs and websites, or by using social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Three popular PLNs that combine information aggregation and social media are described in detail: Edmodo, Classroom 2.0, and The Educator's PLN. 

Although all three of these PLNs were mentioned positively, the author seemed to highlight Edmodo in particular for its streamlined layout, large membership numbers, 6.5 million, and its ability to let teachers create groups for their classes. Teachers are also notified of discussions and posts through their email, they dont have to be logged on to Edmodo. 

The author notes that utilizing PLNs shows "adaptive expertise," which allows teachers to be flexible and thrive despite changes they face. Reflective teachers continually improve their craft, and participating in PLNs greatly enhance this practice.

Reflection/Application

This article was helpful to read, and quite timely! I have been fairly good about staying abreast of things in the educational world by reading weekly newsletters and blogs, articles, etc. To a lesser degree I have done the same with ed tech topics. But I have not been using social media to tap into collective wisdom, ask questions, problem solve, exchange resources. And I just always thought Edmodo was for students! I didn't realize there was this whole teacher focused dimension/community to it.  Amy touched on this aspect of Edmodo in one of her postings, and explained that this existed...so reading this article now comes at the perfect time. 

I was also pretty struck by the "adaptive expertise" points, how these social communities can really help a teacher's practice improve. Because you have the ability to ask questions and also learn about other teachers struggles and findings, its only logical that this would promote professional   growth. I'm already wondering about how I can share this information with our teachers at my school. I need to participate in a PLN myself first, although perhaps giving everyone a copy of the article would be a place to start. 

How to use technology to connect your students to a larger world

Schachter, R. (2011). Kid2kid Connections: How to Use Technology to Connect Your Students to a Larger World. Instructor. 120(5), 46-52.

Summary

This article details six ways the elementary school teacher can utilize technology in the classroom in order to connect students to broader communities to both share and gain knowledge. The technology tools mentioned include iPads, EdModo, Twitter,  SmartPhones, Skype, and Shutterfly. All of the sites and applications mentioned are free. The article used as examples a 5th grade class in New York and a 3rd grade class in Oregon where the students are using iPads every day.  Students in these classes are connecting with classrooms as far away as Korea and Brazil. More instructional time is being used; for example, students use a quick two minute math app to refresh their skills as they transition from a class to recess. Students are excited to share Keynote addresses and other projects they have created, one principal noting that this kind of excitement is something new due to the empowering capabilities of technology. 

EdModo is described as a tool that allows students to comment safely on uploaded content as well as enable them to make friends in the process. Teachers read what students have posted and encourage them to think deeper. They also note the enthusiasm students have for this forum, which makes learning enjoyable. A third grade class in Virginia has a Twitter account for tweeting about field trips, books, and what they have learned. A tech coordinator shares that she is always on the lookout for new ideas from both students and teachers via Twitter. 

At two Catholic schools in Ohio, students grades 3-6 use their cell phones (with texting/voicing turned off) to beam problems to each other in math and then beam back the answers. One writing teacher has a student start a story and then beam it to another, and one by one the entire class adds their own sentence to the story. These teachers noted that work tends to be more student centered, and quieter students are able to participate more fully with SmartPhones. A school in Birmingham regularly uses Skype to talk to other students from K-2, allowing them to share things unique to their natural environment like a cotton tree seedling or handful of red dirt, things which classrooms in other regions have never seen before. Other classes use it to converse with authors. A site is included where teachers can go to find other classrooms and the topics they want to  Skype about. Students first create questions on index cards in advance of the author conference, so each student can ask a question. A stand up microphone for students was also recommended for the Skype call. 

Still another classroom created alphabet photo books, taking pictures of each letter, uploading them to Shutterfly, and creating a digital book online. The librarian then ordered a hardcopy of the book for the school library. 

Reflection/Application

Coming from a school outfitted with a good supply of iPads and Mac laptops, all of these technologies could be implemented. Using the smartphones in the classroom is a good idea with older students, but not every primary student has a phone. What is being done with smart phones--beaming problems and solutions, creating a class story--these are indeed activities that we could do at our school right now in other ways, via Air Drop or Google Drive on the iPad, for example. 

I really love the idea of students bringing their device on a field trip and sharing what they have discovered before they have even arrived back at school. At some point on the field trip you could build in time for kids to reflect on what they are seeing and learning. 

 I took part in a Chicago Foundation for Education study group last year, on implementing technology in the K-2 classroom. The group leader, a phenomenal preschool teacher at Burly Elementary in Chicago, frequently used Shutterfly in her class, not only for creating picture books, but also for sharing a private forum complete with a calendar, messages, and photos for parents. This article brought that all back to me...and I have emailed our librarian and a 2nd grade teacher the Shutterfly section of this article to talk to them about it. We are working on a book club project, and I am thinking at the very least we could take pictures and create a picture book about the process, or we could have a group of students do this! Even better! I plan to share Shutterfly with faculty this Thursday.  I get five minutes to share a tech topic, and this is very worthy.  Re: EdModo, I appreciated one teacher's comment about kids feeling safe and social in this forum, as well as her responsibility to push their thinking deeper. I am helping a class utilize EdModo in February and am very excited about it! Re: Twitter, I like the idea of a whole class account. I did create a Twitter account for myself when I got my job--I noticed my other two counterparts both had Twitter handles as part of their email signatures. So I have an account, but I am not fully utilizing it. This article reminds me that as my school's tech specialist, I need to get more comfortable with Twitter so I can share its benefits with interested teachers as well as stay abreast and connected in the ed tech world!