podcasting as a next generation teaching resource - Jenny Ang Lu.In How to Teach English with Technology

1. Griggio, Victoria
Aplicaciones de la Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés NSPT UTN 2013
Written Assignment for Final Exam.
Podcasting as a Next Generation Teaching Resource
With new technologies emerging every day, educators have come to adopt
innovating ways for teaching their lessons, whether it is with good or bad response from the
students. It is the educator’s intention to achieve a new level of teaching and present their
students with multiple resources from which they can improve their learning process. In
this essay I am going to discuss the ideas presented in the chapter “Podcasting as a Next
Generation Teaching Resource” by Jenny Ang Lu, who introduces the use of “podcasts” in
different teaching and learning environments such as Universities or EFL courses and how
they can improve the learning process and revolutionize the way students work in and out
of the classroom with different kinds of assignments that require the use of podcasts.
The author describes the term “podcast” as a play on the words “iPod” and
“broadcasting”. These podcasts consist of audio files which can be downloaded and played
on a computer or any device that supports MP3 files (Jordan, 2007). Although it may seem
like you need and iPod to access this technology, you do not need to be in possession of
one to listen to podcasts (Selingo, 2006).
The author presents us with many reasons why using podcasts when teaching is an
advantage. To begin with, it can be very easy to have access to this technology. The
concept of downloading audio from the internet is not new; what differentiates podcasting
from previous forms of audio access is “the ease of publication, ease of subscription, and
ease of use across multiple environments” (Campbell, 2055, p. 34). The author says that the
process of podcasting is actually very straightforward and you can even have a program to
help you find and download these audio files called an aggregator or a podcatcher.
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2. Griggio, Victoria
Aplicaciones de la Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés NSPT UTN 2013
Written Assignment for Final Exam.
Another important point mentioned by the author is the use of podcasts by English
language learners. This is particularly useful for EFL students and teachers for whom it is
now easier than ever to build a language immersion environment, regardless of their
physical location (Flanagan & Calandra, 2005); plus, there is a myriad of podcasts that
cater solely to English language learners (Stanley, 2006), and these often come with
transcripts to support language learners. Also, there is a wide variety of topics and issues
discussed in podcasts, there are currently tens of thousands of podcasts available on the
web covering a wide range of subject areas (Thomas, 2006); therefore the student can find
that which suits his preferences best. Podcasts are a natural addition to language classes
(Flanagan & Calandra, 2005) because language is ideally learned through exposure.
The author also shows us two types of podcasts that can be used in the classroom:
those created for the purpose of teaching languages, and those that were simply recorder in
the target language. Podcasts can either be part of assignments and projects; they can be
used as note-taking, for listening activities before, during or after class, for making
transcriptions or simply to provide an opinion about the topic discussed in the podcast;
podcasts are even useful for those students who were not able to attend a class. Another
good point in this chapter is the fact that allowing students to create their own podcasts and
reminding them that these can reach not only their teacher and classmates but also a real
audience will provide them with the incentive to create something meaningful; it is
motivating for them to know that they have the whole world as their audience (Selingo,
2006).
Although the use of podcasts in and out the classroom has proofed to be very useful
and encouraging for students, there are a few things to consider. For example, only a
handful of amateur podcasters stand the test of time because it is neither easy to regularly
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3. Griggio, Victoria
Aplicaciones de la Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés NSPT UTN 2013
Written Assignment for Final Exam.
produce interesting content nor keep listeners interested enough to return on a regular basis
(Lu, J. A. 2007); this could disencourage some podcasters leading them to a less frequent
use of podcasting. In addition, there are some podcasts that can fail to succeed, since
monologues can be very boring and background music is not always well edited. An
interesting example is that of Janossy (2007) who made use of text-to-speech software to
produce podcast; the robotic output did not motivate students since it lacked human
emotion (Lu, J. A. 2007).
There are also other reasons for not taking advantage of such resource as
podcasting, some include lack of motivation, uninteresting content, lack of access to
equipment (Van Amelsvoort, 2007), poor quality, and lack of familiarity (Edirisingha et al.,
2007). Godwin-jones (2005) considers podcasting and similar emerging technologies
disruptive technologies, which he describes as “new and different ways of doing familiar
tasks, and in the process, may threaten the traditional industries” (p. 9).
In conclusion to this chapter, we can say that podcasting is an upcoming technology
and its many uses are yet to be fully uncovered. Jenny Lu makes a clear image of how
podcasts can easily be included in the classroom with great success helping the learning
process, regardless the few bad points some authors have referred to. Podcasting can
become an everyday useful resource for the English language class since, in the author’s
own words, “Language never ceases to evolve […] and educators and students […] can
take advantage of this resource by building their own language immersion environment
through exposing themselves to ample amounts of authentic input through available
podcasts”.
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4. Griggio, Victoria
Aplicaciones de la Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés NSPT UTN 2013
Written Assignment for Final Exam.
References
• Lu, Jenny Ang (2007). Podcasting as a Next Generation Teaching Resource. In
Thomas, M. (2009) Handbook of Research on Web 2.0 and Second Language
Learning (pp. 42-59). Japan: Nagoya University of Commerce and Business.
• Campbell, G (2005). There’s something in the air: Podcasting in education.
Educational Review, 40(6), 32-47.
• Edirisingha, P., Rizzi, C., Nie, M., &Rothwell, L. (2007) Podcasting to provide
teaching and learning support for an unfergraduate module on English language and
communication. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 8(3), 87-107.
Retrieved November 2, 2007, from http://to-
jde.anadoulu.edu.tr/tojde27/articles/article_6.htm
• Flanagan, B. & Calandra, B. (2005). Podcasting in the classroom. Learning and
Leading with Technology, 33(3), 20-23.
• Godwin-Jones, R. (2005). Skype and podcasting: Disruptive technologies for
language learning. Language Learning & Technology, 9(3), 9-12.
• Janossy, J. (2007). Student reaction to podcast learning materials: Preliminary
results. In Engaging the Learner: 12th Annual Instructional Technology conference,
(pp. 98-107). Murfreesboro, Tennessee: middle Tennessee State University.
• Jordan, M. (2007, December 26). What a podcast is – and everything you need to
know about podcasting. The American Chronicle. Retrieved January 13, 2008, from
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=47099
• Selingo, J. (2006, January 25). Students and teachers, From K to 12, hit the
podcasts. New York Times. Retrieved February 4, 2008, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/technology/teachspecial2/25podcast.html?
_r=2&pref=slogin
• Stanley, G. (2006). Podcasting: Audio on the Internet comes of age. TESI-EJ, 9(4).
Retrieved December 2, 2006, from http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-
EJ/ej36/int.html
• Thomas, M. (2006). iPods in education: Innovations in the implementation of
mobile learning. The Knowledge Tree, 10. Retrieved April 10, 2008, from http://kt-
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5. Griggio, Victoria
Aplicaciones de la Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés NSPT UTN 2013
Written Assignment for Final Exam.
flexiblelearning.net.au/KT_ed10-printversion.pdf
• Van Amelsvoort, M. (2007). Podcasting: A view from the trenches. In M. Thomas
(ed.), Wireless Ready E-Proceedings: Podcasting Education and Mobile Assisted
Language Learning, (pp. 121-134). ISSN 1995-4557. Nagoya, Japan: NUCB
Graduate School.
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