Yahoo 360 & Podcasting

Yahoo 360 is the new blog/photo managment/networking etc. tool from Yahoo. Like Gmail, it's invite-only (want an invite to this or to Gmail? Just let me know).



I've been trying it out by blogging about podcasting and ELT. Go here to read my Yahoo 360Podcasting ELT Blog.



I've also set up a podcasting-friendly Feedburner RSS 2.0 feed for the site, although at the moment, there are no podcasts to download.



Podcasting is something I've been wanting to try for a while. I think I'm finally going to give it a go, to see if it's worth the time and effort of pursuing in my EFL context...



I have a few ideas for using it with students, especially as a lot of my students use personal mp3 players, and may well be interested. I introduced one of my classes (the students studying Audio-Visual subjects) to the concept of podcasting as a mini-webquest-discovery activity, and asked them to record their findings/opinions on their blogs. I also let them listen to extracts from podcasts that I'd downloaded.



The idea was to make them aware of something that could be of interest, especially as it's a growing trend in their future industry, and also to pepare the ground for possible podcasting with these students at a later date.



The reaction of the students was positive. They all seemed to take to the idea, and said that it was probably something they would like to investigate further. Here's a few of their comments:



Xavi: "Yhea it sounds cool to me...i think its a good idea. Its not fair that just some one can make radio broadcast, now with the podcast this is over..."



Marcel: "Yes, because I consirer that is a great invent to save music and radio programs, and you can to take with you because is little and light, and in this you can put many songs an radio programs and all type of documents."



Nuria: "I think that it is a very good idea because anybody that are interested in radio can try to begin with this and also I think that's good to everybody becuse you can also lsiten only the things that you want. But, on the other hand It'a problem for people that works in radio because they have to compete with them."

I think the best thing for me to do now is to learn how to do it myself, before involving the students, to sort out any technical issues, and find out how best to set it up.