Materials Development 2: CALLaborative Podcast Project

The activity discussed in this materials development blog entry is adapted from a project outlined by Arena and Cruvinel (2010). This project integrates task-based learning with Web 2.0 to encourage collaborative interaction among learners while they work on a podcast project. Arena and Cruvinel outline a number reasons for using a podcast project while adapting a task-based learning approach, which I believe would be appropriate for using with the high school student population I will be teaching this fall. Some of the benefits the authors discuss are that learners are able to see the outcomes of their language skills in a concrete outcome and they would engage in interaction with their peers while creating the podcast.The lesson plan demonstrates how throughout different steps of the podcast creation students focus on many different aspects of language, such as reading, writing, listening, speaking and pronunciation.

One of the difficulties I see in creating a task-based project like this one is that it requires the teacher to plan and coordinate steps of the project carefully. If care is not taken to approach such a project in a systematic manner, then the project is not likely to achieve its desired results. The steps outlined by Arena and Cruvinel (2010) address the need for a structured approach to designing the podcast project and are briefly outlined below to help frame how I would design a similar project.

• Step1: Identify a need and a purpose
• Step 2: Negotiate meaningful topics and with learners
• Step 3: Define a concrete result
• Step 4: Choose the right tools
• Step 5: Find and invite partners
• Step 6: Prepare a schedule 
• Step 7: Plan the tasks
• Step 8: Implement the project
• Step 9: Aggregate the artifacts
• Step 10: Evaluate the project

The steps above are all necessary parts of the project and should be outlined in detail, but because of space restrictions for this posting I will skip to step 8, where I focus on implementation of the project. 

Considering that my students would be located in Istanbul, I would focus on finding topics that relate to their immediate surroundings of the city and their lives. Ideas that students might come up with are things to do in Istanbul, including visiting mosques, restaurants, and the grand bizaar. Students could also discuss stereotypes about their culture, as mentioned by Arena and Cruvinel (2010). This could connect to reading or listening input given to learners prior to beginning the project. After the students have decided upon a topic, then the collaborative group work on the projects would begin. Students would use audacity to record and create their podcast.  The podcast would be stored on the hosting site PodOmatic. The lesson planned below outlines this portion of the project.

References

Arena, C. & Cruvinel, E. (2010). Learning through CALLaborative projects using web 2.0 tools. In Shehadeh, A. & Coombe, C. (Eds.). Applications of task-based learning in TESOL. Alexandria, Virginia: TESOL.

Lesson Plan for Collaborative Podcast Project

Introduction

This is my 2nd year in the MATESL program at Northern Arizona University (NAU). In the past I have taught a number of different skill classes at the Program of Intensive English at NAU. I have also taught ESL in China and at Humboldt State University. Outside of teaching and studying, I'm interested in cycling and hiking.

I have experimented with a number of CALL applications as I have taught different classes. My current technology interest is in digital curation and CALL vocabulary applications. I am very excited to learn about different CALL technologies and the ideas other people in the class bring to the table for using them. As someone going on the job market for TESOL jobs, I have found that many employers are looking for teachers with experience with CALL, so I feel that this class will be very beneficial to my job application process as well.

My main expectation for this class is that it will help make me better prepared to evaluate the use of different applications for use in the language classroom. I think that there are a lot of teachers out there who simply use technology for the "it's cool" factor. Last year I attended a couple of presentations at TESOL where it seemed the presenters were simply introducing technologies to attendees because of the cool factor and not necessarily because they were beneficial for language learning and teaching. These were the presentations I ended up walking out on. So I hope that I can come away from this class with the knowledge of how to determine whether a specific application is appropriate or not for teaching various language skills.