Author: Stefanie Goyette
A group podcast project offers students an opportunity to combine new research with their learning from class discussion and previous assignments, to work with other students and create dialogue, and to present information to general audience. The project invites students to research and address a major analytical issue in a creative way – for example, looking at the effects of gender and class on the contrapasso in Dante through the format of a call-in radio show. As they create a podcast for an audience beyond their teacher and peers, they see the project as part of a larger public discussion rather than as confined to the class and destined to being forgotten. Such a project further enables students to learn a suite of tools and skills essential for new media communication: basic digital audio recording and editing; writing and editing for a blog; posting media to a website or hosting site; and being aware of and navigating copyrighted content, attribution, and Creative Commons licensing.
Podcasts offer a broad array of (usually) free content produced by diverse types of users, from the amateur or expert individual recording in a closet or bathroom to the professionally produced shows of WNYC Radio and BBC Radio. Podcasts from both ends of this spectrum can offer good models for student emulation. In my Cultural Foundations II course, which is themed around travel, students have taken as models the expert panel discussion programs “In Our Time” (BBC) and the lighter-hearted “Saga Thing,” as well as the silly (and now defunct) improv-based “Dead Authors Podcast.” Student groups also develop their own approaches, all typically featuring subject experts or various characters in the texts and poems we have read: radio call-in programs hosted by an author, like Chaucer or Dante; a chance meeting and heated discussion between some of the characters in our readings; a gossipy radio drive-time show; or broadcast judicial proceedings (in one case, a trial whose outcome is the condemnation of the Wife of Bath to Dante’s hell, and the sentencing determines her contrapasso).
The podcast nonetheless presents some particular difficulties: students must become familiar with basic recording and editing tools; be able to post to a public web page; be able to choose anonymity if they want to; and work effectively and efficiently as a group. The first few issues are easily solvable. I arrange a visit from NYU Ed Tech well before the due date to deal with technical issues. The assignment description and instructions for posting are highly detailed and guide students through the process with screenshots. Students may post with their names or with just initials, if they wish to be anonymous. The most important thing, in my view, is that the use of web tools and technology does not eclipse the value of the writing, research, and performance.
The final question, with regards to group work, recalls Bob Squillace’s post, “The Dreaded Group Project and How to Tame It,” on this blog from just a few weeks ago. As Bob suggests, I think that the key to “taming” a group project and decreasing anxiety is to assign specific roles. For the podcast project, students divide the roles thusly: each member is responsible for providing outside research and writing the dialogue for their specific character or role in the podcast. The group must work together to finalize their script. Technical tasks are divided as well: one student to record, one to edit, one to copyedit and proof the script, and one to post the audio and manage with the web page. This way, each student has a distinct role in the writing and research and in the creation of the podcast, but they must still learn to work together to write and to perform. I also provide self-evaluation forms after the project is complete, to allow students to talk narratively about their experiences, good and bad.
The podcast has been one of the most positively reviewed by students and effective assignments I have given over the past few years. Now in the second year of using it, I am able to address some issues that came up last time, e.g.. The main ones were: overproduction of the audio, which made hearing some of the podcasts difficult; issues with having enough time to meet and edit with groups (a perennial concern for busy students); finding space on campus with adequate equipment; and group size. These are all easily fixable, and I am looking forward to hearing the project’s results this time around – especially with some great student models to build on.