New Initiatives Grant Final Report
“New Media: The Silent Generation”
Please provide a brief narrative explaining your project and its outcomes.
In the fall of 2019 we offered a new course titled, NEW MEDIA During our initial class meeting we surveyed students to understand what they wanted out of the course. Overwhelming they said: “we want an opportunity to express ourselves and we want to do it using a contemporary platform”.
Realizing that we had the visual piece covered with existing equipment we quickly combined forces and wrote the grant for audio technology to build a podcasting studio. The equipment arrived on Valentines day of 2020 and one month later our school was sent home for remote learning.
Although we could not use the equipment we purchased we did manage to persevere and conduct a multi-week podcast called Quarantine Bears. We turned to a free app and taught students podcasting skills including editing, interviewing, email etiquette for contacting guests, technology skills to set up a station, etc. The results for our class were fair but we had one student that took the ball and ran.
Our biggest obstacle has been and continues to be the remote learning environment. Our situation changes almost daily and it is incredibly difficult for students to manage and to align projects and schedules.
What is the most remarkable accomplishment or finding of your project?
We learned how much confidence this activity afforded students. If you were able to attend my talk at the annual conference you heard a snippet from a student that experienced podcasting from all angles. The message he share conveys that perfectly!
Please provide a brief summary of your evaluation activities and/or results, if available.
Our results are available for you to listen to on Spotify or the station we created through the Anchor app at: anchor.fm/chs-bears
Anything else you’d like us to know?
Mary Klucznik
Library Media Specialist, Chittenango High School
Are you interested in being our next New Initiatives Grant recipient? Check out the grant page for the rules & requirements!