Hi Marian and all,

I've used and promoted the use of Podomatic in a recent professional
devlopment session with some local (NYC) instructors.
Podomatic is free (at least for now) and very easy to use.
Of the 16 instructors none of them had before crested a podcast...at the
end of a very brief session everyone had created at least one, were really
engaged and found it easy to use.

Below are some of the support materials from the workshop.

First, why podcasts and other such technologies and how are they consistent
with certain educational beliefs and practices? Also an intro to some key
terms that folks who don't have much experience integrating tech into
instruction might want to know:

Rationale for selecting featured technologies in sessions promoting
technology integration:

1. It is free or low cost Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
ICT is the catch-all phrase used to describe a range of technologies for
gathering, storing, retrieving, processing, analysing and transmitting
information. ICT is the fusion of computers and telecommunications.
Computers enable people to work creatively. But they are limit by what they
can access. Adding a communications channel, such as the Internet, extends
the capability of the computer. It allows it to be not only an inexpensive
communications device. It can also become a means of obtaining education,
information, and working creatively with others irrespective of
geographical barriers.

2. Readily available as a software application or web application (software
that performs specific tasks) and runs on most computer platforms (hardware
and internal architecture) with common operating systems (general purpose
software program that enables the computer hardware to communicate and
operate with the other computer application software)

3. Consistent with a learner-centered, participatory approach to adult
literacy education. This approach to teaching and learning draws on student
experience for purposes of engagement. Learning takes place when students
are engaged in authentic tasks that build upon but extend existing skills
sets, knowledge and experience and that are transferable to the tasks and
challenges they face outside of the classroom. In relationship to student
interaction with technology, it encourages students to be critical
consumers of information and active producers of information through a
variety of mediums. It puts students in the position to change the social
landscape that they occupy.


We discussed what Podcasts are:
Podcasting makes audio files, usually in MP3 format, available for download
so you can listen at your convenience. You don't need an IPod; any computer
media player can play the files Podcasts are particularly useful for ESOL
learning. You can connect to others' lessons or create your own.

We review the following selected podcast sites and responded in writing to
the questions below:

Pod casts to learn English
http://www.englishcaster.com/

and 

A Podblaze site for ESL students
http://esl.podblaze.com/ 

1.	How might you use one or more of these resources to support you as a
teacher in terms of your own professional development?

2.	How might you use one or more of these resources within in an
instructional setting with students?

3.	How might you use one or more of these resources as a model for projects
to do with students?

Then using a step-by-step directions (below) each instructor created a
podcast, shared it and developed action plans for how they would introduce
podcasts (both for delivering instructional content adn as a means of
student created work) given thhe particular needs of their students:
Creating a Podcast Step-by-Step

1.	Decide on a theme for your podcast and write it below (grammar lessons,
news summaries for new language learners, my opinions on world events, a
personal journal, etc
)
Theme: ________________________________

2.	Go to start page; http://www.podomatic.com/

3.	Click on "register" to start an account

4.	Create an account by completing the registration information
For future reference write down you user name and password below
User Name ________________________________________
Password _________________________________________


5.	Listen and read the "Podcasting and Videocasting overview" then click
"join now"
6.	Write down the URL of your podcast so you can direct others to it later:
 http://_________________.podOmatic.com
7.	Personalize your podcast by completing items in the podcast options menu
(this feature may bring up an error message. If that happens scroll to the
top of the page and click "skip")
8.	Click on podcasting "tips and tricks" and review some ways of engage
listeners with your podcast then return the "create a podcast page"
9.	Fill in the menu items under "create a podcast"
10.	Record and preview your first podcast, by using the headphone and mic
available to you and the record and preview features on podomatic.
11.	After recording click "publish"
12.	Invite at least one other person in this workshop to listen to your
podcast(provide them with the URL) and to contribute a comment or audio
response.
13.	If time allows, use the podcast "wizard" menu item to customize your
podcast page

Questions to consider when developing action plan:
Which of the podcasts that we used today do you think would be most
relevant, useful and interesting to your students and why?
How would creatig a podcast benefit your students in meeting their learning
goals?
What would be some of the challenges in using these podcasts with your
students?
What would be the challenges in having students create podcasts of their own?
What strategies could you use to meet the challenges?


At 09:44 PM 3/15/2006 -0800, you wrote:

>I've heard recently that podcasting is the most rapidly adopted new

>technology. At a technology in education conference last week, a presenter

>asked the audience how many people were reading or teaching with blogs and

>only a few raised their hands, but many more were using podcasts, and some

>had even created them. 

>

>I attended a workshop this afternoon at TESOL by Aiden Yeh. She teaches

>English in Taiwan, and she is one of those techno-enthusiasts who tries

>out everything. Her English classes have a Yahoo group for posting

>documents and sending email, a blog site for her class blog, and Podomatic

>page for posting student podcasts.

>

>She demonstrated www.podomatic.com, a site that allows you to create and

>post your own podcasts. Aiden uses it with her students, and you can see

>her home page at http://aidenyeh.podOmatic.com/. You can listen to her

>students' speech assignments, and read their comments to each other. If

>you scroll down and start from the bottom you can see how the page has

>developed. 

>

>In about 10 minutes of playing around with this site, I had my own podcast

>posted. (It's at marianthacher.podomatic.com, but so far it's just an

>experiment. If I had a few more minutes in the workshop I could have added

>a musical intro and outro using the sites "mixomatic" feature.) The only

>hardware we needed was a microphone. You can see the possibilities! Aiden

>made a podcast of her course description and syllabus for students to

>download and listen to.

>

>One feature I liked is that it's very easy to subscribe to any podomatic

>site as an RSS feed, or through iTunes. This makes it easy to get notified

>of new podcasts when they are posted, and to download them to an mp3

>player if you wish.

>

>Anyone else using Podomatic? Or do you have other suggestions for free

>podcasting sites?

>

>Marian Thacher

>OTAN

>www.otan.us

>

>----------------------------------------------------

>National Institute for Literacy

>Technology and Literacy mailing list

>Technology at nifl.gov

>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to

http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/technology

>

>




Mariann Fedele
Coordinator of Professional Development, 
Literacy Assistance Center
Moderator,
NIFL Technology and Literacy Discussion List
32 Broadway 10th Floor
New York, New York 10004
212-803-3325
mariannf at lacnyc.org
www.lacnyc.org