Sound and Podcasting
Many mobile devices have sound recording and playing functionality providing every opportunity to listen to your favourite music whilst travelling on a train or as a passenger in a car. Many learners have a preference to listening to something new -whether it is a real-life language role play or a downloaded podcast of native language speakers.
So why use the sound facilities on mobile devices?
For many reasons - such as:
- An audio prompt to stimulate a class discussion
- Listen to a radio broadcast relating to the topic of study
- Record an audio book
- Listen to or record a podcast
- Record verbal feedback after a session
- Create an audio tour of the local town or neighbourhood
- Record a set of verbal instructions for a practical activity
- Listen or record audio notes for revision purposes
Are you wanting to arouse interest and curiosity about a new topic to increase learner motivation? Are you needing to clarify a lecture and explain the connection between previous concepts and new? Are you wanting to provide learners with a variety of opinions - other people’s viewpoints?
All these reasons are why to engage with podcasting - or better still encourage your learners to create podcasts for their peers or for next year's class.
Podcasts have become increasingly popular not just for entertainment but for educational purposes too, so that tutors can easily record and publish audio content to learners on a regular basis.You may have experienced a BBC podcast, all of which are free. Or you might be learning a language and have visited the Free Language website or the Learning & Teaching Scotland website to download their language podcasts.
Creating a podcast takes 3 steps:
- Record a sound file
- Upload the file to a web area
- Publish the podcast so learners can 'subscribe'
Audacity is a freely available sound recording software with editing functionalities that is easy to use and easy to prepare the sound file in mp3 format. Visit the How To section to see how to record and publish a podcast. This useful Russell Stannard video shows how to collect podcasts using ITunes.
AudioBoo and iPadio allow you to use your mobile phone to dial a number, record a message and then publish to the website as a podcast.
VoiceThread is a super way to create a multimedia album. A VoiceThread can hold any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways - using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. They can even be exported for offline use on a DVD or video-enabled MP3 player.
Watch examples of VoiceThreads - Voicethreads for Education and Digital Storytelling.. Why not create some and upload the link to Moleshare?
AudioFlash allows you to quickly and easily add audio to your website by creating MP3 compressed audio files and a set of Play, Pause and Stop buttons (SWF Flash) enabling visitors to have complete control over the audio. Once your audio and buttons have been created, you can either copy and paste the generated HTML into another webpage or use the built-in FTP client to upload everything as-is to your server.
If you want to podcast and include an interview with someone (who is not nearby) you could use Skype (free telephony software) and Pamela to record conversations.
Educause has produced a '7 Things to know about Podcasting'
Sound files can support learners who need to hear the words as they learn to read text. Enhanced podcasts are multimedia broadcasts incorporating video clips and still images to 'enhance' the sound recording. These type of broadcasts require Apple's GarageBand or Profcast software and ITunes software to be able to create such casts. The IPod is currently the only mobile device to hold an enhanced podcast.
"Students are increasingly becoming familiar with using social networking and other interactive web services such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and YouTube. This phenomenon has important implications for educational institutions as students increasingly expect such services - or at least aspects of such services - to be mirrored in the delivery of courses.
In this JISC podcast, JISC's Lawrie Phipps and Dave White from the University of Oxford speak about the impact such technologies - commonly gathered under the umbrella term 'Web 2.0' - are having on education and research and how institutions can harness them meaningfully and effectively in support of their students"
Many mobile devices can store and play mp3 sound files so, if you do find a website with podcasts available there usually should be an option to download the sound file too. Transfer the downloaded file to your mobile device and the recording can be listened to whilst on the move. Try these links and find sound files relevant to your subject:
- Search Educate the educational podcasts for teaching and learning.
- Financial literacy advice at Your Money website.
- National Archives
- Radio France
ITunesU has become a popular place to find and download educational podcasts from around the world. At ITunes Store you can browse subjects and themes.
John Traxler, from University of Wolverhampton, has been involved with the Mobiles Enhancing Learning and Support2 e-Learning project. Visit the JISC website to listen to John talk about podcasts and the way of the future. You can also subscribe to the JISC podcast to pick up news on a regular basis.
Songs for Teaching provide downloadable songs for any subject to help learners learn topics, concepts and methods. Why not listen to the Maths Song example? Do you know the difference between mean, medium, and mode or how do you understand equations? Why not do the Picasso Polka or the Pop Andy (Warhol) if you are an art student?
So you, or your learners, haven't got access to a computer or microphone? Then why not use Gabcast software to record a podcast using your mobile phone? Visit the How To section for a guide.