Using podcasts for lesson review - session 4 205boo and other media

I just thought of another purpose for audioboo - recording a 3 minute review of a class I've just finished, where I've had to leave the venue just after and haven't been able to write stuff down - in the car before I leave the carpark. If I'm careful what I say, it could be used by someone who missed the class to find out what we did.  I can then transcribe if need be (or run it by Dragon?) afterwards.  Worth a try at least, after the 2 Monday classes.

So here's one of the experiments:

listen to ‘session 4 205
boo
’ on Audioboo

I think I will need to ask someone in the group whether they would find something like this more useful than written comments - I don't have the experience of ESOL learners to know whether the spoken word is easier to deal with than writing. I'm sure it depends on lots of things.
Audioboo makes it easy to share the content in other social media, I need to think about which is the most straightforward for people to access, to increase the chances of them doing so!

On the face of it Pinterest would seem a good choice - you can get to it if someone gives you a link, there is no sign-in needed to view the page.   It is visual and most pin pictures give a good clue as to what the reference is about without needing lots of text. So better for ESOL (or anyone, really).  Getting to the source of the post is just a click.

Here's an attempt at creating a multimedia source for a group -http://www.pinterest.com/nancythehub/it-for-esol-jobseekers-hounslow/  This is a secret page just for the group to include the audioboos recorded on phone, and some pictures taken in class using phone, uploaded to Dropbox to be available for use on PC (e-teaching tutor invited to see them) as well as relevant Youtube videos.

 However, I learn from this article http://mqas.org/blog/2012/02/11/pinteresting-but-is-it-accessible/  that for someone using a screenreader, Pinterest is quite confusing.   (Also you have to have a picture for every pin! So an Audioboo recording has to have a pic attached.)

Then I found this: http://www.web2access.org.uk/.

Funded by JISC, it is a site that has reviewed web tools against various accessibility measures.  In respect of accessibility, at the time of review Tumblr came out quite well among the Journal entries category.  In the Embeddable content generation category, Youtube got the highest score.

The above is about accessibility - one dimension of inclusivity.  Other aspects I need to consider are the availability to learners of internet devices to receive/view the content, and the kind of language used. Also, whether the channel/site invites comment, to encourage involvement, preferably without having to log in first.

 For those not so confident on the internet, a push process might help, since they can be guided to "follow" the posts/page then it will happen automatically thereafter, without them having to remember where to go to find it.