TEACHING THE WORLD THROUGH PODCASTING (IOW CONFERENCE 08)

Mark Pentleton of Radio Lingua Ltd took us on an entertaining journey through podcasting as the experts do it..
Partners in Excellence
Mark talked of his time as Coordinator of the Partners in Excellence project. Projects included a PiE Cast with interviews and listenings as learning elements. theverbcast.com, with French verb podcasts, appealed strongly to me. Pupils were given a verb a night to learn, combined with relaxation techniques, and then were sent a text message during the day to test.

Radio Lingua Network
Mark talked us through the many and varied podcasts which are on offer through Radio Lingua, including Coffee Break Spanish and French, My Daily Phrase for Italian and German, and One Minute Languages – 10 lessons in Polish, Irish, Russian, Japanese, Catalan, etc.
Moving on from Coffee Break Spanish, now available is Show Time Spanish with Lessons 1-4 building up vocabulary to understand the soap opera each time.

Lessons learned

• Ensure that content is presented in the learner’s context.
• Access – if you point it out to them, then they just might use it
• Learners learn most by making podcasts
• Podcasts are brilliant for sharing information, e.g. collaboration for teachers
• Best podcast = 4 min summary of your lesson
• Consider scripted vs unscripted
• echnical lessons –equipment, ‘respect the ear’ – make the recording as good as possible