"You can do it" philosophy
Profiles in Success: St Gerard Majella School
Cairns, Queensland: Founded by Franciscan Nuns in 1988, St Gerard Majella School (SGM) actively encourages its 450+ Prep-to-Year 7 students to push themselves academically, with a philosophy of “you can do it” extending across all areas of the curriculum. This is particularly evident in the area of Information Communication Technology (ICT) where over a 12-month period, podcasting has become almost a phenomenon within the curriculum.
For several years, SGM had been utilising Apple iLife to edit and share photographs with iPhoto, create movies using iMovie HD and even soundtracks with GarageBand. But it was a simple question put forward by the school’s IT Support Consultant, Milos Stillman, that resulted in what became a highly successful podcasting pilot.
SGM ICT Co-ordinator and Resource Centre Manager, Liz Phillips, explains: “When Milos saw what many of our teachers and students were accomplishing already, particularly in making movies with iMovie HD and iDVD, he asked quite pointedly why we hadn’t as yet explored podcasting.”
Setting the podcast stage
Her interest piqued, Ms Phillips brought together a group of Year 7 students, each of whom she knew full well would embrace the project enthusiastically, deliver a well-produced series of podcasts and thereby generate a degree of excitement within the school community.*
“That first project was completed entirely by the students, with a teacher providing some guidelines and minimal direction,” Ms Phillips says. “This demonstrated to everyone that podcasting is readily achievable with the equipment and resources we have on hand. That’s definitely one of the advantages of running a Mac environment. With the iLife suite, everything’s there for the students to create audio or video podcasts on virtually any subject.”
Quite aside from the fact that SGM’s Macs and iLife provided a total podcasting solution, what was immediately apparent to Ms Phillips was the enormous learning potential inherent in podcasting.
When a group of students work together on a podcast, there’s an enormous amount of collaborative learning taking place. Learning that goes beyond what can be taught in the traditional classroom environment. They are learning skills such as collaboration, expressing ideas and concepts verbally, and appreciating the ideas of others.
Importantly, it’s a constructive learning experience. Students are working on creative and engaging projects that facilitate learning across the Key Learning Areas enhancing literacy development.
We’re seeing students work on podcasting projects in their own time – using Macs in the library to research material, try out new ideas in graphics, preparing their scripts or just rehearsing prior to final recording. Essentially, it’s a clear demonstration of the fact that using ICT tools in a creative environment to showcase learning is much more effective than simply teaching IT for IT’s sake.— Liz Phillips, SGM ICT Co-ordinator and Resource Centre Manager
Next Page: Building on Mac and iLife ease-of-use