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"Interview a Boomer" with iPods"Interview a Baby Boomer" iPod activity.Tom directed his students to find and interview a "likely but unsuspecting" Boomer -- a parent, teacher or family friend born between 1946 and 1964. Equipped with a mic-enabled iPod, each student asked their interviewee ten questions -- five required and five of their own design -- about their perceptions of America during the 70s and 80s. After the interview, students turned in their audio file to Tom and blogged about the interview. With the audio files in hand, Tom was able to create a podcast "radio show" of the interviews. Many students interviewed parents and it in many cases it provided them with personal, and sometimes suprising, perspectives on the topics covered in class. Why an iPod? Tom's comments:"Most people think of the iPod only in terms of an audio playback device and are not aware that it can serve as a convenient audio recorder. To record audio with the iPod you simply need to attach an iPod-compatible microphone, such as Griffin's iTalk or Belkin's TuneTalk. So, with mic-equipped iPods it was easy for my students to conduct their Boomer interview. (It's not like I had to teach them how to use an iPod!) Mind you, the challenge with iPod recordings is getting separate audio files into a single iTunes program since iPods are tethered to a single iTunes account. We solved this problem by distributing school-owned iPods. We use a single "hub" that connects multiple iPods to a single computer, and a single iTunes account. From there the files could be distributed easily. Since the iPod is not an audio-editing device, I moved the audio files into Apple' GarageBand to edit them and combine separate files into a single "radio show" podcast. Excerpt from student blog following interview:"From the interview, I now have a more complete idea of how many Americans felt about events like the Vietnam War. Although my mother is more liberal than the rest of my family, I was surprised by the certainty with which she stated the United States should not have gone to Vietnam. I knew that there was widespread outcry to the war, especially among college aged Americans, but I never expected my mom to be one of the protesters. It is a bit of a shock to realize that family members had active lives, and that I am studying both the events that shaped this generation and the people in the generation itself. I also found stunning the lack of time that my interviewee spoke of Watergate. From what I have learned and heard through the media, Watergate was a huge national affair. Although I believe this to be true, my mom did not even touch on the subject, only stating that she voted for Nixon in 1972. I was surprised that such a big affair could have left such a small impact on her that she failed to mention it in a fifteen-minute interview about the 70’s and 80’s." For more ideas visit our Student Presentations section.
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