Recording Audiobooks

In the past our school had invited younger students from other organizations for our students to teach them and to allow them to experience and learn with technology and equipment that they did not have access to, however since Covid19 lockdowns shut down these face-to-face interactions between our students and their students and we were forced to move online. The way of interacting with these schools and organizations online became problematic as they lacked the equipment for video calling, so a creative solution that we came up with was to record ourselves reading books or teaching a subject. In DP1, I spent most of my time recording these four-to-five-minute short, scripted stories and fables and in DP2, I have already recorded a 10-minute lecture on one of their subjects from their syllabus. Even though making a script and recording these stories and lectures were hard, it was much more unique compared to a face-to-face lecture through a screen which allowed me to develop new skills like voice-recording, voice-modulation, video-editing and audio-editing. I had to use these skills to make the audiobook sound a lot more interesting as simply reading the script or the story in a recorded audio file would sound extremely boring and the students would be uninterested.

As the leader of the group, I first set up sub-groups within so that the students in the group could work together and figure out this new way of interacting online. Doing so enabled everyone to develop their cooperation and communication skills. In addition, as a leader I was able to develop my leadership skills and my organizational skills as I had to keep track of what every group member is doing and then make decisions on what to do weekly. This CAS project is strongly connected to the creative and service strands of CAS, because we are reaching out to these organizations that might have limited resources in a more creative method compared to the traditional method of service. This creative method of interaction is through the creation of interesting English audiobooks and lectures.

Over the course of two years doing this as a CAS project, I faced many difficulties. Difficulties ranging from simple technical problems when recording and uploading the audio file to team coordination during online learning to come together and record. In the end, I was satisfied with the CAS project as I received positive feedback and response from the organization. I strongly believe that I will carry these new skills developed with me for a long time.

Deokwon (DP 2)