Teaching.IU

Context

Many classrooms include multimedia equipment and internet connectivity. In addition to allowing for the use of traditional recorded media, this technology makes it possible to easily stream a wide variety of audio and visual content into the classroom from the World Wide Web. As is often the case, spread of this new technology presents itself as somewhat of a double-edged sword for classroom instructors. On the one hand, we have access to an unprecedented wealth of content. On the other hand, we are presented with the problem of how to first identify, and then integrate, this content in such a way that does not overwhelm our lesson plans. Presented below is a source for very brief pieces of content that can launch classroom lectures and discussions. My goal in using this material is to make memorable the key concepts, theories, or research findings that make up a typical day’s lesson plan by tying these to readily available discussions of world events, cultural criticism, or even “news of the weird.”

Step-by-Step Implementation

Consider National Public Radio (NPR). The network’s website www.NPR.org archives 88 programs currently in production. All of these programs are produced at least weekly. And many, such as “Morning Edition,” “Fresh Air,” “Talk of the Nation,” and “All Things Considered,” are produced daily. Some productions are half an hour or even a full hour discussion focused on one topic. However, many are composed of several shorter topical segments linked together by brief introduction or musical interlude. For example, just one of these daily productions, “All Things Considered” averaged 16 discrete stories on a wide range of topics per day over the past year. Each of these 3-5 minutes stories that make up a program is individually archived on the NPR’s website. Summaries and transcripts for these stories currently exist for broadcast dating back to January 1^st of 1995 and streaming audio is available to January 1^st, 1996. This is true for almost every program broadcast on NPR. This is a wealth of high-quality, topically focused, publicly available content, and now each of these archived stories is keyword searchable. 

1. Narrow searches by date, program, and using NPR’s own topical categorization. Searches on broad topical areas like “Gender,” “Cloning,” or “Cell phones” returned many hundreds of stories. However, not all of the narrow searches will be directly on point or particularly relevant. Like many search engines, Boolean operators such as AND, OR, and quotation marks can be included to narrow searches as well. Just for fun, I tried more specific keywords that may be of interest across campuses. “Tocqueville” returned 44 stories, “Sartre” 41, and even “Bayesian” returned a story on the application of an algorithm for sorting and categorizing great works of literature.
2. Once a story has been identified, copy and paste the permanent link for the audio into PowerPoint slides, lecture notes, or any electronic communication with students. For example, I regularly teach an introductory sociology course. One of the early and fundamental points that students often struggle with is the power of everyday social interaction. Illustrating “the social” as an empirical domain separate from, yet integral to, individual experience is often a first step in inviting students to exercise their sociological imaginations. In searching the materials outlined above, I found a story about a college student living with autism. While we do not focus on autism per se, this student’s personal account of her struggles to understand normative interactions on her campus helps my students to develop perspective on an often taken-for-granted aspect of any society. Often, as is the case here, these stories are accompanied by pictures and other graphics. Continuing with this example, I include these pictures along with some animations and, particularly noteworthy, quotes in a PowerPoint presentation that I display as the audio plays. Combining a personal and relatable narrative with images and illustrations has proved a powerful way to form abstract disciplinary ideas in students’ minds.

Effectiveness

I have found that using these short reports and stories is a good way to introduce and focus students’ attention on a particular topic or idea at the beginning of class. Then I can make reference to these stories throughout our discussion of course material. It provides a “hook” upon which students can hang the day’s lesson. This has been effective in both large and small classroom settings. Lecture launchers like these can be implemented very quickly and have proven to stimulate recall and comprehension as demonstrated on quizzes, exams, and in essays.