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CILT-SLC case study


CILT

Elliot School, London

ICT

Podcasts and blogs

  • A podcast is a media file, such as a recording from a radio programme, which is distributed over the Internet and can be downloaded.
  • A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Podcasting and blogging are recent developments for us at Elliott School. Initially we decided to work on the use of this technology as a motivational tool given the level of interest shown by students. As we have become more confident in its use we are now using blogs and podcasts for a number of different purposes.

Podcasts


We initially started podcasting as an addition to newsletters. The idea was to do a radio style programme about events at school. These were placed on the school website. This then grew to take on pupil presentations with student work being recorded and shared. These can be heard here. We have also been using podcast production as a focus for some school trips. For example, students going on a sixth form visit to Barcelona were all asked to produce a podcast on an aspect on the city. Recordings were made in Catalonia using an iPod with microphone attached. More recently we have identified listening skills at KS5 to be an area for improvement. Consequently we have developed podcasts recorded by our foreign language assistants (FLAs) on a variety of AS/A2 topics. Each week a new recording is made and placed on our website with a downloadable worksheet. This has been popular with students and is contributing to improved attainment in this area.

Podcasts for listening

Essentially this provides us with further listening resources especially at KS5 but also in languages less frequently taught. We have been able to get extra material in Russian as well as resources for Mandarin and Italian. The podcasts are available from many websites but the best resource is iTunes. Although the programme has to be installed on your computer (this is free and available here), you do not pay for any of the podcasts you download. Thousands of podcasts are available and the difficulty is selecting the best ones. Our favourites are as follows:

Examples of podcasts (listening practice)

French

German

Spanish

These podcasts can be used for AT1 practice in lessons, for homework or for extension. Students can download the podcasts themselves or we have put them on to cd for those students without access to a computer at home. The Spanish students love Notes in Spanish which provides worksheets, although these do not come free of charge.

Making your own podcasts


After using podcasts we had been downloading from iTunes, we decided to develop our own. In doing this it is essential to decide on the purpose of the podcast e.g. a school news update, pupil presentations, communication with a partner school, own listening materials (developed by FLAs). Our own podcasts cover schools news and pupil presentations (examples in German, Spanish and Catalan) and our own listening materials' format follows that of the Edexcel board.

The benefits of recording your own podcasts, especially using students, are that they have a real audience and therefore a true purpose and this raises motivation. This can also lead to creative work and the development of new IT skills. The audience could just be the class, but if the podcast is published on line then the audience is huge. The podcasts files can also be emailed and this has been beneficial in communication with partner schools.

To record your own podcast you will, of course, require a computer. If this is a PC you will need to buy a microphone (these can be quite cheap) and have a programme installed which allows voice recordings. A popular programme is Audacity. This is free of charge and can be downloaded from their website. You can also record using iPods or similar MP3 players. With iPods you have to buy a microphone which you plug in. Not all other MP3 players have the capacity to record. Some such as the iRiver have a microphone built in. So once the recording has been made on the MP3 player you link it up to the computer and import the file. Students have also recorded items on their mobile phones and bluetoothed the files to a laptop.

If your computer is a Mac then you have everything you need on there. The programme called Garageband is made specifically with the production of podcasts in mind. The Apple website provides clear guidelines as to how you can use this programme. This programme also allows video podcasts to be made and you can add in pictures to normal podcast files.

Below are some examples of podcasts made by various schools

School podcasts (updates)

Pupil podcasts

Blogs

In much the same way as podcasting can contribute to developing speaking skills, blogs can help to motivate students in written work and can also be a forum for publishing podcasts, photos, etc. Blogs can be used to produce mini department websites, homework sites, trip information sites, logs of pupil work, on-line trip diaries, the focus for project work between UK and partner schools abroad as well as sites for the exchange of resources.

Our first blog was set up to support a school trip to Barcelona. It provided all the usual information on trips but also allowed students to download items and was also a forum to publish work produced. This first attempt can be seen here. We are also developing blogs as a forum for joint curriculum projects with partner schools in Spain and Germany.

Blogs are varied and a few examples are provided below:

Examples of interesting blogs (reading practice)

Creating a blog


To create a blog you must first open an account with a blogging service like Blogger, EduBlogs or TypePad and register. Each provider is slightly different but they are generally free of charge with upgrades available for a fee. For full guidance on blogging many websites are available, but the very best practice is that of Joe Dale and Ewan McIntosh who provide specific guidance for teachers of languages.

The use of blogs and podcasts can make a difference. It engages students in creative tasks and develops pupils ICT skills communicating with a real audience and focuses students on the productive skills in which students can lack confidence.

Further information on blogging and podcasts is available on the Learning and Teaching Website (Scotland).

Neil Jones, Elliot School, London, March 2007

Please also see the CILT podcast and blog page.