January 23rd-January 27th
| "Creating and listening to podcasts offers many learning opportunities for pupils both in and out of the classroom...." (Teachers TV). Read more |
| "Get the best possible sound quality possible.
• Get a good microphone.
• Record in a quiet place."...." (Kelly, 2005). Read more |
| 10 Great Ways to use Audacity with Your Students |
| "Audacity is a great audio editor for use in the classroom. It can be used on Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, and the best part about it is that it is free!...." (Tips of the Iceberg). Read more |
Write comments on the readings below.
I really liked the suggestion to post a script of your podcast. I recently posted a video on YouTube and was pleasantly surprised that it could automatically create captions (it wasn't exactly perfect - maybe because I was mumbling a bit!?!) but cool nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteWriting a script may be time consuming, but probably worth it in some cases. I think students could really benefit.
It might even be something like a cloze activity, where you write a script with certain words missing (blanks) for your students to fill in.
Come to think of it, you could have a version of a podcast (perhaps one telling a story?) with 'bleeps' or silences -- so students have to 'fill in the blank' from there.
Anyway, scripts seem like an excellent idea. All of these readings had good ideas and lots of food for thought.
I love your ideas, Matt. The combination of listening and writing or listening and speaking is just an example of the great potential the use of podcasts have in the language classroom. The cloze activity you mention or the possibility of including beeps to make the students complete a story sounds quite exciting and develops students' creativity. Love it! Of course, to do a podcast like that one, we need to prepare a script. It may take some time but it is very rewarding. We invest our time much better and avoid recording once and again. I suggest you to share these wonderful ideas with our colleagues on your new podcasting blog. ;D
DeleteCheers!
Hi Matt,
DeleteI agree with you! Scripts are really useful to organize our ideas before recording podcasts.
Cheers!
I like the idea of recording the YLs oral performances to be shared with parents, friends , school mates etc.
ReplyDeleteWe're supposed to do an end-of-year performance/quiz in front of parents and other students with my 10-11 year olds. A few of them are very shy and they're dreading it as you might guess.
So I was thinking perhaps I could get them record themselves on audacity and put it on voki and play it like that or create a quiz board game with audio on glogster.. The audience could also try to guess who they think is speaking..
Wow, Zeynep. Great ideas! I'm sure your students and their parents will enjoy this activity very much. They will love listening to their voices, learn and have fun. I guess you may also ask them to describe a cartoon or a famous character and the others have to guess who he or she is. ;D
DeleteKudos!
Excelent idea! Recording authentic activities would be motivating to your students.
DeleteGreat!
Yeah! I like the idea of recording everyday interactions, say, at the post office or at a shop. I don't know if it's 100% ethical to record someone without their knowledge, but for a harmless, innocent EFL class? Probably. Or, I suppose one could just tell the person what you're doing, get their permission, and perhaps a big smile...
Deletetelling person and a big smile:)
DeleteGreat start this week, Matt, and happy to see these readings have inspired you into thinking about some ideas to use podcast in class!!!!!:) Writing a script is always a good idea when using podcasts...especially if they have a radio format.
ReplyDeleteHey Z. These readings are a good start to sort of think what you'd you like to do with podcasts. The Glogster project sounds really, really nice...loving it already:)
ReplyDelete"create a quiz board game with audio on glogster.."
ReplyDelete^ now that's a great idea.
Loads of cool suggestions for using podcasts in the classroom. I especially like "Reading 3" and "30 ways to use Audio in the classroom". I am now stuffed but lots of food for thought there.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone used Podcast Machine (mentioned in "30 ways to use Audio")? (http://podcastmachine.com/)
How would you rate it in comparison to Podbean or Podomatic?
What about Aviary Audio Editor? http://advanced.aviary.com/tools/audio-editor
Last question! Can you embed or upload an audio recording on Wallwisher? (like you can with glogster).
Thanks!
I am definitely going to use podcasts in my class next semester. For sure. Now I just have to decide what and how to do it! (◎_◎;)
Well, I need to try this podcast machine. It sounds interesting!
DeleteCheers!
Not used Podcast Machine, but seems interesting to explore...I have heard/read about Aviary Audio Editor...looks like a good option to edit audio online...I don't think you can upload or embed in Wallwisher, but if you have the file URL you can add it to any post you write there.
ReplyDeleteThere are many great advises and tons of creative ideas for recording podcast in this week readings. Really, huge collection! :) Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI find "Guidelines to Consider When Making ESL/EFL Podcasts" especially useful.
I am glad you are making the most of the reading materials.
DeleteCheers!
Happy to know you are enjoying the readings! :D They are really useful, indeed.
DeleteAll 3 of the required readings I have looked at so far contain great tips and suggestions.
ReplyDeleteIn particular, the following caught my attention:
In Reading 1, I like this comment, and it's good to rememebr this for future podcasts:
"Give your voice an air of performance appropriate for the intended audience".
I think Reading 2 - the Guidelines to Consider When Making Podcasts, is a very useful checklist to bear in mind.
Keep It Short and Simple (KISS)is something I will try to do.
In Reading 3, I like the idea of students recording speeches to provide evidence of learning and then uploading them to Glogster, or else provide a link to add to a class Wallwisher, or why not a Lino It stickies poster.
Tom Barrett's presentation of 30 Ideas for Using Audacity in the Extra Reading section provides excellent ideas.
I feel there is so much useful information available on this Podcasting session and the readings have been very helpful.
Thanks for the well chosen selection! I now need to think of a hypothetical project, as I don't currently have a class to use it on. However, a plan for a project will come in useful for the future, I am sure.
It's been a pleasure, Janet. As soon as we start reading, more ideas come out, so it would be good if we collect all those ideas too. ;D
Delete"Podcasting in The Classroom" mentions promoting your podcasts. This seems to be important. Share your podcast with other teachers. Reciprocate and use their podcasts in your class. A podcast gains in value to the extent it is listened to, and commented on.
ReplyDeleteMatt's earlier comment on having a script really increases a podcasts value too.
I agree, Steve. The idea of creating podcasts is making them accessible and available for our target audience (students and colleagues). That is why it is always recommended to have a purpose, clear objectives and a plan when creating our podcasts. Social networks are excellent media to promote them. ;D
DeleteI'm sure, Janet, you will come up with a great podcasting project for this session:)
ReplyDeleteTip 8 and reading 1 really stuck out to me: "Burn a CD of podcasts for those pupils who don't have a computer at home."
DeleteIt is easy to assume everyone has the same technology, but it is important to remember than not everyone does. I didn't have a computer all the way through my first year of graduate school, which wasn't that long ago. Even those that do can have problems with internet or software. (Just this week my laptop came up with a strange problem that refuses to let me on the internet. The tech people can't fix it, so it has to go to the shop for who knows how long.) Point is, this could easily happen to any student, so any assignment we give has to be accessible with software that our school has on every lab computer available to every student. If it is a program our students have to download that our school does not already have installed, then it cannot be a requirement. We have to be sure we make the assignments we want our students to do are tasks they can actually do.
I think some of the 10 Ways to use Audacity in the Classroom are really creative and fun. If I had a way to actually get Audacity in the classroom, (again, no downloading software on school computers allowed), then I could see some value in using it to record some activities. There are other ways to record, however, other than using Audacity, so I could use one of those programs instead. I would also suggest caution about posting student work online publicly like some of these tasks suggest... we legally have to have press releases signed by students for that kind of stuff.
--Jenn
Reading 2 is very useful for new podcasters as it focuses on the technical side of the whole thing. How long should a podcast be? What should it consist of? What names should we give it? What do we need to avoid? I feel these questions are very important.
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, I love 30 Ways to Use Audio in the Classroom.
Natasa,
ReplyDeleteJust answering one of your questions, I would say podcasts should be short; no more than 10 minutes (including the jingle at the beginning and the end) The longer you record, the more you have to edit. So, it's better to record several short podcasts than a very long one. =.=
Evelyn
I enjoyed reading the tips on setting the volume and the speed. I did not know anything about an adequate speed or whether to use mono or stereo.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I did was I made a Voki avatar in the past. I had him use poor grammar and express poor etiquette in his plans for a job interview. I thought students might have fun discussing his inappropriate word choices and interview plans. Heather
The 30 ways to use audio in the classroom was fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Steve about promoting your podcasts - if you don't then no-one will listen to them, and there's no point recording them in the first place as you'll still be in the situation where the teacher is the only person listening. Twitter is a great way to post podcasts, blogs and other student-generated work. If you're working with kids, attach the #comments4kids hashtag and hopefully more people will comment/listen/read.
Reading 2 is really useful for people starting to podcast. It describes the technical tips that we should always take into account when we create a podcast. I believe it is really essential to have a clear purpose when creating podcasts.
ReplyDeleteI also liked Reading 3; the ideas given here are very creative, I particularly liked tip 1, 4, 6 7 and 10.
Really lots of interesting information and ideas of how to use podcast in the classroom and motivate the students. It seems easy to record students speaking about themselves or even take it in turns and create a story to listen to later.
ReplyDelete