Technology Project Summary

April 4, 2008

Question:

• If the cassette stories were put on line on the school website, would the students access them?
This question was then revised to:
• If the cassette stories were put onto CD’s, would the students sign the book and CD out of the library?
Now – putting them on the school website is a possibility and I’m back to the first question.

Of course, this also prompted other questions, such as:
How many of our families have computers and internet access?
What impact would this ability to listen to stories at home have on our ESL students and our struggling readers?
What about stories that have AR quizzes?
Should I try to buy audio versions of our Punjabi stories and make them available?
What about copy write concerns?

Summary:

My ESL partner, my principal and I were talking about ESL and oral language at the Rojas workshop. I brought up about the large number of stories that we have that also have a cassette tape version of them. Since cassette players are not readily available, and the tapes usually look like spaghetti after the students have used them a few times, we came up with this idea - transferring the cassette stories to the computer so that we can make them available in the classroom and at home, without needing to play the cassette. Having the stories, especially some of the dual language books, available to the students at home, should help with their home reading. They can sign out the book and then have the computer read to them instead of needing to rely on someone in their home to read it aloud. If the stories have an AR quiz, the students can check the box that indicates that they have had the story read to them. I would need to create a list that shows the students the stories that have an AR quiz.

This is the thought process / learning curve that I went through:

1. The issue of copy write was discussed. Marilyn Tamblyn submitted input on this topic and we decided that it would be best if I went to the CD format to avoid potential difficulties. Shelley also said that she was looking into the copy write issue.

2. Using the circulation computer, I found out that there were at least 70 kits to work with. This project is going to require a lot of TIME in order to record all of these cassettes onto the computer.

3. For my November Pro-D, Shane Hipwell showed me how to record the stories using GarageBand. I felt really successful when I came back the next week, read my notes and was able to record another story. Doing this means that I need to stay close to the computer, as the stories are recorded in real time. For 70 plus stories, that’s a lot of minutes!

4. At Christmas, I bought my husband an USB turntable that captures audio from vinyl or cassettes and keeps it in an MP3 format. It includes the software so that I don’t have to use GarageBand etc. but can go directly to the MP3 format.

5. For the February Pro-D, Shane gave a group of us a workshop on iPhoto and answered any digital or audio questions that we had. I’ve been hearing a lot about the uses of ipods and find myself distracted and wanting to explore them as well.

6. On April 7th, Gary is offering a Digital Audio workshop for any of the Dormick Park staff who are interested, besides me.

7. The newest word is that there will be a Digital Audio link to Dormick web site so that only our students will be able to access this area and that the stories will be available there. This is possible through having a password website for our school community that is hosted and stored on Gary’s server.

My biggest difficulty in following through with this project has been TIME. Adjusting to being in 2 new schools after 18 years of being at Bakerview has taken its share of my time. The amount of time needed to transfer the stories to the computer has been daunting and I’ve not done very many of them. At first, I needed to do the work in the lab, as that was where I had access to an eMac, which I needed in order to be able to do this work. I also had to choose times when I wouldn’t interfere with the classes, since the recording levels were muted but could still be heard. Once I got my own eMac in January, I was able to do the recording in the privacy of my office.

When I get all of the stories recorded, I will need to organize how they are presented, either CD or web site and what information is needed for the students to best utilize this resource.

I’ve learned that mantralingua.com has CD’s that have a story that is told in several different languages and I can purchase them through sainbooks.com. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many that offer Punjabi as a choice and that is the one that I need the most.

I am also thinking of surveying the families to see how many have computers and internet access. In order to check on the impact my project has had on the ESL students and struggling readers, I could learn how to do a podcast interview.

Future goals:

• How to take any story from the library and be able to read it aloud and show the pictures so that it can be accessed through our web site?
• Using what I learned above to make my ESL materials (stories, poems etc.) available to the students when they are away from the school by creating my own web site?
• To get some ipods for my own use so that I can explore with my ESL and LA students all of the ideas that I have heard about from the TLN blog and from others.