Creating podcasts out of actual World War II-era events
offers one example of a collaborative project that is propelling
students out of their textbooks and into the real world.
Jennifer Dorman was in a fix. Teaching ninth-grade US
history at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA, Dorman wanted to tap
into her students' interest in creating "something of value," she says, "not just
for their teachers, but something they could share with other students and people."
But that required something a conventional paper-based assignment could
not provide. It meant conceiving of a project that freed her students from their
textbook and allowed them to work together toward a finished creation.
Dorman's school district subscribed to Discovery Education's Streaming
and PowerMedia Plus; the two products provide classroom access to streaming
audio files such as speeches, music, and video images, which she knew
appealed to her students. The wheels began to turn. She created teams of
four or five students and had them each create a podcast that placed them in
the midst of pivotal moments in and around World War II, where they would
have to reenact and report on those events as if they were happening live.
"We discussed breaking news and how reporters interview
sources, and how they would have to talk to experts to get information,"
says Dorman, recalling the project from two years ago.
Today she works as a staff development facilitator for Pennsylvania's
Central Bucks School District. "Specifically, I wanted
them to imagine talking to experts with different viewpoints on
the event to force them to get different perspectives."
The idea was for the podcast to be what Dorman had once
heard characterized as "a breaking 'oldcast,' as opposed to a
The students had to choose from a list of World War II incidents
or backdrops that Dorman provided, which included the
front lines of Poland after the Nazis invaded, and the deck of the
SS St. Louis after President Franklin Roosevelt denied refuge to
Jewish passengers sailing from Germany. Every member on the
team had a role, such as playing the part of desk reporter, field
reporter, or eyewitness.
"In 21st-century classrooms, using technology
and analyzing and defending your position in
front of a group and working cooperatively
with others is where we're headed."
Dorman gave the students a full
class period to plan, brainstorm, and
conduct "interviews," making use of
the internet, library resources, and
their textbooks. In Discovery Education's
Streaming, she created a folder
of audio and video clips, images, and
articles. "My goal was to give them
raw material to work with, which they
were able to access with a student log-in," she says. "It gave
them background information to understand their event."
After the day of research, the class had one day to prepare a
script, practice it, and begin recording. A third day was provided
to finish the recordings and do any necessary editing. "For me
it was a time investment of three classes," Dorman says.
The recordings were made with Audacity, an open source
program from Source Forge. The program enables students
to add layers of sound effects or music to their audio file, and
then edit, rerecord, and trim it if necessary. The finished
podcasts were saved as MP3 files ranging in length from six
to 10 minutes.
Dorman says the students tried to inject authentic vintage
elements into their podcasts. For example, a lot of the teams
would have the reporter interrupt a musical program typical
of radio in that era with breaking news. One of the more
memorable podcasts, says Dorman, came from a group that
reported from London during the Blitz. What made the
production so interesting was that the students went beyond
the scope of the information provided in their textbooks,
interviewing people in a London subway train and a family
sheltering a Jewish child.
"This particular group touched on other topics besides the
bombing of Britain," Dorman says. "They were hinting about
other things like the Holocaust, and they used a lot of sound
effects, even using three or four piano keys to do the call sign
for the radio station they were reporting for."
While this wasn't the first time Dorman had her class make
podcasts-- they also create them throughout the year for
vocabulary reviews and to study for tests-- she calls this
her most creative use of the technology yet. It was a particularly
effective study tool in this case, she says, because the students
had invested so much creative energy and effort into the
podcasts that the work they put in sparked and sustained their
interest in learning history.
"As we got to the end of the unit, which was the last one of
the year, when kids are starting to be really tired of school,
they had their final exam," Dorman says. "The podcasts
provided something motivating, since the students got to listen
to them again to study for the exam."
Moreover, Dorman says her students were taken by some of
what they learned during the World War II unit. One event in
particular, she says-- Roosevelt's denial of asylum for Jewish
refugees aboard the St. Louis-- is not well covered in their
learning materials. "Through creating the podcasts, the
students were able to explore more details that didn't appear
in any great [length] in the textbook."
Getting Down to Business
Dorman's experience has much in common with that of most
K-12 teachers who have tried enhancing conventional textbook
teaching with the use of collaborative, technology-infused,
project-based learning. The approach produces new levels of
engagement and motivation among secondary students. Like
Dorman, Vicki Fuesz became a believer as a result of her effort
to find an assignment she could give her students that would be
more satisfying than the usual printed task, and one that would
require them to collaborate.
Plus, she had an additional obstacle. When Fuesz was hired
at Colorado's Haxtun High School a couple of years back,
she was asked to teach an Introduction to Business class to her
school's 22 freshmen. Trouble was, she was a history teacher.
Fuesz decided to try a paper-based simulation activity so
her students could learn how to run a business. She had little
success. "The kids didn't like it and I didn't like it,'' she says.
The students would become discouraged when some of
their classmates were absent or didn't complete a task, such as paying off an invoice, which caused a slowdown in the whole
project. Fuesz also found herself constantly running off
papers for each of the student businesses.
"They didn't get to see the big picture," she says, "and even
though they were interacting…they didn't see how dynamic
it could be if they all worked together. It wasn't realistic and
didn't feel like the students were really playing the part."
So Fuesz went online in search of a computer-based program
to use the following year so her students could get hands-on
experience using different business components to run a
company. She became intrigued with an offering from Capsim
Management Simulations, a provider of business simulations and
business games for educational and corporate institutions. Fuesz
and Haxtun High's principal took a virtual tour of the product
and signed on that day. At a cost of $40 per account (now $44),
students received spreadsheets for inputting data, generating
results, and conducting analysis.
The students were separated into teams and put in charge of
operating a multimillion-dollar virtual corporation. They had
to decide how to manufacture, develop, market, and finance
their product-- electronic sensors to be used with devices like
cell phones, computers, cars, and airplanes-- analyzing important
data such as consumer surveys, their company's financials,
and the position of their competitors, before determining what
was the right course to take. The software generated the
results of the business moves they made and offered the students
the opportunity to probe the impact of their decisions.
"What they learned is the ability to analyze," Fuesz says.
"Your profit dropped by $1 million; how did that happen?
What can you do to improve results? The true learning
occurred from results that were generated from bad decisions.
They had to figure out what they could change." At the end of
the semester, a mock boardroom meeting was held, and each
team dressed up like businesspeople and gave a PowerPoint
presentation displaying their results.
The podcasts created by Jennifer Dorman's history
students can be seen at Gcast
Visitors to the site can access the completed projects
by registering for a free account.
Fuesz says she marveled at how adept her students became
at using business language, interpreting data, making strategic
decisions-- and behaving like true business leaders. She was
also struck by the conversations she would overhear among
her students as she walked around the classroom. "They were
being creative, learning to listen to their teammates who had
differing opinions, and problem solving. The program allowed
them to have immediate feedback. They could try different
scenarios and see the results of their decisions."
Fuesz, now back teaching history, came away with a strong
understanding of how collaborative projects and the use of
technology can dramatically charge up the learning process.
She says her students' enthusiasm for the project was due in great part to having the opportunity
to work in their comfort zone.
"Our kids grew up on computers
and they're not afraid of technology,
so to come into a classroom and play a game was fun," she
says. "They couldn't wait.
"In 21st-century classrooms, using technology and analyzing
and defending your position in front of a group and working
cooperatively with others is where we're headed."
An Outline for Success
Janet Fisher has long known the potential of software to engage
students in project-based classroom learning. For the past 12
years, the newly retired business teacher enlisted the help of
school supply company Mead's web-based mapping software,
Mead Map, which makes it easy for students to organize and
outline classroom projects, for use in collaborative activities in
her 11th- and 12th-grade marketing classes at Beavercreek
High School in Ohio.
The relationship started, she says, as a way for students to
participate in real-life marketing projects that Mead offers,
such as reviewing new features on book bags, binders, and
spiral notebooks. That interaction evolved into a project Fisher
assigned at the end of a marketing course last year. After
learning the basics of marketing and advertising, the students
broke up into teams of four, and each team decided on a
product to develop. The teams were required to do research,
design a marketing plan, and develop a sales strategy. As an
example, using Mead Map, one team plotted out plans for
developing a new tropical smoothie.
Fisher's students used the program to research and consider
such key business factors as consumer behavior, the demographics
of their target market, the strength of the competition,
and the plusses and minuses of their products. The software
provides a way to logically structure all the research notes,
arguments, and information that the students enter into the
system as they develop their product. "It brings a level of
structure and organization to any project work, or note taking
or brainstorming," Fisher says.
The program cultivates collaboration by allowing students to
log in individually and view the work of their fellow team
members as each plots data onto the group's expandable "map,"
or outline. According to Fisher, the students collaborated
almost entirely through the technology, even though they were
all in the same room physically. "That was one of the funny
things," she says. "Sometimes they'd be side by side, but they
communicated by computer."
In one case, one of the student team leaders sprained her
ankle and couldn't come to school for a few days, but she was
able to keep pace working remotely. Before software enabled
remote communication, Fisher says student absences would
wreak havoc on her team marketing projects.
Fisher says the program engages students by using digital
technologies to perform a conventional academic task. "My
students, being juniors and seniors, had all done term papers, so
they were used to research, but
always with pencil and paper.
[Mead Map] brought to life what
their generation is doing and
applied it in the classroom with a business application."
Fisher says that students commented on how easy the software
made the collaborative process. A chat feature allowed for
rapid information sharing, and the ability to access the system
from anywhere made it possible for team members to keep up
with one another's progress. She says students said that the
usually tedious process of outlining was actually made more
fun through communicating with their teammates.
One of the most important fundamentals her students learned
was how to work with others, Fisher says, which will serve them
well when they get into the business world. The project managers
took their jobs very seriously, she says, and didn't hesitate
to report on students who were slacking off on their research,
noting that the collaborative component of the mapping system
exposes students who don't pull their weight.
"One thing we struggle with in the classroom is how to make
each student accountable," Fisher says. "This was one way for
students to tell each other they noticed if someone wasn't doing
their part. Whereas before [those students] might think no one
would notice, now it's out there for everyone to see."
Any project-based, collaborative activity that incorporates
technology use creates a more powerful learning experience
than a standard lecture can provide, Fisher says. But she adds
that technology is not meant to be a substitute for traditional
methods, but instead to branch off of them. "Just like you have
to learn your math facts before using a calculator, once students
master basic marketing functions-- or whatever you're trying to
teach them-- the sooner you can get them using technology for
projects. It's much more engaging and current for students, and
it's what businesses are looking for."
If you would like more information on project-based
learning, visit our website at www.thejournal.com.
Enter the keywords project-based learning.
Esther Shein is a freelance writer based near Boston.
This article originally appeared in the 10/01/2008 issue of THE Journal.