Scott Duarte from Michigan State University has created an engaging clip on the Hows and Whys of Podcasting based on his work with students who are learning English as a second language. Originally published as a slideshare, Scott has added music and really brought the presentation to life showing the importance of an active approach towards language learning.
I particularly like the slides which show how audio and video podcasting cater to a greater range of learning styles than typical lessons, lectures and classroom discussions as this evidence ties in with Andrew Churches' research which suggests that podcasting helps pupils to access higher order thinking skills.
Scott has also published a five part video presentation of a talk he gave with Scott Shinall at the 2008 TESOL conference in New York. You can find the links here:
Tony Vincent from Learning in Hand has been looking at podcasting recently too and has posted this clip explaining how easy it is to email up to 1GB of audio files from an iPod Touch on to the free blogging tool Posterous and include a link allowing others to subscribe in iTunes in a click.
Kenley Neufeld has also created a useful guide on podcasting with Posterous as has Doug Belshaw here. In fact if you are looking for an indepth discussion on the topic, check out this 'guerilla' podcast from the Chris and Ray Show and drill down to the nitty gritty of using Posterous as a podasting platform!
John Johnston was the first person who really opened my eyes to the simplicity of using Posterous for podcasting in the short interview we did at the Scottish Learning Festival last year for his SLFtalk project with David Noble.
José Picardo chose Posterous to moblog his recent trip to Spain as did David Noble (a different David Noble) and Chris Harte. Alice Ayel uses the tool for her main Spanish blog which includes the classic clip La ropa de Augustin from claseidiomas. James Padvis, Diannah Miller and Mary Cooch have gone down the same route too as a place to post their thoughts and reflections and in the latest installment of BBC Click which can be watched on iPlayer for the next week or so, you'll find a section about Posterous towards the end of the programme.
So if you've been convinced about why you should be thinking about podcasting in the languages classroom then Posterous could be the way to get you started. I can't think of a simpler podcasting/blogging solution and it's free!
Mr. Dale,
My name is Heather Love and I am in Dr. Strange EDM 310 and have been assigned to read your blog for the past two weeks. I really enjoyed this blog and I am so glad you shared that first video. It fascinated me how a video or podcast can engage so many different types of learning styles. I look forward to reading your next post!
Posted by: Heather | 20/04/2010 at 00:45
Cheers Heather. I think it is great that you have been asked to read blogs and leave comments as homework. Brilliant idea!
Posted by: Joe Dale | 28/04/2010 at 08:49