Week 2

January 17th-January 23rd




Reading 1                                                                                                             
Podcasting: Audio on the Internet Comes of Age                                          
"Podcasting, a catchy combination of the words iPod and broadcasting, is in vogue at the moment, and everyone who came late to the blogging party wants a piece of the action. If blogging is becoming the tool of choice for many writing instructors bent on giving a real world spin to their classes, then podcasting could be just the ticket for language teachers looking to extend the reach of their classrooms..." (Stanley, 2006). Read more

Reading 2                                                                                                             
The 4 Types of Podcasts                                                                                   
"We recently conducted a workshop on engaging distance education students with podcasting, and there were several questions, and some confusion about the different types of podcasts. Thankfully much of the hype around podcasting has died down and is now focused on Twitter, so there is an opportunity to take a good look at podcasting to uncover any potential benefits to teaching and learning...." (The Instructional Innovations Blogs). Read more

Reading 3                                                                                                             
Podcasting: Academic Tip Sheet                                                                       
"The word ‘podcasting’ was originally associated with the distribution of audio files over the Internet using an XML based RSS feed. Individuals can subscribe to a ‘podcast’ and download it to their personal computers..." (Bennette, 2007). Read more






Make your own Podcasts
Understanding the Podcast Revolution 5 resources for creating and hosting podcasts

Three audacity tips to enhance your recorded interviews How to create your own podcast Using Audacity for pupil radio drama with sound effects






Write comments on the readings below.

49 comments:

  1. I liked the reading by Stanley. It has valuable resources and clearly explains how to make a podcast and its uses in a language classroom.

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  2. That´s right and it has got valuable information for the projects you will start developing and showcasing pretty soon.

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  3. I also liked the first reading. It seemed a little overwhelming to me at first though. I had to read it a few times. I especially appreciated reading about some uses of podcasts in the classroom. I could see that it could be a useful tool for my classes. I hope that I can figure out how to do it and how to coordinate all of these websites. It still seems a little confusing in my brain and I would like to organize it and know how to make it work smoothly on my computer. It seems to take a lot of coordination of websites in order to make it useful in the classroom.

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  4. I enjoyed the required readings and would like to learn more about enhanced podcasting. I had never heard of that before.

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  5. Hi Jeanne...Please, work at your own pace. Sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming when you are dealing with some many tools online. That´s why we chose Audacity, Podomatic and Podbean for this session. We will provide more tools for podcasting in week 3, but that´ll be for you to explore only.

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  6. Enhanced podcasting is a quite intersting type of podcast. Unfortunately we won´t have to cover it in this session. Screencasting and videocasts are also quite interesting types of podcasts for ESL-EFL teachers to explore.

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  7. Thank you for the selection of readings; they cover all stages of podcasting and the necessary technicalities are explained in simple terms.

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  8. I really enjoyed the readings but feel a little overwhelmed. I liked the first reading with many links to podcasts for teachers and students. I also like to read the definitions and examples given as it is all new to me. Great selection of readings. I am excited to put it into practice.

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  9. Hey Susan. Yeah, there´s a lot of info, but I am happy to know they helped you clarify concepts and find new sites about podcasting.

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  10. I enjoyed the readings, especially the first one and the last one as it proved to be a summary of the most important points. Very clear, indeed! I'm glad because I've learnt how to use juice and now I feel I have a clear understanding of what an rss is now. I didn't understand that concept much before!! Fantastic and useful readings! Thanks a lot!! I enjoyed the quiz as well!!

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  11. Quoting Vance: “Chosen carefully, extracts can provoke stimulating discussion, and also bring a range of different voices and varieties of English into the classroom, and podcasts can be selected because their theme ties into the curriculum.” This is an interesting idea related to the topic of integrating podcasts in my teaching context. I’m clicking on the links to see examples of podcasts and I suppose I have to spend some time looking for links that suit my students’ needs and levels to be able to start a podcast directory. One thing is sure, if I can’t find something I should be able to create it!

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  12. Hi Carolina. It sure takes time to find the right website with podcasts suitable for our learners, but we must start somewhere. Now you and your students can also create your own podcasts which will make the activity as engaging as listening to someone else´s podcast. What do you think?

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  13. The Article” Podcasting: Audio on the Internet Comes of Age “ contains a technical content that may be novel to the lay person but I must congratulate Graham Stanley for making simple. I cherish the idea of making students produce their own podcast. I t can be considered as a class project that will foster student's autonomy and creativity. How about video podcasting why does the author seem not confident enough about its use?

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  14. Hello everybody:
    I agree with some of your posts. I did like the first reading too: concise but useful. I had fun with the podcasting quiz although I did not get all of them right. I am looking forward to record my first podcast and listen to your recordings soon soon.
    Regards,
    Teadira

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  15. Flah, Well Graham is essentially talking about the editing part of a video back 2006. Nowadays editing a video is relatively easy and similar to what you do with podcasts. You can edit a video using a software or using online web services like Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/editor?popart=681928

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  16. Tea, for the Quiz I used MyStudiyo (http://www.mystudiyo.com/). It is free. One of the things that I like about this is that you can randomize the order of the questions! You can also add images and video.

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  17. I also enjoyed the quiz. While looking at the quiz site, I found an "interview questions" video that is perfect for business classes.

    hmmmm... I have tried posting this comment by using my name and by google account. I am now going to try anonymous and see if that will work. Any tips for what I may be doing wrong? Rae Roberts

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  18. Happy to know you enjoyed the quiz Rae. Wonderful you have found a quiz for your Business classes. I am using my Google account. All you have to do is choose Google, type your username and password and that´s it. Or you can choose Name + URL.

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  19. I enjoyed the readings, too. It broadened my understanding of what a podcast is (and isn't). I'm afraid I had a pretty limited idea of a podcast being like radio :-)

    As I read, I find myself thinking of ways to bring these ideas into class projects.

    Thanks for a great reading list!

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  20. Hi dear all!
    It's great to read your comments about the readings selected for this week. They are very enlightening. Hope you continue enjoying every single activity created and have a broader idea on the kind of project you will be working on next week. If you know about other readings, please, feel free to share them with us.

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  21. I liked the Academic Tip Sheet. I thought it gave clear and concise explanations about the process of making the podcast. As a visual person, I thought the graphics showing the process of making the podcast useful. I want my students to do a podcasting project in the spring and I think this kind of graphic will make the text much easier for my students to understand as well.

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  22. I'm pretty familiar with podcasts as an avid subscriber and listener, but I'm still unfamiliar with many of the technical aspects. It was refreshing to learn about the resources like Odeo and Podomatic that make publishing them a cinch in case I don't want to tackle the technical aspects of doing it myself.

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  23. Hi Barbara. We are really happy to know these two basic notions (podcast and podcasting) are clear. We can use a podcast following a radio format. In fact most podcasts found in websites or directories follow this format. However, for us ESL-EFL teachers there are may other uses we can give to this.You will learn more about this next week.:)

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  24. Wendy. You have mentioned an important point when planning to use podcasts (or any other web tool for that matter)wiht our students: training. Finding tutorials or readings that will help us do so is really important. The Academic Tip Sheet is an example of this.

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  25. I found these readings cleared up a lot of my confusion about podcasts/ing - thanks Miguel, Evelyn, and Jose. My result on the quiz was pretty average ie.I missed the same Qs as about 45% of the others did (interesting that we can see how we compare). My question re. Graham Stanley's article in the TESL-EJ Week 2 Reading 1: If we create our own blog, will be have to create a podcast "the difficult way," or can we use Podomatic, the "easy way?" - Marcia Yingling

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  26. Hi Marcia. Let´s see if one of your colleagues answer this one=)

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  27. From "Making Your First Podcast": Save your finished audio show at maximum quality in the native format of your audio application. What does this mean???

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  28. More on "Making Your First Podcast": I am finding this article very intimidating. It's telling me all these things I should do and I have no idea what they mean:
    1. minimum bit rate (when does this choice present itself?)
    2. your web server (I don't have a web server)
    3. create the podcast newsfeed (??? how?)/reference enclosures (???)
    4. enclosure tag (I don't know any html)
    5. save your rss file (where? how?)
    6. validate it (??)

    The whole article is incomprehensible to me. Of course, everything is linked to something else but hey, how many articles do we need to read here? I am feeling stressed because so many others have already created their first podcast. Did they do all this stuff? Arrgghh!

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  29. Reading on...."3 Audacity Tips..." Although I have not yet tried to use Audacity to record anything, I can see that this article will be a good resource. It's clear and the illustrations are very helpful. It makes me want to try interviewing my students! This article is much less intimidating than the previous one.

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  30. Reading on... "How to Create Your Own Podcast" by Ed Grabianowski. I guess all of these articles are kind of similar. They are saying the same thing, with minor variations. But I am still not confident about my ability to actually do this. Grabianowski mentions a whole lot of equipment that I do not intend to buy! He makes it sound as if you really need all that stuff to make a good quality podcast. But then again, he is talking about podcasts that people might actually subscribe to.... we are thinking about podcasts we will "inflict on" a captive audience: our students!

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  31. Hello there,
    I have just finished the second reading that lists and explains the four types of podcasting. I am learning a lot and I like the way the information is presented. I want also to thank the webheads and moderators in this program for increasing the tasks complexity gradually while providing scaffolding. I really appreciate it guys :).
    By the way, Is it possible now to produce enhanced podcasts with windows? I do some photo editing with windows movie maker and I am interested in adding the audio content to the snyced images for English teaching.

    Thanks again :)

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  32. Hi Nina. The first 3 articles (Required readings) are the ones you need to read for this week. “Further readings” are extra readings in case you want to learn more. Skip those articles in “Further readings” that you find intimidating. My advice: Read “Required readings” this week and start working on the rest of the activities. Whenever you feel more confident you can always go back to this blog and check the rest of the readings.

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  33. Hi everybody,

    As usual I begin with the last. I like the third article "Podcasting: Academic Tip Sheet". I have found all what I need about podcasting in this tip. As a visual learner, the diagram that explains the podcasting process is beneficial for me.

    Although the video type of podcasts needs more work, I prefer it as it includes the other two types. I just wonder "Are we going to create our own video podcasts?". Actually, I need to learn more about it.

    Also, I like the considerations that we should put in mind before creating our own podcasts. Of course, this will save our time and efforts.

    Thanks for this article!

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  34. Hi Miguel,

    The article "The 4 Types of Podcasts" provides me with more information about the types of podcasts, e.g., their advantages, disadvantages, file format with which they open, their sizes, .. etc. I like screencasts. You use a lot of them with us. They are very beneficial for me.

    Again and again, are we going to create our own screencasts during this sesssion? Actually, I intend to create some of them to my students as part of my PH D. They will be very helpful for them.

    Thanks again. I enjoy this session very much. It is interactive and interesting.

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  35. Hi Azhar. We are really happy to know the readings have helped you to understand about podcatsing. This session is only dealing with podcasts (audio files), not screencasting or videocasts. That´d be a separate session:)

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  36. Hi,

    Stanley's article is a treasure indeed. I can consider it as a solid background about podcasting. You can find information, links and extra resources. Thanks to this article, I manage to understand the RSS feed concept well.

    It also provides me with some ideas of how to make use of podcasts in my EFL classrooms. I like the idea of downloading the podcasts and creating a class media library on CD. I can ask my students to create their own podcasts by audicity for example. Then, I collect them on a CD. It is an applicable idea.

    Thanks for all these articles. They are beneficail for me.

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  37. Hi Miguel,

    When and where can I participate in a session that deals with screencasting or videocasts?

    Thanks so much for your help!

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  38. Hi, I worked through the 3 texts then found myself clicking through links to look at how people were actually using the podcasts. The idea of an online radio station of collected podcasts using GigaDial is one I'd like to try out. Also, the extra reading bits on RSS are interesting - although I hope never to have to dip into the code :P

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  39. Christo, GigaDial is an interesting tool to use for podcasting. Let´s see if we can explore a bit about it by the end of this session.

    Miguel

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  40. Hi!
    I've learned a bunch. I especially liked the first reading too, they explained it all clearly. Now I realized I knew nothing about podcasting. Thanks for these readings!:o)

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  41. Dear Colleagues I am really happy with this flow of information about my favorite topic, These information are really valuable and it really enhanced my knowledge about podcasting.

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  42. I think all of the readings were interesting.
    I liked the first one because it gave ideas/links for authentic listening podcasts for learners. I also enjoyed the short history it gave about the first online live interaction between EFL learners around the world.
    The second article gave me a better idea about all the lingo associated with podcasting which I appreciate since I am usually behind with technology words!
    The third article seemed almost like a summary of what I had read about in the other two. However, I still liked it because it put the information into easy to read/see bullet points. I especially liked the list of reminders that one should use before making a podcast!

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  43. Hi Everyone,

    Great conversation regarding the readings for this week. As an overview of podcasting, they do a good job of getting us to understand the basics. I especially liked the explanation on the 4 types of podcasts. It reminds me of all the opportunities their are to share the learning going on in my classroom to an authentic audience. Thanks Miguel for answering all the specific questions. :-)

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  44. Hello everyone!!
    well I enjoyed the readings and I found them enlightening. I did not know for istance that screencast is considered to be a kind of podcast.
    Graham's article was more than informative. Thanks.

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  45. great articles
    easy to follow piqued my interest more will do further readings as time allows. first article the best, thank you moderators keep up the excellent job

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  46. Thanks! Happy to know you have enjoyed readings so far!=)

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  47. I enjoyed the readings. I've learned a bit more about different kinds of podcasting. It's time to put it on practice. I'll give further information how it worked.

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  48. I haven't managed to do all the tasks this week but I have just finished the required reading and feel I have some basics slowly coming into place. What does RSS mean exactly? I realise now that that is what Reader is in Google. I took a peek at the extra reading on tips for using Audacity which looks like it 'll be very useful.

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  49. Hi Trevor. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is great because it allows you to subscribe to different websites and collects them all from one website. The content sort of comes to you instead of you getting it. For example, instead of visiting 20 blogs separately, you can visiting all of them from one single site. To do this you use an aggregator. It will collect and even let you know about updates if changes have been made. A good example of aggregators for reading several blogs from one site is Bloglines. In the case of podcasts is Itunes.

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