College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Podcasting

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures tries new approach to attract students to the languages.

The idea came to Julio Rodriguez when he was walking across the Iowa State campus one day.

"Every time I walk around campus I see student after student with an iPod," he said. "Our target audience (high school students and first- and second-year college students) are the people using this technology so we thought why not take advantage of the technology they are using?"

A new project, "LangCasts: Experiencing Languages Through ISU Podcasts," that Rodriguez and a group of undergraduate students in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures have started, is doing just that.

Rodriguez, the department's instructional support specialist and director of the Foreign Languages Learning Resource Center, says the project will establish the first Iowa State podcast geared towards recruitment of high school students and college freshmen and sophomores into language learning.

The project was recently awarded an almost $4000 recruitment and retention grant from Iowa State's Professional and Scientific Council.

"It makes total sense for the department to use this technology," Rodriguez said. "It's essentially a portable VCR for the radio."

Podcasts are mini radio shows that are available through a web site. Individuals may subscribe free to the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures podcast at www.language.iastate.edu/main/podcast/default.htm. Instructions for subscriptions are also available on this website.

Rodriguez and his student assistants are producing 20 different podcasts – 10 of which will focus on the department's academic programs and 10 of which will be mini language lessions (langcasts), allowing listeners to experience first-hand learning the world languages offered at Iowa State.

Subscribers download the podcasts onto their computer and then onto an MP3 player such as an iPod. Then the "mini radio program" can be played at the listener's convenience.

The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures' first podcast went on-line Nov. 7. The subsequent 10-15 minute podcasts will be available every Monday (excluding the semester break).

The department's first podcast featured the Chinese program and included interviews with Iowa State Chinese students and instructors, facts about the language and China, and examples of how the language works.

"We've done quite a few interviews of individuals for the various podcasts," Rodriguez said. "We've interviewed alumni who have returned to campus as well as guest speakers. Whenever we get a chance to interview someone we take advantage of it."

While Rodriguez is coordinating the project, he has a group of students whom he has begun to rely on to complete each podcast. Spanish student Lori Lynch drafts the script and sets up interviews, many of which are carried out by Mehmet Sahin, a graduate assistant working at the Center. Chinese student Alex Ely is the host of the podcast, while Daniel Francis, a mechanical engineering major, "puts the product all together." Song-Yan (Willy) Mo, an MIS major, assists with the upload of the files.

"We're doing this all in-house and with a very low budget," Rodriguez said, "and it's a very student-centered project."

Future program podcasts will focus on the department's French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Classical Studies, Languages and Cultures for Professions (LCP), Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and teacher education programs. LangCast podcasts will provide programs for the languages the department offers.

The department's Resource Center plans to purchase a dozen iPods and loan them out to students who wish to listen to the podcasts or language audio files. This will also hopefully free up computers in the department's newly renovated Resource Center in Pearson Hall for other uses.

Dawn Bratsch-Prince, professor and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, also said efforts will be made to inform the state's high school language teachers of the podcasts.