Just catching up with week 4 -task 1!
Podcasting is great because adding the warmth of human voice to
digital communication is wonderful and being able to listen on the go
brings greater flexibility ;-)

Here are my answers about my experience of podcasting:

I find learners love listening to podcasts – for language learners
this speaking and listening has added to the already huge potential of
the web. The fact that many podcasts are short make them motivating
and manageable.

Not all my learners listen to podcasts on the move i.e the don't
download them to their MP3 players they just use the web to play – so
it's more of an extra audio resource. This is because not everyone
here in the south of Italy has MP3 players although it is becoming
more common and now mobile phones are also mobile listening and
recording devices.

It's difficult to select one as I tend to direct learners to a wide
range and have found the podcasting_elt delicious space for keeping an
eye out for interesting material. They definitely need help in sifting
through what's available. With uni students they have even listened to
things like Story telling from http://storynory.com/ or
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/campaign/podcast/cc_podcast_ie_carey.wmv
or simply http://englishcaster.com/bobrob/


Yes, I have created podcasts for teacher training – I developed a
tutorial on podcasting using podOmatic for teachers involved in
eTwinning projects.. I'm checking about copyright and will post link
hopefully soon. This really is about connecting learners to other
communities of learners (for example, to a class in another country).
I think that like blogs this can be very empowering and really
important for some learning styles as well as essential for language
learners. Sharing experience with sound add another aspect, doesn't it?

I was using podOmatic as this was a way to introduce the software to
teachers wanting to do use it with their learners. But I re-recorded
all the audio files using Audacity as the quality and editing options
are superior.
Last EVO we also used Odeo with Buthania.

Do you have any tips for those who are just about to start?
Play around with podOmatic it's a very good way to get started. Join
http://pod-efl.wikispaces.com/ If your class already has a blog see if
you can start by adding audio.

Remember that podcasting covers many things
a) Authentic Listening: learners listen to real-life audio content
(created by others)
b) Real Audience: learners record their own voices and content. The
listeners soon become speakers and can post audio comments in reply to
what they hear.
c) Audio-on-the-go: homework assignments, more listening practice, mp3
files on lessons or relevant topics to integrate or review material
covered in class. Learners can use their PC to listen to it or
download and store this audio content to their portable music players
in their own time, as many times as they want.

If learners are recording their own voices decide whether they can do
trial runs, write text first or not. I think starting off with some
clear ideas can help make projects more successful.
Permanent archive of spoken mistakes can be very off putting for some
learners so work slowly towards making them spontaneous.

I feel voice adds warmth, voice humanizes. Looking forward to Scott's
session soon!
Valentina