In my first emerging technology blog I writing about podcasting. Most of us have probably heard of podcasting either via a friend, on the news, the radio, Internet. You hear it all the time. The word podcasting includes the words pod, which comes from ipod and the word casting, which referrs to broadcasting news or information. Podcast are for example audio files, like audio books, audio files of news, or videos. A lot of radio or tv stations are offering podcast to certain topics on their websites for free. You can then go on the website and download these podcast through their newsfeed onto your ipod or another form of mp3-player. I took a chemistry class last semester and the professor had posted previous lectures as podcasts, so if you missed a lecture of if you just wanted to repeat the material, you could download it in oncourse. I thought this was very helpful way to use it. I personally like to listen to audio books. That is way I download audio books onto my mp3 player and then when being on a long flight I can listen to them. I started listen to these audio books a couple years, ago. The first book I listen to was Harry Potter, I had read the German version of the book before. Then I downloaded the English version of the audio book, because I thought this would be a good way to practice my listening skills. Sometimes local libraries offer the option to download audio books either for free, or for a small amount. Furthermore, even if being here in the U.s. I have access to German news that I can download as well, this way I can listen to them anywhere I am, any time I want and can stay up to date. You can download podcast from Angela Merkel who is the chancelor of Germany under http://www.bundeskanzlerin.de/Webs/BK/DE/Service/RSS/Functions/bundeskanzlerinPodCastRSS20,templateId=renderNewsfeed.xml
Furthermore, I am even able to download certain podcast from German TV stations via itunes, which is nice to have.
I thought it was very easy to learn how to download or use podcasts. I was always used to downloading songs, and downloading a podcast is not any different from downloading another file. I personally have a ipod and an mp3 player and I think especially if you are knew to the Internet it is easier to put files on a mp3-player that operates with a separate SD card so you can just plug in the card and download the files on the card, just like on an USB stick.
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I think it is very cool that you are still able to listen to the German News to keep you up to date while studying here in the United States! I love to listen to the news rather than read everything. So, if I were out of the country it would be a great benefit to have a news podcast instead of reading the news online!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that downloading a podcast on iTunes is just the same as downloading a song. iTunes makes it very easy to access the podcasts, and to search for an audio or video podcast that interests you.
I wish I was bilingual! I find it interesting that you used the English version of the Harry Potter audio book to practice your listening skills. Recently I read an article about the outsourcing of American jobs to India. The article shared that employees at call centers in India watch American TV to listen to how we talk and eventually practice along with the audio. It sounds like this is a great way to learn the language or perfect an accent.
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