I have been hearing about podcasts from quite some time now. But I have never given it a try, because I didn't really believe I could use it, due to my classroom's reality (huge number of students of all levels, focus on the written hability etc).
But on the last week, I've read, and listened, a lot about podcasts and I had a great idea on how to use it with my kind of classrooms.
There's a website called Kid's Fables, where everyone can publish their "fables". It's made especially for kids because fables are stories we can use to teach some values to children. But the more interesting is that it helps you write you fable, explaining what is this, what are the main stories elements and, the most interesting, it's not designed for ESL students, but there are a lot of stories from children all around the world. And if you check the website, you will see that there are stories from kids from all ages.
Thinking about how wonderful things this kind of stories can offer to my students, I thought about a project. The students could write their own fables and post them on this website. But after that, they could record themselves reading the stories that they have written, that is something the website doesn't offer, but we could publish it on our own wiki. This way, the students could practice the written, the speaking and the listening habilities (thinking that they would have to listen to their classmates' podcasts as well).
Well, all my students are on vacation, so I had to try the podcasting tools myself. I recorded myself reading some of the best fables I found on the website.
You don't have to sign up to use the first three tools I've used here. You just go to the website and record what you want. On the other three you have to register, because they use the concept of podcasting and publishing for an audience that wants to follow what you do.
You don't have to sign up to use the first three tools I've used here. You just go to the website and record what you want. On the other three you have to register, because they use the concept of podcasting and publishing for an audience that wants to follow what you do.
"The lion and the donkey" was written by a 10 year-old girl from The United States. I have used Audiopal to record it. This is a very simple and easy tool to use, and the result is great!!
"The owl and the donkey" was written by a 13 year-old girl from Italy. I have used Vocaroo to record it. I think this is not very good. It doesn't reduce the echo and the sounds around you when you are recording. But you can understand quite well what the person is saying.
"The seagull, the pelican and the duck" was written by an 8 year-old boy from Singapore. This is another great tool because the recording sound is very clear and it has another advantage. You can record not only your voice, but a video of yourself reading your story.
"The puppy and his bone" was written by an 8 year-old child from The United States. I've used Podomatic to record it. It's simple and easy to use: it organizes the recording system on a step-by-step way. And in the end, it offers you different players designs to embed it to your blog. It's just a little complicated to find your recording when you return to the website, but after a few clicks you end up finding it. hehehehe
"The baby leopard and the baby monkey" was written by a 9 year old boy from Canada. This tool was the hardest one to use. And I really mean it! But it doesn't mean that I didn't like it! I loved it! It's like a professional studio. You have a large number of things you can do with your recording: you can add other sounds, you can cut it, you can mix different sounds and recordings and a lot more. It's just wonderful!! I didn't do too much because my internet conection was very bad. Even though, the result is excellent! The sound is clear and I've added some effects to make it cooler.
"The panther and the bell" was written by four 9 year-old children from the United States, as well. I've used Audioboo to record it. It's another simple and easy tool, and it uses the same system of podcasts sequence as I described in the Podomatic section, what is something useful when you want to know everything that one specific person is publishing.
