TES ICT Blog: ICT & Modern Foreign Languages: Using podcasts in the classroom

25 May 2006 at 10.30

ICT & Modern Foreign Languages: Using podcasts in the classroom

It's been a momentous week for our MFL blogger Joe Dale - he made his first podcast... Six months ago I didn’t really know what podcasts were, let alone how they could be useful in the MFL classroom. However, thanks to Ewan McIntosh’s evangelising on the subject, the MFLE creative teaching section, BT Internet Radio Kit for Schools and a bit of Google research, I’m now much more tuned in. For those that don’t know, podcasts are free online radio style shows created mainly by enthusiastic amateurs as well as professional broadcasters who want to spread their ideas to a worldwide audience. The good news is that although the term podcast is a hybrid of the words ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcast’, it's not essential to buy an iPod to listen in. In truth, all you need is a computer and some free software for playing music files. However, if you're one of these people who likes to listen to their sounds on the move, fear not. Podcasts can also be downloaded and played on any compatible MP3 player, not just the ubiquitous iPod. The launch of a podcast section on iTunes has raised the profile of podcasts further. The shows are filed according to theme making it is easy to search for a topic of your choice. If you want, you can also subscribe to a podcast so that each subsequent episode downloads automatically to your machine. The podcasts in the Education section for example cover a wide range of topics including ones aimed specifically at language learners. You'll find podcasts in different languages too. Unlike streaming internet radio though, they can be listened to repeatedly, stored offline and played at your convenience. In principle, these could provide a wealth of free authentic listening materials for use in the classroom. Your pupils could have access to, for example, a genuine news report from the country whose language they are learning or listen to an amateur show made by digital audio fans of their own age. Having allowed your pupils to listen to suitable podcasts in, say, French, German or Spanish, why not let them make their own? The learning objectives could be: to practise their writing when planning their scripts to practise their speaking when recording their different segments to give them a real purpose for using their language to create a potentially huge audience to listen to their work Making your own podcasts You'll need... an external or internal microphone on your computer, MP3 player or mobile phone sound editing software such as Audacity for PC or Garageband for Mac If you want to mix in music to your podcast, it must be copyright free. You can’t use a commercial song as a backing track unless you're willing to pay thousands of pounds in royalties. Websites such as Jamendo showcase artists whose music is covered by a special ‘Creative Commons’ licence. This gives more flexibility to how the tracks can be used. In most cases, as long as the source is acknowledged, the songs can be copied without infringing copyright and are what is known as ‘podsafe’. Now, it is all very well writing about podcasts and espousing their benefits for language learning, but I needed to put the theory into practice and try it out for myself. So, last week, my form class (7JD) planned and recorded their very first podcast. I wanted them to revise the content we’d covered so far this year. So, I divided the class into small groups and asked them to work on a dialogue or text together for a particular unit of their choice. The pupils rose to the challenge and were very serious about their scripts. I made the recordings on my iriver MP3 player, added some instrumental music from Jamendo and used Audacity to edit and mix the whole thing together on my home PC. Having now made a podcast, I must say I’m really proud of what the pupils have produced. They all took part and OK, so they’ve made a few mistakes in their French, but their enthusiasm and dedication shines through. The result is so much more than the sum of its parts. They think it’s cool and exciting and that’s good enough for me. If you want to have a listen, I’ve uploaded the ‘Le podcast de 7JD de Nodehill Middle School’ here. Download Le_podcast_de_7JD.mp3 ‘Le podcast de 7JD’ is also available on the TES Resources Bank. I’ve divided the recording into two parts as there is a 10MB limit problem per upload. The links are: http://www.tes.co.uk/resources/Resource.aspx?resourceId=1217 for part 1 http://www.tes.co.uk/resources/Resource.aspx?resourceId=1218 for part 2 Comments welcome as always. Comments from my form 7JD: Rachel I thought the podcast was fantastic. Being able to hear myself on the podcast was wicked. I liked being able to plan out what we were going to do. I also liked recording and choosing the music. It was the best because I improved my speaking. Adam I think making the podcast was really fun and the turn out was excellent. The recordings were superbly clear. It wasn't fuzzed out or bits you couldn't hear. It was all clear and it really helped our accents and speaking. Lily I enjoyed writing the scripts. It was really good to go into groups and concentrate on one area of French. I really enjoyed it. Francesca The podcast was really fun. I thought it helped with our French. It was cool to say the stuff we do in French. All in all a wicked project. I really liked it. I think that other people should try it. My favourite part was listening to it afterwards. Katie I thought the podcast was brilliant and I think each class in Years 5, 6 , 7 and 8 should do it as well. I think we could do it again. Cameron I liked the idea of people listening to our French accents and our pronunciation all over the world. Jamie It was fun as we could be heard speaking French all over the world and they can put their opinions on the blog page. Sammy It was fun. It helped us with writing and speaking in French. Zoe I thought that the podcast was very fun. I liked it because you could learn more French out of it. It was also good for our speaking and writing. Jessica I think the podcast was very interesting because it helped me with my speaking Charlotte I thought the podcast was very educational and fun because we learnt speaking in French and we had fun as well. Ellie I thought that it was interesting and something different. It has improved people's French speaking. It is another way of making French fun. I hope we do podcasting again. Anne I think the podcast is really interesting and making it was fun. I think that the podcast is something different. It also shows that children at Nodehill learn French. Violet Making the podcast was fun. I especially liked speaking about my family in French. I think all of the other classes should make a podcast because it's great. Matt I think that making the podcast was good for our speaking and writing. We had to write down what we would say and say it loud and then we could practise our accents and our writing. Other pupil podcasts to check out St Thomas of Aquins, Edinburgh, Spanish Edinburgh City Guide Dunoon Grammar School, Dunoon, Radio Show on free time Firrhill High School in Edinburgh Thomas Adams Cast, Wem, Shropshire, Radio show led by students Happy listening!

See mention on Irish French.ie website here

Comments

[Ewan McIntosh]

One of the greatest things about podcasts is also the amount of material designed to teach languages already out there. I think you're absolutely right to start with creating podcasts in the classroom, because I believe that's where the motivation is to be found. But good listening material for free? Gotta be worth a mention, too ;-)

[Lynne Horn]

Downloading now to listen to later!

Our own attempts at podcasting have been quite basic - not got into the editing and mixing, yet another new skill to aquire!

Hopefully will have some ticket buying conversations on our own blog tomorrow.

[Joe Dale]

Dear Lynne,

When you listen to the podcast, you'll hear my editing and mixing skills are far from perfect! However, I don't think it is vital that this sort of podcast has beautiful segues or is expertly mixed.

You've made it clear in your Linguanet forum discussion http://www.mailbase.org.uk/lists/linguanet-forum/2006-05/0011.html that your blog http://lmhtob.edublogs.org/ has been designed as a communication tool for you and your pupils. I think that's great.

I'm very pleased with our first podcast, but it was the preparation and recording part of the process which was the most interesting, from a learning point of view. I played the pupils examples of audio files and podcasts (including your short sound dialogues) and it was brilliant to see how serious they took their work once they realised what it was they were trying to make! (What is Mr Dale banging on about now!)

This is still very much early days for me too. When I set up a pupil blog my idea is to include short sound clips as well as longer podcasts. I won't have the time to be editing long sections of recorded speech, choosing Creative Commons music to add and then mixing it all together. In any case short clips are more immediate and I'm sure the pupils would like to be able to download them to their mp3 players, soon after they were recorded.

Once you've had a listen, I'd be very interested in your comments.

Cheers Lynne