HASS

4.2

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this section on audio files and learning; the key reason why? It has fundamentally stimulated my thinking around ‘literacy’ for the 21^st Century. I often approached the ‘concept’ of contemporary multi literacies and digital literacies, perhaps with a little reticence, and perhaps placed it in the same basket as the tired old debate centred around ‘proper English’ and ‘English’ that one might hear in different contexts, such as ‘street’ English for instance; and whether the latter truly constitutes English. However, on reviewing the content, it becomes clear that ‘simply listening’ to a record should not be a one-dimensional approach to learning.

Equally, to my mind, it also presupposes the use of higher order thinking and critical thinking skills, these do not dissipate with the introduction of digital literacies; but in many ways can be enhanced.

It also forced me to reflect on my own High Schooling; and how often things such as ‘watching a video’, including the video ‘Shawshank redemption’ I recall myself and friends and class mates all talked about it for such a long time, and the meaning of it etc; I now reflect to think ‘what richness’ there were in our discussions. However, these occurred outside the classroom; and watching a video was almost framed as a ‘treat’, and from there we simply wrote independent assignments, answered prepared questions on the film independently (so many wasted opportunities).

Therefore, when reviewing this section of podcasting and audio; (and the number of links and articles) it really ‘hit home’ for me the importance of integrating audio as a legitimate ICT function into my pedagogy.

Reflecting again on the SAMR model;

Substitution:

Perhaps rather than students reviewing a text book on the Australian constitution, they listen to a podcast/audio from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Education Office.

Augmentation:

Students then record each other, disseminating and discussing the key ideas of podcast they just listened to. Students may prepare this in writing first, as a script to read from; that the teacher reviews.

Modification:

Students then engage an expert or a commentator and record their discussion on the Constitution.  This could be researched through the internet, such as news articles etc on the Australian constitution, relevant to a particular social issue. This could all be done on-line. Or they could engage a Member of Parliament, and ask them to record via audio their reflections on the importance of Australia’s Constitution (this could be done via voxopop for instance).

Redefinition:

Students then research a key Constitutional issue, that has been judged by the High Court. Students, once learning this, then record a ‘mock’ trial at court, meaning they have to write a script and ‘pull together’ their learnings, for one final court room scene on the Constitution. Indeed, another group of students, could be the media for the day ‘covering the story’ by audio (i.e. pretending to be an ABC journalist for instance).