英語学習用ポッドキャスト"Hiroshima University's English Podcast" : オリジナル番組の制作と配信システムの構築

Developing and Delivering "Hiroshima University's English Podcast"

Enokida Kazumichi

広島外国語教育研究

Hiroshima Studies in Language and Language Education

[PISSN] 1347-0892

[NCID] AA11424332

In this paper, the process of developing and delivering an original English learning podcast, "Hiroshima University's English Podcast," is explained, especially focusing on technical details. First, the advantages of podcasts compared with other ways of delivering media are discussed. Not only can teachers let their students learn with podcasts in and outside the classroom without having to copy them into package media, but they can use a variety of podcasting materials for free and without worrying about copyright and license infringement. In addition, the potentials of RSS feeds as "pacemakers" for self-learners should be strongly considered. In short, podcasting can be used in university language education as a supplement to its limited class hours without costs and efforts. The survey conducted in Enokida (2008) showed, however, that despite its high potential as a learning tool, very few students as well as teachers use podcasting for self-learning or course materials.

Considering the status quo mentioned above, I have set the following four goals for our podcasting project: to develop original materials which fit the students' needs and abilities, to deliver them on line so that they can be available in wired and mobile situations, to encourage students to learn with podcasts, and to try using them in classrooms to see if podcasting helps students improve their English abilities and learning habits. Since this paper concentrates on the first two goals, detailed information is given on how a podcasting program was planned, recorded, edited, and put onto the web server. Materials recorded in an analogue studio were digitized with a digital recorder. GarageBand, produced by Apple for MacOSX, and cross-platform Audacity were useful in editing digital audio files, enhancing the speech volumes and adding background music, jingles, and sound effects. Nucleus, a freeware CMS program, was used to provide podcasting services; it made it easy to generate not only beautiful web pages but also an RSS feed for iTunes. The podcasts are now open to the public and can be found at iTunes Store. The paper concludes that the first two goals are being achieved, and finds that podcasting materials can be created at low costs thanks to the freeware programs.

Education [ 370 ]

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広島大学外国語教育研究センター

Copyright (c) 2009 広島大学外国語教育研究センター

[ISSN] 1347-0892

[NCID] AA11424332