In my previous days as a classroom teacher, I was always looking for new ways to help my students become more independent in their learning. In addition, I wanted to be able to extend learning and provide appropriate support and scaffolding for all learners. One excellent way that today’s technology allows us to do this is through the use of audio.
Teaching with audio can take different forms in the classroom:
- Listening center in which students can read a book while listening to an audio tape or CD
- Animated stories with the text read aloud
- Students reading an article, blog or website where they can listen to the text being read aloud
- Students work independently on an activity in which they can listen to their teacher providing directions and/or scaffolding in his/her own voice
- The audio can be in the form of the student’s voice as he or she demonstrates their understanding of a topic.
- Student created podcasts, providing opportunities for peer-peer learning
- Students can listen to their own reading, which provides an excellent opportunity for self-reflection
Teachers created audio recordings also provide benefits for students in addition to those mentioned above: (Preston, 2009)
- Students can listen to a study guide in podcast form to review content later
- Assessment questions or directions read aloud can be replayed as many times as a student needs (without the teacher having to repeat themselves)
- Students listening to content prior to a lesson can allow for more discussion and practice time during class.
An excellent (and FREE) audio recording software program is Audacity. This software allows you to record and edit audio sounds, and also export them to different formats such as mp3 format. There are also audio recording features within software programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Pixie, and SMART Notebook.
Next posting I will discuss a few specific examples of use of audio use with students. Try integrating with Audio, it is a great tool to have in the teacher toolbox!
The Tech Integrator