Mrs. Matasovsky's Musings

Where to begin??  What strategies to take??

The research for my techquest was broken into three types of searches.  I began with broad strokes, using common search engines. I started with using many of the Boolean Methods such as Technology AND Writing.  I found most of these search engines provided other examples as well so I would try those.  I used three main sites; Yippy (formerly Clusty), Google and ask.com.  I have to admit that Google provided me with the most information on actual use of Digital Voice Recorders but at the cost of having to sift through tons of ads for the recorders themselves and product reviews.  I found that using + and – worked well.  Ask.com worked well with searching by natural language. 

The second section of research was heading to MSU’s electronic resources. I felt this would give me more research and fewer ads about actual devices.  I had used this extensively when researching my project for our 810 class.  Unfortunately, I did not have as much success this time around.  I found that this was too limiting to get many articles pertaining to writing.  I backed up to a more general term of educational technology.  This gave me too much information!  As I began to feel like Goldilocks, searching for the term that was “just right”, I found ProQuest.  This was one of my favorites in the MSU site. It gave me suggestions for topics I could try and allowed me to find ones that were full text versions, instead of just an abstract.  I narrowed in on Writing AND Technology and was able to view a couple articles this way.    

The third approach was going directly to some of my favorite technology sites and online magazines such as THE Journal and Tech&Learning. By this point, I had determined that I was very interested in using digital voice recorders so I started searching using that term.  While many articles would appear, very few actually dealt with using that device.  I entered “Digital Recorders” and was able to sift through many pages of information. 

Surprises/Bumps in the Road

My biggest overall surprise was that using digital voice recorders for the writing process has not been well documented, at least that I can find.  They seem to be used a great deal for teaching foreign languages and for ESL students.  Concerning the writing process, especially in the primary grades, there were a few classrooms that are using flip cameras and pursuing digital storytelling.  This is of real interest to me in the future but is not the solution for which I am looking.  This became a hindrance, or more aptly labeled, a distraction!  As with anything involving web 2.0 tools, it is easy to spend a lot of time reading and lose focus of on your end goal. 

Another disappointment was that using MSU’s electronic resources took the most time in narrowing search terms and locating relevant information.  I feel that it was not so much the resources the university is using but that digital recorders are not as popular.  Flip cameras in the classroom are really on the rise and provided some great ideas that I found on all of my searches.

Improvements for next time

While I feel that I used every search term and combination I could think of, I believe there is still more information to be found.  The biggest change that would need to be made is time itself.  Our classes for the edutech program are fast paced and there never seems to be enough time.  It is the reality of the world in which we live.  The positive side is that I have bookmarked several sites that I can come back to in the future! 

Research and Resource Results

Digital Voicerecording – Next steps in using ICT in the primary Languages classroom (Stevens, 2008)

This webinar by Lisa Stevens demonstrates ways that MP3 recorders to get students to think about the direction they want their writing to take and provides examples of how she has used podcasts as great source of motivation in her classroom.  She believes that getting the students work online, where it can be shared with others is a key in their development as readers and writers.  I appreciated how she said that the students work does not have to be “perfect,” the point is to give her students practice and an audience.  This is something I sometimes forget as a teacher.  Our human nature wants us to have the best work possible when we are showing it to parents.  Sometimes the parents need to see that work in progress, so they can see how far they’ve come!  She is using recorders for her primary grade students to practice foreign language, but this is similar to what we are doing in kindergarten.  They are just learning to write the English language and can benefit from recording their stories and editing them based on the feedback they receive from themselves and others.

Digital Voice Recorders Turn Students Into Interviewers (Ash, 2009)

Ash makes a great argument for using these in the classroom.  It helped me zero in on the specific area on which I wanted to focus… digital voice recorders.  “Because of their portable size, low cost, and ease of use, ed-tech experts say the new generation of digital voice recorders makes ideal classroom tools.” states Ash.  The article describes several ways that these could be used in the classroom such as:  interviewing for a report, recording a story then evaluating the content, fluency, etc. and even for repetition for ESL students.  I think that my kindergarten learners often can benefit from some of the techniques used with ESL- especially repetition!  The article describes what to look for when selecting the right model for your classroom.  It was helpful to get a teacher’s point of view rather than the typical salesman approach.  I did not realize that some models come with removable memory cards which would be great so the device could be passed from student to student without having to transfer the files immediately.  I found the article also brought up new ideas I had not considered, such as using them for podcasts.  Depending on the model and the file formats it uses, this could be great in sharing recordings of the students’ stories with their parents.

Digital Language Arts V: “When I Grow Up…” (Maxlow, 2009)

This is a blog that primarily focuses on using digital tools with high school students; I feel that it has many ideas that can be incorporated for use with any age. Mr. Maxlow identifies the problems his students have with being embarrassed about doing reports in the front of the class and his solution was to use audio recorders.  He states, “This is essential in getting them to become more and more expressive over time; they can re-record until they are satisfied with their tone, pronunciation, rhythm, and so on. Further, when they hear their own words read aloud, they are more likely to go back and edit for greater clarity, and, as appropriate, different rhyme schemes.”   In another post of this blog, Stretching Limited Resources, he has some great common sense approaches to the problem many of us feel…there is never enough money!  He describes ideas for scheduling time with the technology, free versions of software and solutions to finding the right hardware.   He suggests the idea of using the computers (or this could be digital recorders) as a center or station in your classroom.  This supported the idea that I felt worked well in my own classroom. 

The next two blogs are referencing Kathleen Holton who has been conducting projects with DVR’s at her school in Flintshire, Wales.

Kathleen Holton on digital voice recorders, blogs, wikis, mind maps, e-portfolios and peer assessment (Dale, 2009)

Joe Dale blogs about Kathleen Holton, a teacher from Flintshire and her uses of digital voice recorders in the classroom.  This site contains the link to the MP3 interview with Ms. Holton.  Some points that she makes about her findings were very interesting.  She had difficulty with her female students being shy in front of the class, so to work around that, she had the girls’ record themselves out in the hall.  I had the opposite problem in my classroom this year.  My boys were the ones who did not like to get up and speak, were embarrassed to write stories and hated to draw.  She suggests putting the students recordings on the interactive white board and then the whole class can listen and give feedback.  This could be a very useful tool when we first start out with the writing projects.  I could demonstrate to the whole class what happens after we listen to the recording and show them how they can hear themselves and write out their words.  Joe Dale has a nice outline of this interview on the blog, for those who don’t want to listen to the whole thing. 

Using Digital Voice Recorders in the Classroom (Salt, 2008)

Amanda Salt’s blog contained a recap of another one of Kathleen Holton’s workshops on using DVR’s in the classroom.  Some more practical tips include recording the teacher’s corrections so that students can use these corrections when they are revising their work.

Digital Voice Recorders Lesson Plans

Digital Wish has lesson plans as part of their website.  This is a fantastic resource, especially if you are new to these devices, like me, and are not sure what you want to do with them or what else they could be used for.  When funding is being considered for a project, we are often asked of all the potential uses the device could have.  This site gives many ideas for grades K-12.

Case Study: Using Flip Cameras in Primary Education

This case study was conducted at Manor Green Primary School in Denton, UK.  While the purpose was to study the use of flip cameras in retelling a familiar tale, they were using the flip cameras so that the students could see themselves as they performed the story.  They were focusing on expressions, fluency, tone and pitch.  While I am primarily focused on the writing aspect with my class, this study is similar in that as the students gain experience in reading, I want them to practice their fluency and expression as well.  This study also brought up some problems with having too many students recording in the same room.  This is something I need to keep in mind when using recorders with my class.  The advantages that the school saw by using Flip cameras were similar to what I have heard about the digital voice recorders…they are small and easy for students to handle.  The recordings can transfer through USB cables and be accessed immediately for the students and finally, that this brought some new life to storytelling for the students.  I especially liked that this study found the students discussing how certain characters should sound, such as Father Bear should have a deep voice because he is older and larger.  This level of deep thinking is something I strive for in my classroom.

Bibliography

Ash, K. (2009, July 13). Digital Voice Recorders Turn Students Into Interviewers. Retrieved July 2010, from Education Week’s Digital Directions: http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/07/16/04recorders.h02.html

Dale, J. (2009). Kathleen Holton on digital voice recorders, blogs, wikis, mind maps, e-porfolios and peer assessments. Retrieved from Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom:: http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2007/09/kathleen-holton.html

Maxlow, J. (2009, June 3). Digital Language Arts V: “When I Grow Up…”. Retrieved July 2010, from Digital Language Arts: http://digitallanguagearts.net/2009/04/14/digital-language-arts-v-when-i-grow-up/

Salt, A. (2008, November 6). Languages and Learning . Retrieved July 2010, from http://amandasalt.blogspot.com/2008/11/using-digital-voice-recorders-in.html: http://amandasalt.blogspot.com/2008/11/using-digital-voice-recorders-in.html

Stevens, L. (2008). Digital Voicerecording- Next steps in using ICT in the primary Languages classroom. Retrieved July 2010, from Slideshare.com: http://www.slideshare.net/lisibo/digital-voicerecording-next-steps-in-using-ict-in-the-primary-languages-classroom