I have been blogging and audioblogging with a new group of students since September. Most of them are very comfortable setting up their own blogs, posting pictures, and creating links. Part of the success here is that we have more and more teachers at our Institute introducing blogging into the curriculum. This means that students who study with us for a couple of months can continue to blog even though they move to a new level and have a new teacher. Many of the students keep their blogs and keep adding new members in the link field. Because of this, most of our students are linked not only to their classmates but also to other students who study in other levels or to students who have already graduated and left the school. It's really great to see that. The fact that there are more teachers using blogging greatly helps to ensure that the students have a continuous presence online. Students don't see blogging as an assignment they need to complete for one level only, rather, they see it as part of their overall language learning experience. Many of them keep their blogs and continue to stay in touch with their friends after they leave the country.
The next step for me is to start podcasting with my students. I have been experimenting with several things. First, I introduced podcasting as a listening tool. Students are encouraged to listen to podcasts on different websites (e.g., in my BusinessTalk seminar students listen to Business Week podcasts) and iTunes. Another listening assignment for my academic class asks students to listen to one university lecture per week (e.g., lectures from the University of California at Berkely and Standford are available through iTunes).
Although our students have a lot opportunities to attend York University lectures, there are often constraints of time and the number of students that can attend those lectures. Also, lectures end early in December and in April which considerably limits the students' opportunities to attend them. Listening to online university lectures is a great alternative. Students enjoy this activity because, as they have pointed out to me, they can listen to the lectures anywhere, anytime, and as many times as they want. The lectures offered by Berkeley also give students a wide choice of topics so that students can choose lectures that fit with their interests or future majors.
Another thing I have been experimenting with is audioblogging. I have started by taping my students' presentations with a voice recorder. I upload the presentations on our class blog with the help of ODEO where I store the MP3 files. The idea behind this assignment is to help students improve their speaking skills. I encourage students to listen to their presentations again and evaluate their performance. They also get feedback from other students and can comment on their classmates' presentations. This has been a fantastic experience both for me and for my students. Listening to their own presentations helped students to realize their own mistakes while getting feedback from others helped them take more responsibility for developing their own speaking skills. It also helped students to realize that the teacher is not the 'know-it-all' authority figure and that they can greatly benefit from each other's help and support. Making my students more aware of the resources that they have available to help with their own learning is one of the most crucial aspects of preparing students for their future academic life.
The next step for me is to start creating student podcasts. Podcasting is another way to involve students in their own learning. It is something that fits very well with my philosophy of language teaching. I try to get away from classroom tasks that constrain students' creativity towards creating more open environments where students are immersed in meaningful and learner-centered projects on topics of interest. I have talked about this as well as blogging and audioblogging at the TESL Ontario Conference that took place this weekend. The response to podcasting from the educators who attended the presentation was fantastic. I am glad there is such a great interest in this new approach to language learning. What we need right now is to get together and brainstorm for the most effective ways to use podcasting in our teaching. This is the PowerPoint handout from my presentation at the conference.
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