Podcasting and Language Learning

Background

Web 2.0 marks a significant shift from read-only applications of Web 1.0 to content sharing ‘social software’ that enables communication, collaboration, and interaction among Internet users. Web 2.0 is “a platform for simple, lightweight services that leverage social interactions for communication, collaboration, and creating, remixing and sharing content” (Becta, 2008). Students use Web 2.0 to create and recreate the content with a do-it-yourself and open source approach (Lorenzo, Oblinger, & Dziuban, 2007). They often take the existing material, change it with their own words (by adding or deleting), and then republish it. The activities associated with Web 2.0 realize four human dispositions including (Crook, 2008, pp. 7-8)

• •

  Socializing the Playful: Games and virtual worlds;

• •

  Socializing the Expressive: Media design, sharing, and publication;

• •

  Socializing the Reflective: Blogs, social networks, and wikis; and

• •

  Socializing the Exploratory: Syndication, recommenders, and folksonomies.

There are strong links between Web 2.0 and socio-cultural theories of learning (Selwyn, 2008) which emphasize the dynamic nature of the interplay between teachers, learners, tasks, and contexts (Williams & Burden, 1997). In this framework we see “active and authentic learning taking place best where knowledge can be constructed actively by learners who are supported in communal social settings” (Selwyn, 2008, p. 10).