Combining Technology with Service Learning and Audience

I have been creating podcasts with my students for almost a year now, and I have witnessed some wonderful content being produced, but I haven't seen anything like what I just witnessed this past week! We have just wrapped up our Making a Difference at Home program, and the students recorded their reflections about how successful they were at implementing their action plans. Most of our podcasts are roughly 6-7 minutes long; however, this time I received so much content from the students that I had to create 3 separate podcasts just to allow their voices to be heard! This is unprecedented! I usually choose a few contributions to be included in a podcast, which means that not all student work makes it; but this time the writing was so well done, and the students were so proud of their work, that I had to find a way to include all of it. Two of the samples are included in our classroom podcast, MPRadio, whereas the third sample is included in our school podcast, Parkland Radio. It was a magical moment to witness the sense of pride exhibited by the students as they recorded their reflections. I wonder how successful this would have been if it was treated as a traditional writing assignment that would have been read by only one person in the world...me.