IPods Fast Becoming New Teacher's Pet

To make a podcast on the Revolutionary War, Sanborn had her students spend a couple of weeks researching their material in books and on the Internet before shaping it into a script. They were graded on the written script, but what really motivated them, Sanborn said, was the hope that their work would be chosen for the 8 1/2 -minute podcast.

For the vocabulary segment, a boy did the word "bayonet." For the time-travel feature, another performed as a town crier, condemning King George's tyranny. Sanborn was especially impressed with the way they came up with their own jokes on such topics as the Constitution.

"You really have to understand the material to figure out a joke about it," she said.

Teachers are also finding other uses for portable music players in the classroom. In Carrollton, Tex., near Dallas, kindergartners are taking loaner iPods home to practice their vocabulary words, and English as a Second Language students are using them to practice English. Another Virginia school, Long Branch Elementary in Arlington, also plans a podcast program focused on its students who are learning to speak English.

Podcasting, it turns out, is also well-suited for keeping busy parents in touch with the world their children inhabit all day at school. All they have to do is program their computers to capture the broadcasts -- which could range from school announcements to plays to basketball games -- and they can then listen to them on their desktop computer or download them to a portable player.

"This idea is so great: I can hear what my daughter is doing and we can tell her grandparents, and they can hear it where they are," said Alison Pascale of Arlington, whose daughter Kalyn McNulty, 10, is one of the Jamestown podcasters.

Gagliolo has high hopes that it will flourish at her school. So far, she has found the technology easy to master and "simpler and cheaper" than making student videos. For most of the recordings she and a half-dozen students made at a recent session, they used a $40 snap-on microphone accessory, plugged into the school's iPod. (They hope to get more iPods so student-podcasters can make reports from throughout the school.)

The toughest part was getting the best possible sound quality from the youngsters, which sometimes meant doing it over and over again. Dalai Saruul, 10, spoke in a whisper when he first read his poem: "Calibur stands 1 foot, 1 inch. He is said to be tall for his age. He is as strong as a rhinoceros beetle and is a kung fu master. . . ."

"You have to speak up," said Mohamed El-Sayed, holding the microphone out to Dalai. "Quiet on the set!" Kalyn yelled. (That meant that Frank Painter, 10, had to stop eating pretzel mix so loudly.) After a few takes, Dalai's voice grew stronger, a better match for his poem's subject.

Finally, the students learned how to edit on the computer, deleting mumbles and dead air. And with a few clicks of their mouse, they made Dalai's voice stronger still.