Podcasting as Language Learning Tool for Children

A report on Apple's website looks at the use of podcasting in language teaching at ACS Egham International School in London. It teaches English as a foreign language to seven and eight year-old children.

“Learning a new language can be very frightening for a young child”, says Wendy Brandse, 2nd Grade Class Teacher at ACS Egham. “Making a podcast is something they can be successful at straight away. They can record and listen to themselves, and delete and re-record if there is a mistake. The child has control, and doesn’t feel exposed to the whole class, while the teacher can monitor more effectively how each child is doing”

The school has found that using podcasts as part of the teaching process has significantly boosted learning on the part of the pupils.

UNESCO Video Podcast Series

UNESCO just released a series of 9 video podcasts on "human rights, peace, tolerance and the fight against discrimination".

The videos were selected out of more than one hundred proposals from fifty countries submitted under a project on so called 'ICT-enhanced Public Service Broadcasting'. The podcasts have been released on DVD and through podcasting platforms.

This project aimed at putting ICTs, particularly new formats, at the service of content development on major societal and development issues.

“Public service content is not limited to news formats; it can be provided to people/users through different genres: documentary, fiction, TV magazines, animation, etc. In addition to these traditional audiovisual genres, the last few years have witnessed the emergence of new online formats and mobile distribution platforms that have had a tremendous impact on the type of content being generated and the profile of those generating it. Content produced for small mobile devices - commonly called podcasting - will entail different audiovisual choices than those we may apply to images conceived for a big screen”, said Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO’s Assistant Director General for Communication and Information.

For more United Nations related issues, check out the Unicef and
'United Nations Yak' podcasts.

Podcasting Industry News

The podcasting network Wizzard Media announced that it has signed a content licensing and advertising agreement with YouTube.

As a YouTube content partner, Wizzard will have its own brand channel that will enable users to access video podcasts from the Wizzard Media Network. Through this agreement, YouTube will run ads against the shows in Wizzard’s YouTube channel. YouTube will share with Wizzard any ad revenue generated by the streamed Wizzard podcasts.

In addition to the ad revenue generated by increased audiences and advertising opportunities, the agreement with YouTube will also allow for content from the Wizzard Media Network to be incorporated into the Google AdSense Network. Wizzard will receive a share of revenues for certain ads displayed in connection with the playback of Wizzard Videos on the Google AdSense Network. Wizzard has opted to share a percentage of these revenues collected with the show’s creators.

In other news, Data Call Technologies, known for its Digital Signage technology, is acquiring Podcast Ready. Both companies are based in Houston.

Data Call said the acquisition will strengthen its business strategy focusing on emerging new markets for audio and video content. Podcast Ready has an existing infrastructure through which it can provide advertisers with content verification, enabling those advertisers to match their ads with content that is custom-tailored to specific demographics.

Podcast's technological capabilities integrate easily into Data Call's technology, products and services, said Jim Ammons, Data Call's chief executive officer. "Crossing the two technologies of Data Call's Digital Signage with PRI's podcasts technology and services contributes significantly to both entities ability to grow significantly. In the world of marketing, it's all about exposure," he said.

Phil Filleul of Sun Microsystems Discusses its Innovative MiFID Podcast with WPF

The Sun MiFID podcast is one of my favorites. Not because I enjoy listening to it, as it is targeted to a very specific group – business and IT management of banks. Not because the subject matter might interest the general public, as the podcast consists of interviews of bank managers and analysts on the subject of MiFID – a controversial and technical new Banking regulation which European banks must comply with later this year.

However, the innovative way in which podcasting is used has turned the MiFID podcast into an industry standard show, and produced significant direct and indirect ROI for the company behind the podcast - Sun Microsystems. Sun and its MiFID product line are leveraging the podcast to win many multi-million Euro MiFID deals in a very competitive environment.

At Sun, there was and is no corporate podcast or corporate podcast policy. Rather, it was an innovative third party vendor and Phil Filleul of Sun's MiFID product line that initiated the activity with a specific opportunity in mind.

Looking for ways to create quality leads for its MiFID solution, the MiFID marketing division employed several tools and had a budget for generate leads. A creative vendor pitched an interesting idea - rather than use "cold-call" marketing, why not create a MiFID interview-via-podcast series focusing on the controversies and views relating to the new regulation. The target interviewees - decision makers at the major banks who are also the decision makers in the buying process. The goal - use the interview as a way to create quality leads, gain valuable insight into customers, and position Sun as the best supplier.

Time to market was rapid, as the team was wise to identify and comply with internal policies, and use already-available budgets. Also, in order to gain credibility, it was crucial to position the podcast-series as vendor-neutral, and not just a Sun sales tool. Getting the first one or two interviews was a bit difficult, but very quickly the idea quickly caught on in the industry, with high-level management and analysts most willing to be interviewed for a podcast listened to by the industry.

The results by any measurable target were great: cost per lead, cost per quality lead, accumulate valuable customer insights and thoughts, and position Sun's solution as innovative – all this while having fun as well.