Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Week 6: Audio and Video tools: Podcasting


What is podcasting?
According to Lee LeFever, the difference between broadcasting (traditional media) and podcasting is that while broadcasting has given us the opportunity to reach out for TV and radio shows following a time schedule, podcasting has made it possible for users not to stick to time schedules in order to watch or listen to web-created shows, also called podcasts.

Thanks to podcasting, people can now have access to podcasts anytime they want, they can download these podcasts and save them on computers or portable devices (MP3 players or I-pods) and watch or listen to them when they have time to do so. That is to say, podcasting has made the whole process of broadcasting personal and available on demand, that is what the word Pod could stand for: Personal on demand. People have different opinions about the origin of the word pod.

Reasons why podcasting has become so popular
1. Anyone can do it: Satellites, radio towers or studios are no longer needed. Most people only need a microphone or a video camera, a computer and a connection to Internet. With all those things people can create their own shows that could be open to anyone. The consequence of this is a wide variety of podcasts from online lessons to flower exhibitions.
2. Subscriptions: If people visit a website that has a great podcast, they can subscribe to receive future shows automatically. The only thing one needs is a pod-catcher like I-Tunes, which is a free tool that captures the show.
3. Gadgetry: People can download a podcast onto a computer, an MP3 player or other portable devices and take it with them anywhere they want. Nowadays with podcasting everyone can have a voice!

Educational uses
There are many websites that post podcasts for students to learn and practice English like www.podcastsinenglish.com which is a very good website created by Richard Cain and Jackie McAvoy, who have almost thirty years of teaching English as a foreign language and teacher training experience.

Podcasts are also a great accessory in the classroom and when doing presentations. Lately, a group of students had to interpret and present a poem written in Jamaican patois. They downloaded a podcast of a Jamaican woman reading the poem in patois, and we were all thrilled to hear the Jamaican poem being read by a native Jamaican! These are only two examples of how podcasts can be used with educational purposes.

If you want to learn how to record podcasts go to this webpage http://www.slideshare.net/EvelynIzquierdo/podcasting-2360874 where you can follow the instructions posted by our professor Evelyn Izquierdo, and create your own podcasts.

References
  • Izquierdo, E. (2009). Web 2.0: Audio and video podcasting – First steps. http://www.slideshare.net/EvelynIzquierdo/podcasting-2360874
  • LeFever, L. (2008). Podcasting in plain English. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-MSL42NV3c
  • Listen to English and learn English with podcasts. http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.shtml
This is the first podcast I have ever recorded!
I recorded it during one of our ICT classes using the web tools audacity and podbean.com
It is the audio to my welcome message written at the beginning of this blog. Enjoy it!



Snapvine is another audio tool. This is my first snapvine voice message for my blog!
Check it out!

3 comments:

  1. Hola jackie!!! Gracias por la informaciĆ³n. En verdad no sabia que existia podcasting y ahora que estoy estudiando ingles ha sido super util, he escuchado varias leciones a traves del link de tu blog. Espero seguir consiguiendo informaciĆ³n tan util en tu blog. GRACIAS!!!

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  2. Jackie, I love your podcasts. "See you when I see you", hahahaha! Very nice! Kisses,
    Ayleen

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  3. Thank you Ayleen! Thanks for everything you have written in my blog!

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