Podcasting with mobile phones

Mobile phones can be a useful tool for those wishing to record or listen to podcasts on the move. By signing up to the web services below, recordings can be configured to be automatically sent to either a specified email address or uploaded to a subscriber's account and then posted on a blog. Likewise, you can listen to podcasts away from your computer by ringing a dedicated number and supplying the necessary access information. Please note these services are free, but the phone calls you make using them are not.

Imagine the motivating potential of using mobile phones on a school trip or in your classroom to capture the speech of your pupils or native speakers in the target language. If you have a link with a partner school abroad, you could ask their pupils to record authentic listening material for you to use in class such as dialogues, songs or reports or other suitable listening material. These recordings could then be incorporated into a podcast, uploaded to a school blog and accessed on any computer with an internet connection.

Sending voice messages to an email account

K7.net allows you to record a voice message on any phone and have it sent to your email account as a wav file attachment. This can then be exported as a mp3 file in Audacity using the lame encoder

Connectmeanywhere offers a similar service, but the voice messages are recorded as mp3 files and therefore are smaller and don't necessarily need to be converted.

Pinger lets you send voice messages to a single email address or group, but only supports the following operators: Verizon, Cingular, Sprint, Nextel or T-Mobile. 

Sending voice messages to a website or blog

Gabcast, Supcast and Gcast let you record and publish a voice message from your mobile phone to your account which you can then embed on your blog or website.

TalkShoe is a service which allows a host to invite different users to take part in a webchat or 'Talkcast' using their mobile phones which again can then be recorded and uploaded to a blog or website.

Listening to podcasts on your mobile phone

Finally, podlinez and fonpods are two websites which enable subscribers to listen to podcasts on their mobile phones if they can't get access to a mp3 player or computer.

Being able to use mobile phones to record and listen to audio on the move gives the potential podcaster more flexibility in creating material for future projects. Admittedly, there is a cost which has to be incurred for the phone calls themselves. However, it could be argued that this is a small price to pay considering the immediacy of using such services.

As recordings can be sent to a dedicated email address or web account and moderated by the teacher, the privacy and security of pupils can be ensured at all times, making the process safe and manageable. Why not have a look at some of these links and explore ways of harnessing the power of mobile technology yourself? In this way, we may create new learning opportunities for our pupils and enhance their creativity at the same time.

As per normal you can leave a comment below or you could always send me a voicemail on 0012063506411 and tell me what you think of the idea of using mobile phones as learning tools. Don't worry. There's no pressure. It's your call.

Comments

[Langwitches]

Joe,

Thank you for this post. It is extremely helpful when trying to pull together resources on how to incorporate cell phone usage in the classroom. Thank you for all the work you do and so willingly share!
Gracias- Merci- Danke
Silvia

[Joe Dale]

Hi Silvia,

Thanks for your comment. I've been collecting links for quite a while on how to use mobile phones in the classroom including some from your blog: http://www.langwitches.org/blog/category/cell-phones/

This post is just a summary of what I've discovered. I'm glad you like it.

Best wishes

Joe

[R Parker]

Hi Joe,

A highly informative post. As an absolute beginner with the whole moblogging thing, I've got a question: if you were travelling to France and only had mobile phone access (no wireless internet or laptop) and wanted to send an mp3 file to your blog, which of the following options above would you use? And I'm thinking of buying a Nokia N80 btw.! Cost is also an issue here.

[Joe Dale]

Hi Ruth,

If you want your voice message to go directly to your blog, I would go with Gabcast probably. I know Silvia from Langwitches.org has used this in the type of situation you are describing.

If it was me though, I would probably use K7 so the wav file went straight to my email first and then I could edit out any mistakes in Audacity before uploading to my blog.

Best wishes

Joe