"Make the world your classroom wall"

Our two hour MFL Flashmeeting Blogging and Podcasting: Creative and personalised ways of engaging and extending your pupils in the modern foreign languages classroom on Thursday evening was an undoubted success. Twenty colleagues logged in to share their interesting and innovative ideas with each other and despite a few audio problems from time to time and an unexpected telephone call, everything went without a hitch. It was the first time many had used Flashmeeting and they seemed to take to it very easily. Taking turns to talk caused no problem and we even got the hang of the voting system and using smiley faces to express emotion. Being able to post links in the chat area was also very useful and meant colleagues could choose how they wanted to participate.

"Make the world your classroom wall" (The title of this post) is a phrase Jen Sutton head of MFL at Davenant Foundation School said during the meeting which I particularly liked as she was explaining how she pitches her Spanish blog A ship in the country to her pupils. This was a great quote and something we can all think about when considering the power of blogging and podcasting to a real and global audience.

Here is a summary of what we all talked about

• introductions and descriptions of how colleagues are using blogging and podcasting
• what is a blog and some ideas on how to configure one
• Flashmeeting and how to set up an account
• Joe Molloy describes his Once upon a blog project which won an eTwinning award 2007
• recording audio with Garageband (Mac) or Audacity (PC) or mp3 player and how to post audio to a blog is as simple as sending an email attachment using a Typepad blog or a Wordpress plugin
• using podsafe music like Flashkit loops or Magnatune
• recording live streams with Audacity
• using Radiodaddy to request voiceovers and jingles for podcasts
• practical applications of podcasts (recording and editing presentations and dialogues for revision purposes/GCSE practise with a microphone or mp3 player, creating audio vocab guides)
• saving mp3 files in Windows Sound Recorder
• The Gordon Schools MFL Homework blog by Adam Sutcliffe which contains vocab guides as podcasts and Word documents
• recording with an iPod and Belkin microphone and uploading podcasts to iTunes
• creating a feed with Typepad and Feedburner
• using RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
• finding foreign language podcasts on Podomatic and copying playlists to your blog
• using video-hosting sites such as YouTube, Google Video, Clipfish and Blip.tv and coping with inappropriate content
• safely embedding a Blip.tv video player on your blog by using the code generated for a MySpace page
• advice on what video cameras to buy re quality and ease of use
• editing movies in iMovie and saving them as compressed Quicktime files or burning them on DVD
• shooting short video clips with a digital stills camera or mobile phone for assessment for learning purposes in class
• Bluetoothing with mobile phones
• learning vocabulary through project work
• setting up a podcasting club and coming up with ideas
• pupils taking photos of their work and sending to the teacher's laptop via Bluetooth for the class to discuss on the interactive whiteboard
• Bernard Clark from Durham Johnston recording GCSE presentations for his pupils and sending them via email
• catering for different pupils' learning preferences (sending pupils model questions as audio files recorded by the teacher or asking pupils to record questions and answers in pairs)
• using podcasts to assess speaking skills and discuss mistakes
• setting up a Flashmeeting account
• motivating pupils by inviting native speakers from a link school to blog about common topics in their own words such as what they do at the weekend instead of using artificial texts from a textbook
• comparing Skype and Flashmeeting
• designing podcasts as audio prompts to drill new language and record dialogues
• supporting colleagues
• storytelling through podcasts at primary level for improving self esteem, self expression and pronunciation
• the difference between a podcast and an audio file
• subscribing to a podcast through a podcatcher such as iTunes or Juice
• the benefits of adding contemporary or traditional music to a voice recording
• using emoticons and voting with Flashmeeting
• advice for introducing podcasting into the curriculum
• encouraging pupils to carry on with languages by using technology at KS4
• sustaining the wow factor of ICT
• mobile blogging/moblogging on educational trips with mobile phones
• sending photos plus messages directly to a Blogger blog on the move for daily updates
• the ease of creating your own personalised resources with ICT (digital photos, PowerPoint. Photo Story 3)
• exporting photo-stories in various formats for use on a computer, iPod or mobile phone
• using Jellycast for uploading audio and practising grammar through podcasts
• recording audio with a class set of iRivers
• listening to playback from a mp3 player using different attachments (headphone splitter, loudspeaker, cassette or CD)
• Silvia Tolisano interview on iPods and Google Earth
• setting up collaborative projects through e-languages website (surveys, questionnaires, picture stories, photos, videos, penletters, proposals)
• eTwinning to produce language for real purposes and keeping things simple
• ideas for future Flashmeetings and encouraging others to take part
• the benefits of creating a national virtual learning environment to make uploading audio and video content safely and more easily
• being able to use Flashmeeting with a 56k modem
• buffering and bandwidth considerations when videoconferencing
• recording, editing and downloading a Flashmeeting
• how technology can help personalised learning (ownership, tracking, target setting, personal choice when accessing tasks, pupils working at their own pace and in their own time, listening as many times as they want, choosing what support they need, changing playback speed in Windows Media Player)
• a few final thoughts

More show notes

• Booruch EdTech podcasts (David Noble)
• Woodhill Primary provide persuasive proof of the power of podcasting and pupil publishing and To blog or not to blog?
• Northgate blog (Alex Blagona)
• Podomatic example (Sam)
• Using ICT in Language Teaching and Learning (Lynne Horn)
• Interview with Steph Hopkins
• IOW conference film
• Languages and Life and SpectacularSpanishandFabulousFrench (Leanne Simmonds)
• Shooting short video clips
• Interview with Lynne Horn (David Noble)
• Blogging with a partner school to produce authentic language (Alex Savage)
• TES staffroom discussion about the difference between a podcast and an audio file
• Podcasting and syndication
• Professor Jason teaches Spanish on YouTube
• Learning Languages (Volker Green)
• Photo Story 3 TES post
• Moblogging with a Sony Ericsson K800i (Alex Blagona)
• Facing the currently unknown and more Photo Story examples: Qué hay en tu pueblo? 1 and 2 (Chris Fuller)
• LickhillgoesFrench (Mercedes)
• Drag and Drop in PowerPoint (see also The wondeful thing about triggers is triggers are wonderful things!)
• Learning to learn (Alex Savage)
• Interview with Bernard Clark
• communICTy.org (Alex Savage)
• pacad S4 (Eva Forbes)
• Skype addresses: me, Alex and Paul Harrington

Thanks again to all those who took part. We will have to do this again soon. It's good to share.

Download Flashmeeting_on_blogging_and_podcasting.mp3

Download Flashmeeting_offline_version_on_blogging_and_podcasting.zip

Comments

[Langwitches]

Hi Joe,

The things you talked about sound great. Is there a way though to download the conversation as an mp3, so I can listen to it on my iPod?

[Joe Dale]

Hi Silvia,

I guess I could record the audio using Audacity and upload it at the end of the post. See this link which explains how to record live streams:
http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2006/12/recording_live_.html

[Joe Dale]

Silvia, just for you, I've recorded the audio of the Flashmeeting with Audacity as an mp3 for your iPod and I've also tried to balance the volume of different speakers as well.

You can now listen to it on your way to work for some great CPD from across the pond. Enjoy.