"Explorations in Podcasting"

Mtra. Ma. Elena Delgado Ponce de LeónMtra. Marsella Robles Mier y Terán

Mayo, 2013

What is a podcast?What is not a podcast?

Why podcasting?

Sample activities

Content

Learning a language is more than exploring facts about the way language is organized, it is about acquiring the skill to express and communicate.

Communication has always been a strong motivator in human beings. We want to share ideas, listen to others and comment.

Podcasting allows teachers and students to carry out this exchange of ideas with the advantages of choosing content and having portability (as they can be downloaded and listened to on the go) . Thus, creating podcasts provides the ingredients to practice speaking in a pleasurable way.

Introduction

• An audio file in mp3 format published on internet• It can be downloaded and listened to anytime anywhere• It is published regularly• it has a name, a slogan, a music that identifies it• there is a host who states the purpose of the podcast, it

can include interviews with one or more speakers.• It is similar to a radio program

What is a podcast?

Audio files published on a blog or website where students practice a dialogue or tell a story.

They have no real communicative purpose. They constitute a practice speaking task to promote learning.

What is not a podcast

Learning a language is about communication :

We want to share ideas, listen to others and comment.

Podcasting allows students to communicate ideas while providing an ideal tool to assess their performance as communication messages are kept in files.

It engages students in an intensive oral practice necessary to achieve a fair degree of fluency in the production of the message.

It is a flexible tool as it can be downloaded and listened to on the go.

Why podcasting?

Podcasting is strongly connected to an authentic context as students have to select language according to their topic, register, intended audience and communicative function.

It helps students organize their ideas in a meaningful and logical sequence paying attention to the features of natural speech like stress, pauses, and fluency.

Why podcasting?

Where we started

Audioboo. It is a web tool that allows recording and publishing of audio files. Files can be complemented with a photo and text. It has a social network component as it allows users to follow and share their audios.

English 509 students subscribed to podcasts on different topics downloading episodes on a regular basis. This helped highlight in a practical and concrete situation the features of a podcast. Students learned that podcasts usually have a tune that identifies the series, a slogan, podcasts can incorporate background music and sound effects. Students evaluated the podcasts they listened to focusing on the organization of the ideas, clarity, type of information, number of participants (monologues, interviews), creativity, etc.

Activities.Ma. Elena´s Group 509 Number of students= 32 level A1+

Then,they created an account. Audioboo allows users to record and publish an audiofile creating a web page and the RSS feed to automatically download the episodes from iTunes.

They shared their Audioboo webpage with the rest of the class and became followers of other classmates. When working with their podcasts it became obvious that students had crossed the boundaries between formal learning inside the classroom and informal learning outside the classroom. The engagement and creativity displayed was the result of continuous learning .

Use of tools ( e.g google translator to get a pronunciation model)

Audioboo

Audioboo

Students were assigned 11 simple questions.

Each podcast was kept to approximately 1 to 2 minutes to ensure a sustained engagement from the listeners.

The questions had been taken from a website called Plinky where users answer questions and share their answers. Thus, the suggested scaffolding for this task included reading the answers given by native speakers to those same questions to spot the vocabulary, structures and expressions they could use in their own answers.

What they talked about in their podcasts

Sitio Plinky

Part 2. Create an account in Audioboo.Record your answer and send the link to your blog.Then, follow your classmates to listen to their answers and send comments.Here are the 11 questions:

1. Describe your ideal job — where would you work? What would you do?

2. Recall your very first day of school. How did you feel?

3. What song, when you hear it, transports you back in time? What time in your life does it transport you to? Describe that time in your life in detail.

4.

If you were a mad scientist and could create a cure for any disease, which disease would you cure and why?

5. Do you believe in ghosts? Why or why not?

6. What is your worst quality as a human? Describe it in detail, and why you think it’s bad.

7. If you could have one superpower, what superpower would you choose? Why?

8. Which food, when you eat it, instantly transports you to childhood?

9. If you were able to clone yourself, how would you divide your duties?

10. Go back in time to an event you think could have played out differently for you. Snap off time and let alternate history have its moment: tell us what could, would or should have happened.

11. When was the last time you felt really, truly lonely?

The task was developed over a period of 4 weeks.

There was one session at the computer lab to guide them in Audioboo and solve questions.

Students had two weeks to upload their recordings. In the meantime some would take their scripts to class to be checked, others preferred to share a google document with me asking to be corrected and still others decided to use the google translator kit and get a model on pronunciation.

For the recording some used the recording option provided in Audioboo and others recorded on their computers and edited their files to add music or sound effects.

Length of the activity

When the deadline was met, groups were formed to listen to their recordings and select the best answer in their groups.

Four criteria were given; they had to select:

the most creative answer,

the one with the best pronunciation,

the best background music or sound effects, and

the most touching and emotional content.

In a class session, we all listened to the winners podcasts in each group.

Sharing and networking

To what extent do students believe their language learning is enhanced by the use of

these technologies?These are some of the comments they wrote at the end of the course:

¨Me costaron mucho trabajo, me ayudé con el traductor para la pronunciación pero fue muy lindo hacerlos¨.

¨Hacer estos audios fue mi actividad favorita, me hubiera gustado hacer más audios en el transcurso del año.

Ësta actividad me gustó mucho, pues era divertido planear tu audiose interesante escuchar los de mis compañeros¨

¨Veía como lo contestaban en Plinky y después me ayudaba con el traductor.

¨Me gusta platicar o narrar un suceso importante de mi vida y esta herramienta me ayudó a expresarme.¨

¨Para estructurar mis oraciones leía las ideas en Plinky y antes de grabar mis ideas me ayudaba con la pronunciación del traductor de google¨

Me di cuenta que tenía que planear lo que iba a decir si quería que los demás me entendieran¨

Students opinions:

Activities.

Marsella´s Group 502 Number of students: 31 Level: A1

Where we started

I started with a Google Site in which I posted the task to my students. From there, they could have access to a Google Doc where they had to post the URL of their work.

Google Site <https://sites.google.com/site/englishvmrsrobles20122013/>

Unit 2. Compliments

Rubric

Vocaroo

As a project for the Second Partial I asked them to do a video or a podcast about Unit 2 of the Pilot Program. I told them they could do a video a podcast or a power point using the Audio tool Audacity, I posted a tutorial for using this.

Finally, for the Third Partial, I asked them to take part in the Podcast Congress, I shared the Call so they could know the requirements for their job.I shared with them the link: <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vBGNvAIAqJRbFJIAEXPGSB8O9xx346B-k1nSVq0QILg/edit>

This is an example of a podcast from the Podcast Congress about some themes of the Program of English 5th.

Survey about the podcastsFor this activity I did a Survey about how did they like doing podcasts, here they are the 10 questions and their answers. I posted the link in our group in Facebook so they could do it online. <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17xB4JMf9xXBpHwGVITebzsmPosvJ7r-bI2VgTzGxEOc/viewform>

Survey questions

Here they are their answers. <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17xB4JMf9xXBpHwGVITebzsmPosvJ7r-bI2VgTzGxEOc/viewanalytics>

I told them to post the URL of their work in the Google Doc and also in their blogs, the recording as well as the script.

Conclusions

Podcasting has become a major feature of today´s society and has emerged as a means for supporting learning in foreign language teaching. It is an interactive medium of communication which teenagers greatly enjoy. It helps to build on whatever language resources they already possess.

ReferencesCampbell, G, (2005) Podcasting in Education [online]. EDUCAUSE, Nov/Dec 05. Available from: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0561.pdf (Accessed 27 April 2013).

Dunn, Jeff. (2010). The 35 Best web 2.0 Classroom tools chosen by you. Available from:

http://edudemic.com/2010/07/the-35-best-web-2-0-classroom-tools-chosen-by-you/ (Accessed 27 April 2013).

Huann, T. Y. and Thong, M.K. (2006) Audioblogging and Podcasting in Education [online}. Edublog.net. Available from:

http://edublog.net/astinus/mt/files/docs/Literature%20Review%20on%20audioblogging%20and%20podcasting.pdf [Accessed 21 April 2013].

edelgado1313@yahoo.com.mxmarsellarobles@gmail.com