Nik Peachey runs a nice blog for learners of English to encourage learner autonomy, and it's called Nik's Daily English Activities. It's worth exploring this site as a teacher starting to use online resources and tools. Experiment with his tips yourself to get a feeling for what online learning is before you and your students start exploring media for tasks and projects.
In one entry this past May, he recommended that learners subscribe to a poem a day and record it as a daily pronunciation exercise. Learners can check the pronunciation of words and phrases on another website and then record the poems themselves using software they download to their computer. I think this is a lovely idea for a short daily practice session. Here is the post, with all of the links you need: Poems for pronunciation.
The idea of students recording their own voices goes back to language lab days, doesn't it? But these days students can expand on this activity. Once they feel comfortable recording themselves, they can go on and actually make a podcast themselves for others to listen to outside the language lab and even outside their course group - thanks to Web 2.0.
Showing posts with label podcast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label podcast. Show all posts
Monday, 13 July 2009
Thursday, 9 April 2009
Create your own podcast
Quick and dirty:
(http://www.tinkernut.com)
Repeating the video in writing, for PC/ Windows:
1. Download Audacity from http://audacity.sourceforge.net. This will create a folder called "Audacity" In your Program Files
2. Then download the MP3 encoder, called LAME, and extract it into in the Audacity Plug-Ins folder
3. Open up Audacity
4. Press record
5. Cut and Trim, Remove Noise, Normalize
6. Export as MP3, save under a name you choose
7. You can add tags, e.g. from http://mp3tag.de
8. Next, upload your podcast to the site that will host your podcast. This video recommends http://www.podango.com but they are currently on vacation. The one I got started with is completely free, http://www.podomatic.com. The ones recommended by Blogger are http://box.net, http://bluehost.com, http://movedigital.com and http://dreamhost.com, but it looks like you have to pay a minimal monthly hosting fee.
For Mac:
You want to simplify your life? Buy a Mac and use GarageBand, recording software that lets you export your audio file as an mp3 and upload it straight into iTunes. You could also use Audacity on the Mac to create a better-sounding mp3 file, but I don't. And you were wondering why people like Macs? Well, there's your answer.
Combining your podcast and your blog:
If you're like me, you might like to combine your podcast with your blog. If you have a WordPress.com blog, there are podcasting plugins (Podpress and Blubrry Powerpress) that go with the blogging software. And since you already have a host with a WordPress.com blog, you have a place for your audio files, too.
If you are using Blogger, you do need to find someone to host the audio files. But that works fine, too. Watch:
Again in writing:
1. Find a host online for your podcast (again, I recommend http://www.podomatic.com), but they have some other recommendations.
2. In your Blogger blog, enable "Enclosure Links" under "Settings" and "Show links"
3. When you write your post, click on "Add enclosure link" and type in the link of your hosted audio file. That turns each post into a podcast, including your text and the mp3 file.
Listen to your podcast by using RSS feeders, or "podcatchers". The easiest one to use is iTunes:
1. Go into iTunes, pull down the "Advanced" menu and click "Subscribe"
2. Enter your podcast URL, which is your blogspot address, followed by "/feeds/posts/default"
The title of each podcast will be the title of your post. The description will be the text in your post.
For more help, go to http://help.blogger.com
(http://www.tinkernut.com)
Repeating the video in writing, for PC/ Windows:
1. Download Audacity from http://audacity.sourceforge.net. This will create a folder called "Audacity" In your Program Files
2. Then download the MP3 encoder, called LAME, and extract it into in the Audacity Plug-Ins folder
3. Open up Audacity
4. Press record
5. Cut and Trim, Remove Noise, Normalize
6. Export as MP3, save under a name you choose
7. You can add tags, e.g. from http://mp3tag.de
8. Next, upload your podcast to the site that will host your podcast. This video recommends http://www.podango.com but they are currently on vacation. The one I got started with is completely free, http://www.podomatic.com. The ones recommended by Blogger are http://box.net, http://bluehost.com, http://movedigital.com and http://dreamhost.com, but it looks like you have to pay a minimal monthly hosting fee.
For Mac:
You want to simplify your life? Buy a Mac and use GarageBand, recording software that lets you export your audio file as an mp3 and upload it straight into iTunes. You could also use Audacity on the Mac to create a better-sounding mp3 file, but I don't. And you were wondering why people like Macs? Well, there's your answer.
Combining your podcast and your blog:
If you're like me, you might like to combine your podcast with your blog. If you have a WordPress.com blog, there are podcasting plugins (Podpress and Blubrry Powerpress) that go with the blogging software. And since you already have a host with a WordPress.com blog, you have a place for your audio files, too.
If you are using Blogger, you do need to find someone to host the audio files. But that works fine, too. Watch:
Again in writing:
1. Find a host online for your podcast (again, I recommend http://www.podomatic.com), but they have some other recommendations.
2. In your Blogger blog, enable "Enclosure Links" under "Settings" and "Show links"
3. When you write your post, click on "Add enclosure link" and type in the link of your hosted audio file. That turns each post into a podcast, including your text and the mp3 file.
Listen to your podcast by using RSS feeders, or "podcatchers". The easiest one to use is iTunes:
1. Go into iTunes, pull down the "Advanced" menu and click "Subscribe"
2. Enter your podcast URL, which is your blogspot address, followed by "/feeds/posts/default"
The title of each podcast will be the title of your post. The description will be the text in your post.
For more help, go to http://help.blogger.com
Podcasts
I don't think I need to say anything... either you know about these things or you don't.
If you don't, you are probably my age and looking forward to not being challenged by more new technology. ;-)
The "Common Craft Show" video series is for baby boomers who are still interested in what's going on on the techie front and aren't neo-Luddites (yet).
Here's a video clip about podcasts - Podcasting in Plain English.
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
The best podcasts - Rod Zook's Top Ten
There are about 15 podcasts or videocasts I listen to or watch more or less regularly. In my estimation, the best English subscriptions are:
Career Tools and Manager Tools
Manager Tools has been running since about 2005. The hosts have worked together in various capacities for years and have turned their friendship and business / management skills as well as their consulting network into a global audience. For the past year or so they have provided in depth workshops and seminars at numerous locations and have expanded their podcast site to include a range of gratis and premium resources that are often very valuable for students but also for someone who is self-employed.
Several months ago they expanded their focus to include "Career Tools", which targets another audience and therefore a different group of my clients. I routinely suggest the links to students and some of the more advanced of them listen on occasion.
Because they are friends and Americans, their comments can sometimes be a bit melodramatic and chatty, but I then suggest that's an element of cross-cultural communication.
Manager Tools has won numerous web awards and is almost always worth listening to.
Manager Tools has been running since about 2005. The hosts have worked together in various capacities for years and have turned their friendship and business / management skills as well as their consulting network into a global audience. For the past year or so they have provided in depth workshops and seminars at numerous locations and have expanded their podcast site to include a range of gratis and premium resources that are often very valuable for students but also for someone who is self-employed.
Several months ago they expanded their focus to include "Career Tools", which targets another audience and therefore a different group of my clients. I routinely suggest the links to students and some of the more advanced of them listen on occasion.
Because they are friends and Americans, their comments can sometimes be a bit melodramatic and chatty, but I then suggest that's an element of cross-cultural communication.
Manager Tools has won numerous web awards and is almost always worth listening to.
KCRW's Left, Right and Center
Left, Right and Center kept me sane through the primaries and presidential campaign and election in 2008. It's my weekly dose of political analysis and consistently goes beyond simple sound bites or confrontation for the sake of confrontation.
Tips from the Top Floor
Tips from the top floor is similar to Manager Tools in that it has gathered a global audience and has lead to workshops and seminars and fan groups on several continents. It's different in that the host is German and based in Tübingen. The content focuses on digital photography and is a welcome diversion from business and politics! I recommend it to students for that reason and to give them a model of a German who has really mastered English. They can too.
Tips from the top floor is similar to Manager Tools in that it has gathered a global audience and has lead to workshops and seminars and fan groups on several continents. It's different in that the host is German and based in Tübingen. The content focuses on digital photography and is a welcome diversion from business and politics! I recommend it to students for that reason and to give them a model of a German who has really mastered English. They can too.
New Yorker cartoons
The animated New Yorker cartoons are vintage New Yorker magazine. I enjoy them for their insights and typical American humor. I have tried a few of them in class as warmers or fillers, especially if the learner is a cat or dog lover.
The animated New Yorker cartoons are vintage New Yorker magazine. I enjoy them for their insights and typical American humor. I have tried a few of them in class as warmers or fillers, especially if the learner is a cat or dog lover.
AND last but not least -- perhaps my favorite:
I know it's not English, but it pulls me back to some political reality much like John Steward might on the Daily Show.
Of course, I don't follow them all religiously, but there's some good input there and always available when I feel like it or to help me speak intelligently in some course or group.
But now because the baseball season started yesterday, there's even more competition for my time. I also know the link to MLB.TV and enjoy several games per week. I hope you'll excuse me, but I need to go watch the San Francisco Giants home opener live! It starts in about 30 minutes and I need to get a few things done before that yet!
Monday, 6 April 2009
Anything Audio
The Ask Auntie Web column in the Spring edition of MELTA News featured "Anything Audio". Over the next few days we'll be reprinting the column here with all of the links in place for your convenience.
A member, let's call her Audrey, wrote in asking,
Dear Cousin Web,
I think I'm missing out on audio available on the internet. I'd like to use it more in my classes, but I'd also simply like to listen to English broadcasts and podcasts myelf. I can listen to everything on my computer when I'm online, obviously, but what do I need to do if I want to subscribe to a weekly podcast from the web, like Working Lunch from the BBC? And how about the news features that play in RealPlayer: Can I download them, too?
Dear Audrey,
If you want to download audio files to use offline, then the mp3 podcast format is what you want. These files were designed to be played offline on the iPod or other players. Unfortunately, the streamed audio files used by news sites only play online (viz. "Working Lunch"). You can listen or watch online, but you can't take that file with you.
However, if you want to tinker with "ripping" (=rerecording files into a new file or file format) streamed audio files, you might try the VLC media converter (http://www.videolan.org/vlc) or Zamzar, an online converter (http://www.zamzar.com). You can also use recording software such as Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) to rerecord the online file while it plays. I didn't find a way to save the audio, let alone the video for "Working Lunch" to my computer, though. Have any of you tried to do this with success? If so, please send us your tips. Until then, there are plenty of podcasts ready to go.
We asked around at a recent MELTA Business English workshop, and the participants volunteered their favorite podcasts:
BBC Radio 4 (Gillian, Timea and Lisa)
onestopenglish (Gillian, Rosemary and Dianne)
Business Spotlight podcast (Joan and Dianne)
BBC 6-minute English (Marion)
BNET.com Useful Commute (Susan)
Guardian Weekly (Fran)
NPR: 7AM ET News Summary Podcast (Frank)
NPR: Car Talk's Call of the Week Podcast (Frank)
TED Talks (Anne)
The NYT Ethicist (Joan)
The Street (Brian)
Getting started with podcasts: From feed to desktop to player
One way to get individual episodes from a podcast series is to follow the RSS feed button (orange square). RSS (Really Simple Syndication) software organizes online sources of information for you. Clicking on the button takes you to the page containing the episode description(s) and the audio file name(s) ending in "mp3". Copy the audio file you want onto your computer. On a PC/Microsoft, right click your mouse and select "save as". On a Mac "right-click" using "control" and your mouse, or drag and drop the file onto your desktop.
If you want to get a podcast regularly, subscribe to it. Download iTunes for free (from http://www.apple.com/de/itunes). Then either
- Open iTunes, click on Advanced and you'll see the option "Subscribe to podcast". Click on that and paste the feed link to the podcast you have selected (ending in "/rss.xml") into the box. Then click on "OK".
- OR go online to the iTunes Store (the button is on the left sidebar in iTunes.) You will see "Podcasts" on the top right. Under that is "Kartegorien". Click on "Bildung" and, on the right, click on "Alle anzeigen". Browse, scroll down, select what you want and click on "Abonnieren" next to your selection(s).
Save the mp3s you want to listen to onto your mp3 player using your player software. Every player is a bit different.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Stephen Fry on digital natives
Do you ever wonder whether the "digital natives" John was talking about yesterday can write a text message, watch a YouTube video, do their homework on paper, all at the same time, and still be listening to you? I sometimes wonder, but übergeek Stephen Fry seems to think it's no problem. He contributed to a broadcast by Kenan Malik on BBC Radio 4 that asked whether the web is rewiring the brains of young people, and if so, whether we should be worried. A prolific user of twitter himself (http://twitter.com/stephenfry), Stephen Fry has only positive things to say about his own experience. The experts are saying that kids today may not be reading and researching the way older generations did, their attention spans may be shorter, but they can switch quickly between different media and use the huge amounts of information there in new ways. But are they multi-tasking or multi-slacking? Listen to the 28 minute broadcast as a podcast (an mp3 download) and read or print out Stephen Fry's comments here: BBC News.
About two years ago Stephen Fry talked about the potential of the internet for learning in an interview recorded for www.videojug.com, a video sharing site. Did you know that you can download the videos there? It's easy, you just need to register there. Here is Stephen:
Understanding The Internet: Stephen Fry: The Internet
About two years ago Stephen Fry talked about the potential of the internet for learning in an interview recorded for www.videojug.com, a video sharing site. Did you know that you can download the videos there? It's easy, you just need to register there. Here is Stephen:
Understanding The Internet: Stephen Fry: The Internet
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