instructor: Jentery Sayers 
~ classroom: smi 309 
& ougl 101 ~ TTh: 9:30-11:20
Podcast 1: Before Service-Learning [ Submit It Now! ]
Due: Tuesday, January 22nd (length: two to three minutes)
Your first podcast! [Enter here thunderous claps echoing from mountaintops.] Not only is this your first go at using sound technologies in English 121B; it is also your first chance to share with your 121B peers your expectations for service-learning at a Boys and Girls Club.
Before you commence casting, please register for service-learning. Once you have done so, record a podcast that is approximately two to three minutes in length. As with your other podcasts in this class, you can either write a script for your cast or speak through improvisation. Choose whatever makes you the most comfortable.
In the podcast, please address the following:
- What are your personal service-learning goals?
- What anxieties or fears do you have about service-learning?
- How would you communicate these goals, fears, and/or anxieties to our community partners at the Boys and Girls Clubs?
Finally, at the end of your podcast, step back for a moment and consider your podcast from the vantage of sonic culture studies. Throughout the quarter, you will be “speaking for” people (e.g., children, volunteers, and community partners) at a particular Boys and Girls Club. Given Illich and Cruz's arguments , what problems or obstacles might you face? As a student at the UW, how will you speak for off-campus others (namely youth), all the while allowing them to still be heard?
These final two questions are tough ones. The aim of this podcast is certainly not to answer them. Instead, you will be circulating—through your own voice—your initial thoughts on community engagement and speaking about, for, and with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
When you are finished with your podcast, please upload it to the class blog before class on Tuesday, January 22nd. During Tuesday’s class, will be discussing how to turn that audio file into a podcast, as well as how confidentiality figures into future broadcasting. For example, your podcasts should include neither proper names nor identifying information. Consider the use of pseudonyms.
(Of note, if you are having any difficulties with voice recording or uploading to the blog, then just let me know. I don’t want you to become preoccupied with the technologies. The focus here is on your compositions. I’ll take care of the technical stuff, if need be.)
Be in touch with questions or concerns, and I look forward to listening!
uw english | jentery at u.washington.edu
