Exciting Possibilities

I just finished reading Chapter 11 of Farkas' book and I'm thinking about her many excellent ideas related to podcasting. The idea that podcasting children's stories read aloud to help children and their parents who original language is not English is great to help not only with their reading skills but also their language skills. To have kids podcast themselves reading so they can measure their progress is a wonderful confidence builder. These ideas would work not only in the public and school library settings but in outreach settings as well. I hope to implement these ideas with a future internship program with Red Bank Public Library in the town medical clinic as well as in several of the town laundromats and after school programs held at the Count Basie Learning Center. Farkas mentioned a MP3 loan program that some schools and libraries offer that are already loaded with either stories or class lectures for those who need to hear them again in order to process them or to follow along with the text version. The lending/retrieving and downloading/reloading might be a bit tricky but with a little diligence, it can be done. If the library works in cooperation with the local elementary schools, there's a good chance that reading and comprehension scores could rise and language skills might improve as well. Though I have to think it through and discuss it with the powers that be within the library system, it's exciting to think about the potential benefits to all involved.