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Thumbs up to podcasts for language learning

Monday, May 14, 2007


With the right focus, technology can make a difference in teaching and learning. The key is to fix on the educational objective and then select the appropriate tool.

For his French 271 course, assistant professor Tom Armbrecht needed a way to address the language-learning needs of a group of students seeking an extra course credit. “These were self-selected, motivated students,” he says. “I used podcasting in other French courses and knew it was a great way to deliver information. But in this case, I wanted the students to create the podcasts — short videos that would give them the chance to communicate in French.”		Tome Armbrecht
Tom Armbrecht
French 271 is Introduction to French Literature, a fifth- or sixth-semester class of sophomores through seniors, many of whom are seeking to learn to analyze French literature and to improve their communication skills in preparation for study abroad. Eight of the 23 students in the class opted for a fourth credit. Armbrecht saw the small group as the perfect opportunity to try out this technology, which enables students to play back multimedia files on their iPods, PCs or other devices.
girl giving a thumb's up while listening to an ipodIn the course, students learn to analyze French poetry, theatre and prose. Armbrecht asked his extra-credit students to take an extra step by studying film, another kind of narrative. “I asked them to choose an interesting French film and to analyze how it tells a story — not only through words, but through images,” he says. “Students wrote a Siskel and Ebert-type of review that they then recorded as a short video. Their critiques had to include a close analysis of one or two clips from the movie.”
The podcasting activity was supported in part by grants from the Engage program at DoIT. Lisa Jansen of Learning Support Services (LSS) in the College of Letters and Science also lent her assistance.

To prepare for their task, students met bi-weekly during the semester to learn the basics of film analysis (in French). There were also two meetings about the mechanics of assembling the podcasts (in English). They learned to use a tool called Audacity to produce the audio narrative and MovieMaker software for “stitching things together,” as Armbrecht puts it.

The results were videos of seven-to-eight minutes in length, mostly still images with voice-over narration and with about one minute of video excerpts from the films being critiqued. LSS helped students grab excerpts from DVDs of the films. The excerpts fell within fair-use guidelines of copyright law, Armbrecht says.

“We provided the how-to information for the tech tools in English to maintain the focus on learning French,” Armbrecht says. “It’s important to identify your specific pedagogical objectives. Ask ‘what do I want these students to do?’ Avoid being enthralled by the technology. Think pedagogy first.”

Armbrecht says the podcasting activity “has been a great success.” Students submitted their videos electronically in late April, and Armbrecht graded them and posted them as podcasts on the class’s Learn@UW site for viewing and critiquing by the rest of the students in French 271.

With staff from the Engage program, Armbrecht is also investigating the use of Second Life, a software program that would enable his students to learn in an Internet-based virtual setting. (See “Constructive criticism, once removed” in the April issue of Computing@UW.) “Engage has provided the motivation for this,” he says. “Engage grants have shaped my teaching a lot.”




Select the next Engage Adaptation Award topic
Tom Armbrecht’s podcasts were made possible by Adaptation Awards from the Engage program. Now, you can help choose the next award topic. See the article on this page and vote by June 4.