Podcasting

For this post I was told I should go look for podcasts involving School Library Media topics. It took me a year and a day to find some, I probably wasn't looking in the right places, but I finally found one I thought was incredibly entertaining. It's a series of book talks posted by a librarian to this site <http://nancykeane.com/rss.html>. When I was listening to some of these talks I got an idea. Not only should I read some of these books because they sound great, but I came up with a project I could use with the students, if I ever make it into a school. See I happen to have access to a microphone that plugs into an iPod and allows you to record things and then transfer them directly to a computer when the iPod is plugged in. They are fairly cheap and easy to use. I figure that one of the best ways to get students to read is have their friends recommend books to them. The way I would use this would be to have students record their short reviews of books and then transfer them to a hard drive or computer for me to post either to the library website or my blog. This would get students creating their own media and motivating each other to read and find new books. I would, of course, send a permission slip home with the students so that I can get the ok from parents to post their childrens' voices online. If i understand correctly this would help with the media literacy component of the SLM core as well as partially fulfilling the implied mission of helping children develop a love for reading by introducing them to new books through their friends. I'm gonna have to look into other podcasts and find some more interesting information I might use someday, but I thought I'd share that idea with all of you.
Happy Reading!