About Podcast, Audacity and Gcast.

The lesson of this week was very informative and practical. I was able to follow most steps by myself and even helped one of my partners, that is why I chose this picture of Podcasting for dummies.

I was amazed by all the steps and softwares we needed to download in order to broadcast our own voices in internet, but the result made it worthy. The best part was to see my channel in itunes, that was really impressive. Nevertheless when we got to the part of thinking how to use this creation of podcasts in language classrooms, I couldn't get many ideas.

The difference I see between getting podcasts and creating them is simply a sense of "personalization", however their uses are the same. If students don't have ipods, they need to be attached to a computer with itunes, though it is not such a bad solution. What is amazing is the easy access students will have to personalized podcasts, and the better fit between what they are studying and the materials they are using.

One last ideas has to do with the free part of this personalized podcasts, not only my students but whoever runs into my channel or my students' will access our mini world, so we need to be cautious about it and protect ourselves. We said in class it is a risk we all face when working with freeware, so I guess we just need to do what we always do so we don't get a bad experience out of it. Personally I don't think I am going to use podcasts in future classes where not all my students have an ipod or access to itunes; but I can bring podcasts to the class and exploit all the listening and content practice they provide.