Using Audio Extracts to support Critical Thinking
I have written previously about how learning design is fundamentally connected to the idea of creating a hospitable learning environment.
In another post I spent some time talking about the use of hand-drawn illustrations to serve this aim. In this post I am going to outline another tool which has proven really useful: the use of audio extracts to support critical thinking.
Early on in my time at Crosslands I was made aware that on our Seminary Masters programme there were a number of modules where students were expected to reflect deeply on selected extracts from Church history (pieces written by the likes of Augustine, Martin Luther, John Bunyan etc).
One of the issues with studying something at a deeper level (which a Masters Degree certainly requires) is the temptation to race through material. Our model of training at Crosslands is to support learners with resources that enable them to remain serving within their familiar community context. This can be both convenient and hectic! Many of our students find themselves busily dealing with intense work and/or family situations. The fight to establish disciplined habits of focussed study is exactly that: a fight!
With this in mind, anything that will assist them to slow things down and concentrate is well worth a go.
Enter the audio extract!
As a teacher I had been reading extracts to classes for years, so the idea of making something like this wasn't a huge leap in thinking - but in the end it was quite weird sitting at my desk recording them. I can't remember who suggested it originally (was it a dream?) but I have now recorded quite a few to the point where it is a normal tool in the learning design arsenal.²
The clip above is a screen recording to give you an idea of how the material sits within the page. I have included the entire clip below just in case you had run out of podcasts this week.
For this particular course I created thirty nine recordings. The students have the option of reading, listening or using both at the same time for a unique experience.
A unique experience
Something which an audio recording offers that you can't get from reading something yourself ³ are timing and distance.
Timing: the discipline of an external recording forces you to slow down and pay attention. If you have ever played a musical instrument with a metronome you will know what this feels like. When it comes to it, some of the material in Calvin's Institutes is quite difficult to read! Rather than submit to the urge to race ahead, an audio extract forces you to deal with the material face-on.
Distance: the other valuable difference is that when you listen to an external recording you are introducing a distance. In other words, breaking one simultaneous activity into two.
Sometimes it helps to get behind a barrier.
When you read something yourself, your own extract reading voice and interpretation of that material get merged together - sometimes helpfully, but sometimes not. With an externally-read extract there is a greater distance between you and the material - allowing a different kind of relationship to the text.
The famous musician and experimental sound artist Brian Eno pioneered something called 'Oblique Strategies' some decades ago which taps into this idea. If he was getting a little too close to the material in the studio (and therefore losing the ability to think critically about what he was doing) he would select a random card from his Oblique Strategies deck and follow its advice. One of the cards explicitly commanded the reader to go outside and listen to the material through the closed door.
Although this sounds a bit mad, it's a brilliant piece of wisdom. All of us get too close, and therefore stepping outside for a while can help us to see (or hear) things differently from another angle.
Audio extracts are great for this reason - an option that supports better critical learning.
¹ or worse: skim reading it to yourself
² for the nerds: I use a decent second-hand Rode NTG Mic sitting in front of a (shock-horror) non-absorbent monitor. I tend to lean forwards and really focus on delivering the material with a very controlled use of 'S' sounds, breathing and volume. And yes I work hard at speaking deeply with feeling for the material. The recording is usually continuous to allow for any mistakes, which I then edit down using a magnetic timeline in Final Cut Pro. I use the odd audio filter, but try to keep it as un-fancy as possible. The important thing is that the material is being projected well and feels impactful to the listener - pretty much how I did things back in the day with those bored Year 9 classes. See you at the Brit Awards.
³ Of course - when someone records an extract they might add inaccurate emphases themselves and introduce some alien interpretative artefacts which were never there - but still the experience is worth the risk I think for the enforced time-pocket alone.
