4. E-Learning: Podcasts

E-Learning: Podcasts

Dr.S. Rajagopalan &

Dr.Revathi Viswanathan,

Professor of English,

B.S.Abdur Rahman University

Chennai-49

Abstract

There are plenty of web-based tools available for teachers and one such tool is what is called a Podcast. It is just a talk or dialogue or a poem read or anything that is spoken and recorded as an audio file in a computer or mobile . Then it may be listened at any time anywhere and any place. This article discusses how we can create a podcast ourselves or download any podcast available on the web and listen to it at any time, anywhere , any place and any number of times.the its use in the teaching of English. It brings out the different uses of podcasts for the teaching and learning of English, particularly in developing listening and speaking skills.

Keywords: Podcasting, Open Source, Mobile Devices, Software, Web 2.0 technology.

Quite rightly a lot of importance is now given to the development of oral communication skills in schools and colleges. Apart from traditional methods we may think of using Internet and mobile technologies too for helping our students in acquiring these skills. It is well known that plenty of good listening on the part of the learner is a necessary foundation for the formation of good speech habits. Along with listening one should practise speaking. That is how our students could acquire proficiency in speaking English. We will see how one of the important Web.20 tools, namely, Podcasts, would help us in this regard.

What is a Podcast?

A Podcast may be a short talk or a dialogue or a poem read or, in fact, anything that is spoken and recorded in a computer or a mobile as an audio file. According to the well-known ELT professional, Nik Peachey ( 2012) , “A podcast is stored on the web as a digital sound file and this sound file can then be transferred to any computer or digital device, such as an iPod or MP3 player” (n.d ). The term is actually a portmanteau of two words, Ipod and broadcast. The difference between a ‘broadcast’ and a ‘podcast’ is that the former may be listened to only when a particular programme goes over the air but on the other habd, a podcast may be listened to at anytime and also anywhere. Also a podcast is usually of a short duration compared to a broadcast.

We can listen to a podcast with the help of an Ipod or any Android phone or device or the media player in any computer Now with the even more advanced devices like smart phones, it could be readily (downloaded)? accessed. The word, ‘Podcasting’ was first mentioned by Ben Hammersley in The Guardian newspaper in a February 2004 article (Wikipedia, 2013). Podcasts may not only be downloaded from the Web, as mentioned above, but also be created by anyone.. With the advent of mobile devices, it has become very easy to download any available podcast from the Web or create one ourselves..

Creating a Podcast

All you need for creating a podcast is a computer or mobile device that has a microphone. The software for recording the podcast as well as the place online to store it are readily available and free on the Web and they are free.

Podcasts could be created, teachers can either make use of the Website, www.podomatic.com or download and install the software, http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ . Both are free. The Podomatic site not only helps you to create a podcast but also to store it on the Web.. We can record directly into their web browser without downloading any software. It is interesting to note that it supports even MP4 files and so even videos taken in a mobile or a digital camera.

Language teachers who encourage their students to practise dialogues can easily upload their recorded dialogues on this site. All that teachers have to do is to record the dialogues with the help of a sound recorder, which is available (by default) in any multi-media computer system and then upload the saved file in the Podmatic site.

As regards Audacity, it is a software we can download it from the Web and install it easily in the systems in our Computer Lab. Once you have downloaded it to your computer there is no need afterwards for internet connectivity .Students may record what they speak and save it to their computer harddisk. It facilitates recording and saving of audio files. One of the advantages of using this software is that any recording could be given a timeline and also edited as required.

Podcasts created by students help teachers to assess their performance and at the same time encourage themto monitor their own progress in using language skills. Creating something new and sharing it with others could be encouraged among students by asking them to maintain an audio-based journal by recording various activities for sharing with their peers (Peachey, 2012). According to him, recording narration of stories, jokes could also be done. Another interesting way of involving students is to “review the Audio Dramatization Process with students” (Gardner, 2013), which includes pre-producing the drama script of a story, recording the segments of dialogue online and editing the audio based on the requirement. This activity is ideal for students who work on drama.

To conclude, it must be emphasized that teachers have to work on the strategy to integrate the use of Podcasts with their regular teaching. It helps not only in learning a literary text or listening and speaking skills, it also makes them effectively use an advanced technological device or a tool for learning purposes. As mentioned earlier, teachers of this era have to modify their teaching style to convince the digital natives.

Use of Podcasts in teaching English

When it comes to teaching listening skills we should remember that our students have very few opportunities outside their classrooms to listen to English. It would be better if we provide opportunities to them to listen to as many varieties of English as possible and, if not, certainly to British and American English. Here podcasts help us. They form authentic resources in this respect for listening and are also readily available on the Web in the form of talks, interviews and dialogues of all kinds. In fact we have podcasts relating to all disciplines in our curriculum.

We have ESL/EFL Podcasts of conversations such as ‘inviting friends’, ‘giving directions’, ‘preparing a menu’, to list a few. The conversations provide not only real life situations but also serve as samples for handling such situations in their life. They would help students to learn the relevant conversational forms, their pronunciation and use..

Dialogue like ‘Preparing for a buy Season’,‘English expressions used in everyday conversations’ are available in the website, http://a4esl.org/podcasts/ . Similarly the electronic version of TESOL journal offers links to various ESL: Listening: Podcasts.

There are plenty of Podcasts available to facilitate learning of literature also. The University of Oxford presents lectures as Podcasts for the benefit of teachers and students. E.g., http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/merchant-venice-audio and on Taming of Shrew athttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/taming-shrew-audio.

In the case of teaching business English, teachers can make use of sites such as www.businessenglishpod.com and www.breakingnews.com to familiarize them with the business world scenario and give them authentic language inputs. The situations include ‘Dealing with Problems’, ‘Supporting your Ideas’ to name a few. The advantages of using business English Podcasts are,

They offer corporate scenario to those who are new to such situations.

Students would be exposed to business vocabulary, which is otherwise difficult to list out just within the classroom. Moreover, the Podcasts show the way to use the vocabulary appropriately.

Teachers can train students for facing interviews by offering various topics that are relevant to corporate world. There are Podcasts relating to making presentations and conducting meetings. Group discussions could be arranged with discussion topics provided by Podcasts.

Podcasts created by students help teachers to assess their performance and at the same time encourage them to monitor their own progress in using language skills. Creating something new and sharing it with others could be encouraged among students by asking them to maintain an audio-based journal by recording various activities for sharing with their peers (Peachey, 2012). According to him, recording narration of stories, jokes could also be done. Another interesting way of involving students is to “review the Audio Dramatization Process with students” (Gardner, 2013), which includes pre-producing the drama script of a story, recording the segments of dialogue online and editing the audio based on the requirement. This activity is ideal for students who work on drama.

There are advantages in integrating podcasts into our teaching as given below.

1.They would help us evaluate the speaking abilities of our pupils outside the classroom at a convenient time for us.

2. Students can create their own podcasts, listen to them, reflect over their performance and improve their speaking skills by taking appropriate steps.

3.They would highly motivate them to learn to speak well.

4.We may create podcasts relating to the Syllabus and the Text meant for any particular class also for our students to listen to at a place and time convenient for them.

Podcasts on Mobile devices

Let us now consider the advantages of listening to Podcasts in mobile devices. The mobile devices include Ipod, Ipad, Tablet, Smart Phone, Digital Camera and Lap top. McIntyre (2011) mentions that Podcasting has “enabled a large number of individuals, companies and educational institutions to develop and distribute content”. It is worthwhile to remember that students show lot of enthusiasm to use these devices and in one of the research studies conducted by the author, she used a mobile devise to evaluate her students’ presentations recorded in their mobile devices (Viswanathan, 2012). All that a teacher has to do is to give a few topics and ask his students to record their talks in their mobile devices. Thet should be told to plan carefully the structure of the text of the podcast before creating it. (McIntyre, 2011).

The advantages are students can make use of the devices even beyond the classroom, work at their own pace and record as many times as they want. As mentioned above, teachers can encourage their students to record either their presentations or dialogues in any one of the mobile devices and save them for sharing them with their peers and teachers. It can also be said that it is teachers’ duty to explore and integrate the use of relevant Podcasts along with the teaching modules. They can design various tasks to make students develop speak skills in business situations A tech savvy teacher would find ways to make students use their mobile devices. In other words they would encourage students to download the relevant audio files in their mobile devices, either in a smart phone or an iPhone or an iPad or a Tablet. The advantages of using mobile devices for teaching learning content are,

The mobile devices could be carried everywhere and so downloading podcasts from the Web could be done at any place.

Students learn at their own pace at a place convenient to them aand at any time that suits them.

Most of the mobie devices have excellent storage facility thus helping students to save the downloaded audio files and listen to them as many times as they want.

The useful links that offer facility to download Podcasts in an Apple device are

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/english-as-second-language/id75908431

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/esl-teacher-talk-esl-podcasts/id138155144

References:

(2013). English as a Second Language (ESL) Podcasts. Retrieved from http://a4esl.org/podcasts/

(2012). ESL: Listening: Podcasts. The Internet TESL Journal. Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Listening/Podcasts/

(2013). ESL Teacher Talk-ESL Podcasts for Teachers. Retrieved from https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/esl-teacher-talk-esl-podcasts/id138155144

Gardner, T.(2013). Teaching with podcasts. Readwritethink . Retrieved from http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/teaching-with-podcasts-30109.html

(2013). Literature. University of Oxford Podcasts. Retrieved from http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/keywords/literature

McIntyre, S.(2011). Increasing student engagement using podcasts. Learning to Teach Online. Retrieved from

http://www.academia.edu/613067/Increasing_student_engagement_using_podcasts_-_Case_study (2013).Podcast . Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

Peachey (2012). Tech tools for teachers: Podcasting. Onestopenglish. Retrieved from http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/tech-tools-for-teachers/podcasting/

Viswanathan, R(2012). Augmenting the use of mobile devices in language classrooms. International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching. 2(2). IGI-Global Publications. Hershey. USA.