Stage 3 classes at Killarney Heights Public School use learning technology confidently. The students are familiar with word publishing, presentation software, web design and photography. Sarah Swift, one of the Stage 3 teachers, used their experience and interest to explore the language of Mathematics.

During National Literacy and Numeracy Week 2006, the Noisy Numbers Podcasting Show, was run by the regional education consultants of the New South Wales Department of Education and Training. This literacy and numeracy competition required students in small groups to create and tell a story in three minutes that integrated fractions as an essential element of the story.

Using a mathematical scenario, podcasting was chosen as an aural tool to help students explore numerical themes. These audio recordings (or media files) are available on the Internet and can be played back on portable media players or computers. The result is much like a radio broadcast with students reading their own stories, integrating sound effects, interviewing others or recording original musical compositions.

Podcasting presented a new challenge for the class. By using their imagination and working collaboratively with others they could bring each story to life through the use of narration and sound in an imaginary radio show. After writing a script and talking it through with the teacher, each group edited their story, cast the various roles, decided on sound effects and music and spent time rehearsing their play. They became quite creative as you can see from this extract from one script - The Tiger Who Stayed for Breakfast.

Narrator - One rainy day a family of four sat down to eat their toast but before they could take their first bite the doorbell rang (#1- doorbell rings)

Mother - Who could that be?

Narrator - The father went to answer the door and in the doorway stood a tiger dressed as a beggar (#2 – door squeaks).

Father - Hello who might I have the pleasure of meeting today?

Tiger - I’m a poor old beggar and I was wondering if I could come in and eat all of your toast.

Father - Our family has not yet eaten so you can have ¼ of our toast. We have 12 pieces of toast so in that case you can have 3 pieces of our toast……

Narrator - The next day the tiger was feeling hungry again. This time though, he had a more magnificent plan.

Tiger - I shall sneak in and steal all of their toast … hargh hargh hargh

Narrator - When the tiger got to the house he saw the window open 1/3 of 12 centimetres.

Tiger - That must be open 4 centimetres. I can squeeze through that!

Using Audacity, a free open source software for recording and editing sounds, Sarah Swift and her students found they could record, edit, mix tracks and integrate sound effects. Audacity has a library of sounds that they could access to enliven their stories and each group was encouraged to create and record their own background music. Whilst they were used to incorporating written and visual tools in their learning, the use of sound alone created new challenges for the students.

Assessment of the unit involved the teacher monitoring script writing, individual involvement, use of the software, the final recording and the production of presentation images to be shown during each podcast performance. New skills were assessed as students learnt to record, playback and edit their production. Importantly the final product, which was played to other students and teachers, had to explain the mathematical concept in a way that was meaningful to each listener.

Using LAME MP3 Encoder* to export MP3 files, the final stories were converted into media files that could be played to parents and other classes in the school. The children were delighted; they were enthusiastic about their learning. They had learnt to go beyond the obvious and to discover that there is more than one way to articulate what they knew.

At the end of the 10 week program, the podcast unit was judged to be a rich ICT task which provided another way of supporting different personalities and learning preferences in the class. The students saw mathematics in action, out of the classroom context, and learnt to use a new medium of expression.

The podcasting task set high expectations for literacy and numeracy. It encouraged mathematical thinking and the use of specialized language as students explored and tested ideas before submitting their work to the Noisy Numbers Competition and showing them in public at the finals of the competition.