Podcards are in general the same as podcasts, just that they concentrate on a specific town or region, like a postcard.
One of the aims of our course is to find ways to use new media to prepare lessons faster and easier. We used www.eslpodcards.com to design a 45-minute-lesson in 20 minutes. You can find the lesson I designed in our groublog.
Now I tried to find some other suggestions concerning teaching with podcasts etc. I found a nice article, that made me aware of the fact, that teaching with podcasts is just a logical step. Students use their iPods or MP3-players all day long. Of course, they would very unlikely get the idea themselves to use them as a learning tool. But the technology is there, in their hands, and we have just to provide them with the right material to listen to.
I imagine the use of it for example in homework. They get a podcast to listen to and some tasks to do on what they heard. They could either answer on a sheet of paper or -if we showed them how to do so- create an own podcast as answer.
Another possibility to use podcasts would be to create groups and let them design their own radio show on a self-chosen topic. They could research homepages, books, and of course other podcasts as well to get ideas and information. I think, this could be really great fun for the pupils. Once they’re familiar with the technical features they could create personal learning podcasts to learn vocabulary or some facts for an exam or whatever, anything that needs frequent repetition. To be more media-savvy can make things easier for students in learning.
To come to my idea of distance learning again, podcasts can help here as well. For example lessons or parts of lessons could be casted and send to those that are not able to attend the lesson personally. Thus they do not always only read material, but have to activate their other senses as well. Sometimes this is already done at universities.
Podcasts are not new, but I think the idea to use them in class is not yet very widespread. All in all I think that podcasts offer a wide variety of possibilities in teaching that are not yet completely explored at all.
Hi, some weeks ago you wrote a comment on my “Brighton”-lesson plan. I´m really sorry that I did not reply to it earlier. You asked me if I considered it better to have the students listen to the podcard as often as they want or if I would restrict it to three or four times. I think, you´re right with your remark that the activity might become too easy if the students can listen to it as often as they like. However, I would stick to my idea because some students might need to hear it several times in order to understand it well. I think, it is always good if students can determine their working speed themselves.