For the purposes of this week’s lab, I chose to “podcast” a close reading of Abraham Lincoln’s August 22, 1862 letter. Podcasts are audio recordings (sometimes with a video recording counterpart) that both experts and enthusiasts use to circulate discussions on specific topics or a series of related topics. Because recording and editing applications are widely available on computers and smartphones, podcasts have become a very popular way of not only distributing these “conversations” but archiving them as well.
Getting back to the topic of my lab, the letter Lincoln wrote was a response to an editorial written by Horace Greeley that was very critical of Lincoln’s efforts to abolish slavery and how his mistakes to this point had weakened the Union’s war efforts. After listening to the recording a few times, I jotted down some key notes and read this blog from the New York Times to augment my introductory and concluding remarks. While this specific letter to Greeley was very concise and did not detail any time sensitive plans regarding the Union or slavery, after reading up on the backstory to their correspondence, I recognized that the letter was certainly significant. However, I felt that I struggled to convey its specific significance without over-using information from the New York Times blog. With that in mind, I had a hard time defining how to properly attribute outside sources I had used to prep my introduction and conclusion.
As far as an educational tool goes, I think that podcasts are definitely valuable. Their wide-open structure allows them to be quickly adjusted to the needs of a specific lesson plan and they encourage students to learn new technologies. In a history class setting, a great podcast assignment might challenge a group of 2-3 students to independently assess a historical event’s significance and explain their findings in a round-table style podcast.
My one reservation about using podcasting tech comes from a technical standpoint – the majority of the required technology is self-explanatory, however, the process is not without hiccups. While Audacity, plug and play microphones, and Soundcloud are all very easy to use (Audacity could be more intuitive), embedding Soundcloud’s player into a WordPress post is not. After looking on both Soundcloud and WordPress’ sites I was still unable to properly embed the WordPress specific link to my recordings. With that in mind, here’s my recording.