ESL Podcasts

      The development of language skills requires immersive experiences involving a culturally rich environment of interactions among a variety of people and media. Specifically, podcasts are an effective approach to growing language. There are a variety of topics and genres that are covered with podcasts to interest any student and are conveniently available anytime and anywhere on any mobile device. Podcasts can be audio only or audiovisual adding to the differentiation of possibilities to meet individual learning styles.  Students can also create their own podcasts on any subject that interests them. This fosters personalization and increases the engagement level to develop languages skills and students feel a healthy level of ownership in the creation of their podcasts. Podcasts also allow language learners to share their podcasts with teachers and peers to gain valuable evaluative feedback. According to Phillips (2017), "The use of podcasts inside and outside of the classroom is one such innovative tool that has garnered increased interest in the field of tertiary level language learning" (Phillips, 2017).
     Educators can use podcasts  in a number of ways. Podcasts can be used as a challenging tool by involving students in a podcast competition that can be voted on by teachers and student body. Also, students can create a digital story on a topic they choose that are within the lesson objectives and guidelines. Another option with podcasts is to have students share a brief bio about themselves to help peers to know them better and to create a supportive environment conducive to learning. 
     Podcasts have opened the door to possibilities to grow language and engagement levels in growing learning outcomes that meet a variety of learning styles to foster 21st century skills in preparing for a world that is yet to exist. I'm excited about the possibilities of podcasts to share with my students...and the world. 
     


Source

Lynch, Matthew. “How Teachers Can Use Podcasts to Promote Learning.” The Tech Edvocate, 20 Mar. 2018, www.thetechedvocate.org/teachers-can-use-podcasts-promote-learning/. 

Ph     Phillips Birgit. (2017) Student-Produced Podcasts in Language Learning – Exploring Student 

                    Perceptions of Podcast Activities Retrieved on July 31st, 2019 from 

                     https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1162673.pdf

Image Source
https://pixabay.com/photos/microphone-tablet-podcast-2469295/

FAKE NEWS!

Actor Denzel Washington said, “If you don’t watch the news, you’re uninformed. If you watch the news, you’re misinformed.” Is this true of our news media today? Is journalism alive or is it dead? There is always a rebuttal. We face the challenging question… “What is true?” This seems to sum up the situation in our world today with the challenges of seeking out reliable sources and information. If this is the challenge among us educators, how more challenging is it for our students. 

Our current technological world has offered up a variety of Web 2.0 tools that help grow our understanding of the world around us. We can learn about any topic at any time in any media. However, trying to guide students through a sea of resources is challenging. Many of these resources are good, but many are just bad. Some are just full of fake news!

Fortunately, Google has recently expanded its digital safety and citizenship curriculum for children. This expansion by Google involves media literacy. This assists students in spotting fake news and other false content. Perez (2019) states, “The company is launching six new media literacy activities for the curriculum that will help teach kids things like how to avoid a phishing attack, what bots are, how to verify that information is credible, how to evaluate sources, how to identify disinformation online, spot fake URLs, and more” (Perez, 2019).

Involving such educational content to help students in the effective and proper use of technology tools can better prepare students to make the most of the technologies available. This is so especially critical today with phishing scams, bots, suspicious emails or texts, and click bate tactics by many counterfeits.

Providing good and effective training to recognize valid sources and information can better assist students in their seeking out reliable sources that are as unbiased as possible and backed by other reliable sources to produce informed minds fostering an environment that is highly credible. 

Source:

Perez, Sarah. “Google's New Media Literacy Program Teaches Kids How to Spot Disinformation and Fake News.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 24 June 2019, techcrunch.com/2019/06/24/googles-new-media-literacy-program-teaches-kids-how-to-spot-disinformation-and-fake-news/.