When I was in the ninth and tenth grades, I was enrolled in Spanish 101 and 102. I did well in the classes, but I can't say that I remember much about Spanish...except my chosen Spanish name. (I was Catalina!) I didn't have a bad teacher, and I didn't dislike the class. I just never really had an opportunity to use all the Spanish that I had learned, so I forgot it. Well, little did I know that I had a ready made, free, review tool at my fingertips...a podcast. I admit when I use iTunes, I generally download music and don't pay much attention to the rest of the things offered there, but after learning about podcasts, I was curious. In case you didn't know, there are TONS of free podcasts available on iTunes and they cover every topic imaginable from learning a foreign language to discussions about books and authors. It was great!Just so you know, here's the podcast that I listened to: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/coffee-break-spanish/id201598403
For those of you who are like me and have some trouble with technical terms, here's a definition of podcasting. According to podcastalley.com (which is a great source of information pertaining to podcasts; they even offer links to certain podcasts) a podcast is: a way to get audio content out to publics using an audio player that supports an mp3 format. So for those of us who are learning all these new technical terms, it's like a combination between an RSS feed and an audio file. The best thing about a podcast is it's convenience. If you have an iPod or any other mp3 player, you can listen to a podcast while doing almost anything else. So you're getting information while at the same time, you're getting things done (such as cleaning or exercising). I have to say, I'm beginning to like this idea of podcast!
Yay! Somebody else uses the foreign language podcasts! For kicks and giggles, I downloaded a Hebrew, Russian, Italian, German, and Spanish one just to try them out. They may not help me reach fluency, but I can function as a tourist over there with the podcast's help. What were/where on iTunes did you find the book discussion podcasts? That would be great for the classroom.
ReplyDeleteHey Ben! I actually just discovered the foreign language podcasts recently...of course I just "discovered" podcasting recently too. But they do seem to be a helpful tool for reviewing the basics of foreign languages. I found the podcasts about book discussions under the title "Book Lovers" in the podcast section of iTunes. There are several to choose from covering anything from a single author to a genre. It's a great resource for us to have in our classrooms! Thanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteKate