IN THE PURSUIT OF M-LEARNING – FIRST STEPS IN

IMPLEMENTING PODCAST AMONG K12 STUDENTS IN ESL1

Célia Quintanilha de Menezes

Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique
celiaquintanilhamenezes@gmail.com

Fernando Lopes Moreira

Universidade Portucalense Infante D. Henrique
fmoreira@uportu.pt
Resumo
Numa sociedade cada vez mais dominada pela Tecnologia, onde se depende cada vez mais do resultado da interacção do
Homem com as Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação, novas respostas têm de ser encontradas. É essencial valorizar
e modernizar a escola, criar as condições que favoreçam o sucesso escolar dos alunos, consolidando o papel das
Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação (TIC) enquanto recurso essencial para aprender e ensinar nesta nova era. A
integração das TIC, no processo de ensino e aprendizagem é condição necessária para a construção da escola do futuro e
para o sucesso escolar das novas gerações de portugueses. Esta é a filosofia patente no Plano Tecnológico da Educação.
Este artigo aborda um estudo que se está a fazer numa escola Portuguesa onde ainda existem poucas evidências do
referido Plano. Como forma de contornar os obstáculos decorrentes de uma escola onde ainda não existe a possibilidade
de utilizar livremente as TIC, recorreu-se ao podcast. Com este estudo que está a decorrer, propomo-nos reflectir acerca
da temática específica das TIC, mais concretamente, como complemento às aprendizagens em regime presencial, no
desenvolvimento e aquisição de competências, transversais e específicas, em alunos do 7º ano do 3º ciclo do ensino
básico, no domínio do processo ensino-aprendizagem na disciplina de Inglês, ressaltando o potencial de uma ferramenta
de ensino à distância – o podcast para ser usado na modalidade M-learning, percebendo de que forma este paradigma
inovador de ensino-aprendizagem poderá ser uma mais-valia para os alunos na aquisição e aperfeiçoamento de
competências.

Abstract
In a society dominated by technology, which depends more and more on the result of the human interaction with the
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), new answers have to be found. It is essential to enhance and update
the school, creating conditions for the students’ success, consolidating the role of ICT as a key resource for learning and
teaching in this new era. The integration of ICT in the teaching and learning process is a condition of great priority for the
construction of the school's future and to the success of new Portuguese generation. This philosophy is reflected in the
Technological Plan of Education. This paper describes a study that is being held in a Portuguese school where there is still
little evidence of that Plan. As a way to overcome the logistical obstacles in a school, where the possibility of using ICT
without restrictions is science fiction, using the podcast seems to be an answer. With this study that is still being held, we
will reflect on the specific theme of ICT, more specifically, in the implementation of the podcast as an M-learning tool and
its impact on the acquisition of specific and cross skills on K12 English language students, emphasizing the potential of
this E-learning tool - the podcast - to be used in M-learning, since our youngsters love their mobiles and Mp3 players,
realizing how this new paradigm of teaching-learning can be an advantage for students in the acquisition and
improvement of skills.

Introduction
We all live in a Society of Information and Communication increasingly dominated by Technology, where
the growth of individual knowledge is progressing at a crazy pace. The Society is more and more influenced
by the outcome of the interaction of each of us with the world and with the New Technologies. The
Information Society and the expectations of the Net Generation require changes at a deep level to respond to
the demands of the emerging Technological Revolution. The Digital Revolution within we live gives each
citizen the opportunity to be more participatory and take on as promoter/manager of one’s own knowledge.
More than ever tools are available with a simple mouse click while in the past access to information was a
much harder path to go through. This revolution creates new challenges to school, family and community.
This new paradigm requires a redirection of strategies to be used in the teaching-learning process in schools.
These strategies should include networks to allow the construction of learning.
“Over recent decades there have been major changes in economic and social
life associated with the roles of knowledge and technology in the lives of communities.
1
English as a Second Language
 One of these has concerned the production, distribution and use of new knowledge as
contributor to economic growth and as a product of economic activity: the “knowledge
economy” (OECD, 1996). A second has been the development and widespread
implementation of information and communication technologies (ICT) throughout
society: the “information society” (European Commission, 2000). As Kozma (2003)
observes, ICT provides the tools needed by the knowledge economy and the information
society to create, collect, store and use knowledge as well as to connect with people and
resources across the world and collaborate. The advent of ICT has changed the
environment in which students develop in society in ways that impact on the way they
learn in schools”. (Ainley & Searle, 2005)
It is essential to enhance and update the school by creating the necessary conditions for success in school
for all students, consolidating the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as a key
resource for learning and teaching in this new era. The integration of ICT in the teaching and learning process
is a vital condition to build the school of the future and the educational success of the new Portuguese
generation.
The Technological Plan
It is thus the main objective of the current government education policy to enhance the skills and
qualifications of the Portuguese in the pursuit of the Knowledge Society. The path to the Knowledge Society
requires not only the spread of computer equipment and universal access to broadband, but also the change of
the traditional teaching and learning methods which is crucial the existence of tools, teaching materials and
appropriate content.
“ … o caminho para a sociedade de conhecimento implica não apenas a
massificação de equipamentos informáticos e de conectividade, mas também a
alteração dos métodos tradicionais de ensino e de aprendizagem, para a qual é
preponderante a existência de ferramentas, materiais pedagógicos e conteúdos
adequados”.2
Over the past few years schools hosted several Portuguese infrastructure projects. The Education
Technological Plan aims to set Portugal among the top five most advanced countries in the technological
modernization of education. The plan covers three areas of action - Technology, Content and Training. It is an
integrated plan of action to meet the challenges set out in the European Education and Training 2010.
With the technological modernization, schools will make a qualitative leap and will be open to various areas
of knowledge, and it is thus the center of a network of projects targeted to what really matters: learning more,
more qualified teachers and more motivated students. That is the commitment established by the Council of
Ministers Resolution 137/2007, mentioned above – the Technological Plan for Education. The Technological
Plan is an agenda of change for the Portuguese society that seeks to mobilize business, families and
institutions. With the combined effort of all these stakeholders, Portugal can overcome the challenges of
modernization. The government assumes the Technological Plan as a priority for public policy. The
Technological Plan is also the backbone for Growth and Competitiveness of the National Program of Action
for Growth and Employment, which reflects the implementation in Portugal of the priorities, set in the Lisbon
Strategy. This event underlines the crucial role of education and training to the future of Europe. Education
and training assume particular importance to deliver sustainable growth and more and better jobs. As part of
the Government's Program approved in the Assembly of the Republic, the application of the Technological
Plan began with the XVII Constitutional Government.
On November 24, 2005, after an extended work of gathering ideas and input from various areas of
government and civil society, carried out by the Unit for the Coordination of Technological Plan (UCTP), the
Council of Ministers adopted a document of reference and public commitment to implement a strategy for
growth and competitiveness based on knowledge, technology and innovation. According to the suggestion of
the Advisory Board and to the proposal of the Minister of Economy and Innovation, coordination of the
implementation of the Technological Plan was in charge of coordinating structure of the Lisbon Strategy,
whose mission is essential to boost and to monitor the implementation of these measures, stimulating and
supporting also initiatives under the Technological Plan developed by civil society. The Technological Plan, as

2
In Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 137/2007, p. 6572.
a strategy to promote development and strengthen the competitiveness of the country, is based on three axes:
1. Knowledge - Qualify the Portuguese for the knowledge society, promoting structural measures aimed at
raising the population's average educational levels, creating a comprehensive and diverse system of lifelong
learning and the Portuguese Mobilizing for the Information Society. 2. Technology - Overcome the delay in
science and technology, focusing on capacity of building national scientific and technological, public and
private, recognizing the role of business in creating jobs and skilled in research and development. 3.
Innovation - Give a new impetus to innovation, facilitating the adjustment of the productive to the challenges
imposed by globalization through the dissemination, adaptation and use of new processes, forms of
organization, services and products3. Information and communication technologies have thus the potential to
significantly advance our progress towards the Lisbon objectives (European Comission for Information
Society and Media , 2006).
Providing Digital Literacy
Information technologies have thus brought deep changes in all fronts of daily life and the education
system is no exception, it is in fact a part of the process and it is a primary concern in European countries. The
policies towards the introduction of ICT in schools aim to provide students, future citizens of today’s society,
of a solid digital literacy, working as a major advantage in their professional future. For this purpose training
teachers has also been a major goal, providing them digital literacy, speaking also in terms of technical know-
how, to follow the current government policy. School is one of the most important stakeholders in this task.
Being able to read does not define today’s literacy. This concept includes other literacies such as consumer
literacy, visual literacy, information literacy or digital literacy. The 21st century citizen must have the skills
that allow him to obtain, understand, decode and manipulate information in different formats and to reuse it –
they are the know-how-to-do and the learning-to-learn skills.
“We used to talk about reading, writing and arithmetic as the essential skills
for literacy. To be literate today involves acquiring new skills, including those of using
technology, understanding science, having global awareness, and most important,
having the ability to keep learning, which involves gathering, processing, analyzing,
synthesizing, and presenting information as well as communicating and collaborating.
Free online tools can play a large role in helping students acquire these skills.”
(Solomom & Schrum, 2007, p. 20)
This is a strategic element in lifelong learning, as well, and so it must be developed within Education as
early as possible across the curriculum, so that learning becomes meaningful. According to Ausubel (2003), it
is extremely important to link contents to the needs and common things of the real world. The main idea in
Ausubel's theory is that knowledge is hierarchically organized and that new information is meaningful to the
extent that it can be related or anchored to what is already known, linking the students’ ideas with new
material or concepts, thus harnessing knowledge (Ausubel, 2003).
Taking Advantages of Web 2.0 Tools – Implementing M-learning
However, the Technological Plan hasn’t arrived to many schools yet, at least in the way as it should have.
Both teachers and students face obstacles every day. There is not still a satisfactory rate of computers per
student, for instance. The wireless connection is confined to a small part of schools and, most schools only
have a few computer labs which are most commonly used by the ICT teachers or are already booked by other
teachers. Within this scenario surfing the net is still a frustrating task for many, not to speak about the slow
bandwidth speed. Frequently teachers become unmotivated and give up whatever they had planned to do. For
those who do not give up, E- learning combined with M-learning taking the advantages of Web 2.0 tools can
surely be the answer. On the one hand it is a way to overcome some of the logistical difficulties we have
mentioned before; on the other hand it is also a way to promote some of the 21 st century most precious skills
as it prepares students using a flexible learning approach.
“The shift to Web 2.0 tools can have a profound effect on schools and learning,
causing a transformation in thinking. This will happen because the tools promote
creativity, collaboration, and communication, and they dovetail with learning methods
in which these skills play a part. For example, when students collaborate on a project

3
In http://www.planotecnologico.pt/ (accessed on 9 December 2008).
 and present what they’ve learned, they’ve honed their thinking and organizational
skills. New tools enable that possibility.(…) This new way is collaborative, with
information shared, discussed, refined with others, and understood deeply. It prepares
students to become part of a nimble workforce that makes decisions and keeps learning
as the workplace changes.” (Solomom & Schrum, 2007, p. 21)
The boundaries of learning are changing rapidly. Technological products such as, the Internet, mobile
devices, and virtual environments, create possibilities to support learning in new ways. Today learning is not
confined to schools. ICT and Web 2.0 tools offer students greater “flexibility, easier access to information and
the opportunity to match learning to their specific needs, circumstances and learning profile. The home is
increasingly important as a learning environment (European Comission for Information Society and Media ,
2006).
A New Paradigm – Podcast in Education
The impact that E-learning has had on higher education over the past years is truly significant but the
impact on K12 education is clearly taking its first steps. Podcast as M-learning stands to provide Education a
very different dimension – instead of being confined to a room, learning through podcast can really be
anytime, anywhere, and the different rates of learning that students have can this way be respected. However,
what really makes podcast M-learning technology is the fact that the audio content becomes available on the
Internet and that it can be automatically delivered to computers, mobile phones, Mp3 players or PDAs4. Every
time you post an audio file onto the podcast, it is called an episode. These episodes are “pushed” via an RSS 5
feed to subscribers (King & Gura, 2007).
“A podcast is a digitally created audio recording that is shared with others.
The most common way to share a podcast is to post it online, then place a link to that
file on a Website, wiki or blog. Distribution is the key element of podcasting. Because
podcasts are recorded digitally, they can be edited, merged, duplicated, distributed, and
shared with a few mouse clicks. Often there is little or no cost associated with
distribution.(…) in an educational environment, a variety of distribution and listening
scenarios are useful.” (Fontichiaro, 2008, pp. 7, 8)
Although schools and teachers are strongly anchored to traditional methods, they are becoming aware that
it is not enough. This paradigm as a promoter of development of 21st century skills will always have in mind
that the use of these tools will not be the miraculous heal to solve problems related to unsuccessful school
scores, but as potential tools of learning from it and quite attractive and motivating for the involvement of
students in their learning and in the activities. It will surely be an effective support for learning and
development.
“Actually, in the mobile computation, the devices are more ubiquitous. The
growing need of long life education associated with the lack of time to visit a school,
implies to search alternative educations solutions. With mobile devices evolution, in
hardware, and the largest amount and variety of applications, and the growing
utilization of these devices, they became a potential tool to solve the long life education
problem, given that are based in the anytime, anywhere philosophy. However, it is not
enough to have equipments with all of the technical conditions for the education, it is
necessary to develop new pedagogical methodologies and new evaluation methods to
go toward to the technical characteristics of these devices.” (Moreira & Paes, 2007)
Podcast in ESL
Teaching a foreign language is to make that students develop skills that enable them to use the language
correctly and learn to use it properly in real contexts. If we look at the increasing mobility of people and
goods within the European Community and the fact that English has been given the status of universal
communication language, the development of a range of knowledge and essential cross skills is fundamental.
“A aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras é um pré-requisito essencial para o
acesso ao conhecimento e um factor favorável à mobilidade pessoal e profissional. A
4
PDA – Personal Data Assistant
5
RSS – Real Simple Syndication
 par do domínio da língua materna, a capacidade de comunicar em outras línguas é, no
mundo interdependente em que vivemos, uma mais-valia para o exercício da cidadania
de forma activa e participada, pois que tal não se confina, hoje, às fronteiras nacionais.
Além disso, o domínio de competências de comunicação em várias línguas potencia o
alargamento das nossas mundividências, pois permite o acesso a outras culturas,
outros valores, modos de viver e pensar.” (Portal da Educação)
In this scenario podcast can indeed empower students in what concerns learning a foreign language thanks
to its portability and versatility since it is a recorded word product it has obvious connections to language
learning. After a careful planning to the integration of this ICT tool, podcast can be used to promote activities,
such as homework, make interviews (King & Gura, 2007, p. 147), listening comprehension tests, share the
students’ personal feelings and ideas, support the language learning process through grammar episodes,
deliver any kind of content – our imagination is the limit. When students prepare an episode, they have to
work on several levels. They write and rewrite a text to record it later and by doing this they cooperate and
collaborate; they make decisions, agree and disagree with each other. Obviously they make mistakes when
they are recording. Here repetition is the keyword since it is very relevant when studying a foreign language
(Williams, 2007, pp. 30, 31). Another very important issue is that students use the ICT tools as mindtools
since they are being used as knowledge representation tools that means, tools for thinking about the content
that is being studied (Jonassen, 1996).
The usage of podcast in Education brings many advantages for the teaching-learning process. The
innovation factor develops greater interest in students. In the case of learning a foreign language, it is
extremely rewarding, as they develop new vocabulary during the search for the various projects, as well as its
orality, acquiring greater fluency and linguistic dexterity due to the repetitions, which obviously have to be
made during the recording of each episode. With this resource we can observe and respect different pace of
learning, since students can listen as many times as necessary to understand the content in question. The
podcast as a tool of Web 2.0 allows the extension of the physical space of the classroom to the outside. If the
teacher is a good facilitator in the use of this tool, students are encouraged to write more to make the various
episodes, learning more as they are more concerned in preparing a good text to provide consistent and proper
episodes for their colleagues.
Finally, speaking and listening activities stand for significant learning (Ausubel, 2003) activities, more
than the isolated act of reading. The use of the podcast in learning foreign languages is an instrument with
great potential, both educational and motivational and we must not forget that it is a technology that is in the
pocket of the majority of our students.
Implementing Podcast in a Portuguese School
1.1 Agrupamento de Escolas de São Martinho: Escola Básica Integrada de São Martinho
The Vertical Group of São Martinho has its headquarters in Escola Básica Integrada de São Martinho,
which is situated in the parish of São Martinho do Campo, town of Santo Tirso, district of Porto. The Group
includes schools of five parishes (S. Mamede de Negrelos, São Salvador do Campo, São Martinho do Campo,
Roriz and Vilarinho) and pedagogically articulates kindergarten education with the three cycles of basic
education. The parishes that are part of this group belong to the extreme east of Santo Tirso and lies at the
edge of the district of Porto, confronting also with the district of Braga. The local environment is
economically based in the textile and confection industry. A very reasonable part of the population is still
engaged in agriculture, particularly in the production of wine and there is another part of the population that
continues to dedicate their work to trade and construction. The difficulties that the region's textile sector has
been feeling with the globalization of the economy and the competition from countries with a cheap
workforce have led to high rates of unemployment in this population (Projecto Educativo, 2007). Our students
reflect this conjuncture as it directly affects the familiar economy.
Our school is no different from the average Portuguese schools. It is a school where there are still many
obstacles to carry out ICT activities. One of these obstacles lies on the fact that the two computer labs of the
school are often unavailable. The wireless network only covers a small area of the school or the great majority
of students still have no means to connect to the Internet at home, due to economical difficulties. In terms of
hardware, this is close to being obsolete and laptops have also features that provide low and slow
performances. These facts transform a simple task of research into a desperate and frustrating task. Despite all
the schools in the country are officially covered by the Technological Plan, it is still far from being a reality in
most schools. In the case of our school, one of the first signs for the implementation of the Technological Plan
was the recent installation of optical fiber.
1.2 In the Pursuit M-learning: preparing the way
With this study we want to acknowledge how ICT impacts on the development of the learning process in
English language, highlighting the potential of an M-learning tool - the podcast, believing that this new
paradigm may be an advantage for students in the acquisition and improvement of their skills. We believe that
using the podcast, taking advantage of the fact that almost all students have a mobile phone or an Mp3 player,
will enhance the performance and involvement / motivation of students to the English language. The question
we address with this study is: learning with mobile devices using the podcast really improves the learning, the
performance, and the involvement of students in the English language? We believe it does. A similar
experience was already made with 9th grade students in the ESL classes in the same school. E-learning tools,
more precisely the blog and the related activities, triggered potential opportunities in developing the skills of
reading, writing, and orality. They were excellent opportunities to check reading comprehension skills and in
the analysis of the linguistic strategies used by students in the construction of a text in different formats.
These activities also provided the opportunity for collaborative work, which meant that students did not only
use strategies of repetition so common in ESL learning (Menezes, 2008, p. 310).
This study is being held with 97 K12 students (4 classes of ESL of the 7th grade) in the school mentioned
above in the current school year. All of them are our students for the first time and they are in their third year
of English learning. At the very beginning of the school year they were inquired about their attitude and
satisfaction level towards English classes. Another objective for this inquiry was to find out difficulties and
obstacles to the implementation of the M-learning paradigm, by measuring the students’ ICT know-how,
attitude and hardware equipment. With the results we tried to evaluate and anticipate obstacles and
difficulties.
1.3 The inquiry
According to the inquiry about half of the students showed no really enthusiasm for the English language
when we asked if they liked English (Graph 1) and so we could anticipate some indifference and
demotivation.

Graph 1 – Results of the inquiry to the question “Do you like English?” Likert’s scale: 1 stands for “I hate it” and 5 for “I
love it”.
Although figures are not available yet, working with ICT tools has been playing a major role in what
concerns the students’ attitudes and involvement as they have been showing more interest and are becoming
more involved in the first term tasks. This had already been true in the previous year according to the
experience mentioned above. The inclusion of the blog in the English classes has shown to be strategic and of
great impact on learning and on the students’ interactions. The students’ opinion about the usage of this tool as
a support learning tool was quite positive and encouraging. The development of activities related to the blog,
also contributed to a significant improvement in terms of quantitative assessment. At the end of the first
school term the six classes involved had a failure rate of 22.1% versus 4.1% in the third school term, thus
recovering 18% of students who had failed in the first term (Menezes, 2008, p. 310).
They were also asked if they usually studied English. Surprisingly the great majority answered –
sometimes. The reason for this “confession” may be related to the indifference and demotivation they had
until then. When we do not like something, we tend not to pay attention to it.
We also asked them where they usually studied. Only a few said they studied at school or looked for help
at studying centres. The major part of them answered “at home”. This answer was particularly rewarding for
the implementation of our M-learning tool, the podcast. We surely would be able to work at home. As we
have mentioned before, the home is important as a learning environment. When we asked what kind of
resources they usually use, only a few answered the computer and the Internet and the great majority said they
used only the English book, the workbook, the notebook and the dictionary or their grammars. However,
when we asked the minority who admitted to use the computer and the Internet, how they used it, the answer
was not a surprise. They only used the computer to build PowerPoint presentations or to write their school
essays with Word. Then the Internet was only to search for some pictures and texts to paste on their essays
using Google. We concluded that the computer and the Internet had been used only as a productive tool rather
than a cognitive tool (Jonassen, 1996) and this is something we wanted to change straight away. Words such
as blog, wiki or podcast were completely unknown to them. As they have been discovering the various
possibilities given by several Web 2.0 tools, their opinion about the usage of the computer and the Internet has
changed.
Another part of this inquiry had only to do with their ICT know-how, attitude and the hardware they
possessed. When they were asked if they had any interest in ICT, the majority chose numbers 4 and 5 of the
Likert’s scale (Graph 2).

Graph 2 – Results of the inquiry to the question “Do you feel interested by ICT?” Likert’s scale: 1 stands for “completely
uninterested” and 5 for “very interested”.

This might represent a surprise if we compare the results to the little amount of students who admitted to
use the computer and the Internet (Graph 3). But is easily understood when we look at the answers to the
question “What do you use the Internet for?” Here a little group answered that they used it to study, while the
major part of the students answered that they used it to go to MSN, Hi5, to play games, to listen to music or to
watch videos at YouTube (Graph 4).
 Graph 3 – Results of the inquiry to the question “When you study, what kind of resources do you usually use?”

Graph 4 – Results of the inquiry to the question “What do you use the Internet for?”
We can conclude that our students did not face the computer or any other ICT tools as a means for
studying, only for entertainment. Their parents have also the same feeling, as the first punishment their
children receive when they misbehave is to be forbidden to turn the computer on. This is a question of minds
and here there is still a lot to do. We are really working hard to fight this. So far we have not mentioned the
words mobile phone or Mp3 player as we were supposed to. This can be explained by the fact that both our
students and parents, not to mention many of our colleagues and education stakeholders, do not consider these
mobile devices ICT tools. Nevertheless almost every student has one, according to our inquiry. The result is
slightly different when we checked that about a fifth of students still didn’t have a computer at home. When
they were asked if they had Internet connection, more than a half of them said no. These facts are perfectly
understandable as many families work in the textile industry and so have poor wages or some are
unemployed. However, some of our students have been asking for a computer and the Internet connection the
Technological Plan has been offering students at a low price. So far thanks to this program, more students
have one. One of the other questions was to find out if they knew how to make downloads and uploads. Many
of them know how to download music or a game, but not to upload a file, according to their answers.
As we can easily conclude, the students’ ICT know-how was not in a good shape as we expected. Some
lessons had to be spent on teaching them some basic notions of information technology, such as creating an e-
mail, making downloads and uploads, showing them the philosophy of some Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs or
wikis, and of course explaining them what a podcast is and how we were going to use it. For this purpose we
also taught them how to use Audacity, since it is the application we are using to make the episodes for our
podcast.
As a curiosity we had to write a letter to the parents to explain the usage of mobile phones and Mp3 in the
English learning. Many of them did not believe their children when they told them about the new way of
learning English. After this skepticism, we were forced to conclude that there is a lot to do to change and
shape minds.
1.4 The Podcast English is Fun
To achieve the goals of this study the podcast English is Fun was created and it can be accessed at
http://englishisfun.podomatic.com/. Several types of episodes have been made so far, having always in mind
that they are supposed to be a support tool in learning English.

Figure 1 – English is Fun podcast.

In the first episode we can listen to the English teacher introducing herself. This had several objectives.
The students had to listen to it and then had to write a similar text about themselves or about a classmate.
They also made some interviews to some of their classmates. Later they were able to make their first
experiences with this assignments. With these activities they worked their oral/writing skills, learned how to
work with Audacity, learned to post episodes, the management of the podcast is limited to the teacher though
and learned how to download the episodes to their mobile devices. The students showed great enthusiasm
during the activities and frequently made questions in order to know more. At this point not all students had
Internet at home and obviously we had to let them copy the files to their mobile devices. It is a solution to
carry on with M-learning.
Some grammar episodes have been made as well, explaining some relevant issues to their learning. So far
the grammar episodes have been made in Portuguese with examples in English because their language
knowledge is not still mature enough to understand grammatical explanations. We understand that learning a
language is all about communicating and if our students were not able to understand what they were listening
to, the main purpose of the podcast would surely not be achieved. Later on we will attempt grammar episodes
in English.
Another experience we have made was an evaluation worksheet. The students downloaded an episode
which was a girl talking about herself, her family and the place she lived. They had to listen to it as many
times as they felt they had known all the details from the text without the support of the text in the written
format. A few days later, as scheduled, they did the comprehension worksheet about it. The results were very
satisfactory if we have in mind that it was their first experience using this format. About 35% had very good,
18% had good, 23% had fair enough and 24% had a not satisfactory result. The latter results were expectable
because the students, as they said after this task, didn’t believe this type of worksheet was going to be made;
others thought they were going to have the text in the worksheet itself and so didn´t care to listen to the text.
In this school year the English group teachers decided to make extensive reading activities during the
second term. At the beginning of the school year we anticipated here some difficulties. The extensive reading
approach at this level is optional and so the purchase of these books stands for an extra cost of school supplies
for families. We cannot forget that the local environment suffers from high rates of unemployment and this
reflects directly in the families’ economy. Besides when students are confronted with the fact that they have to
read a book, this activity is seen at once as something boring. To overcome these difficulties the podcast
hopes to be the answer with the advantages of having no additional costs for families, the novelty factor, they
have to focus on what they are listening to, developing their orality and being able to listen to as many times
as they need anytime, anywhere. We also believe that they will surely be able to make more questions to
clarify doubts during the lessons. This activity has not been done yet. However, three episodes6 have already
been posted so that the students could listen to them during Christmas holidays as they have more free time to
prepare themselves. Afterwards they will solve some worksheets about the book and will obviously have
some photocopies; after all it is a traditional book made of paper they are supposed to study.
In the meantime, we have launched a competition among students: who produces better and more material
to post, will win a prize at the end of the school year. We believe this way the students will become assiduous
podcast listeners, developing and working their language skills as well as their soft skills, such as
responsibility, working in a team, sharing knowledge and also learning to like to learn.
The podcast has here a great potential. It works as an M-learning tool supporting the traditional learning in
the classroom, working as B-learning. We assume that the distinction between teaching in presence and
teaching at distance will be increasingly be less relevant as the use of communications networks and
interactive multimedia have been gradually integrating the traditional forms of instruction. Thus, one can say
that with this podcast we have been promoting activities based on a hybrid model of learning called blended
learning (b-Learning), which appears to be, as described by Lima and Capitão (2003), a trend, hybrid learning
(Blended Learning), which is E-learning complemented with traditional in presence learning (Lima &
Capitão, 2003, p. 76).
1.5 The Students’ Reactions
The students are definitely responding well to the podcast in spite of the obstacles we have mentioned.
They are listening to and enjoying the episodes. They usually comment on each episode by giving their
opinion in class. Sometimes one of the criticisms is that “they” talk too fast. Nevertheless, they play them
again and again. They say that it is definitely something different and original and so they have been feeling
more motivated. Certainly there is a small group of students that really do not care about. But these are the so
called difficult cases which have to have a different approach. But we have not given up yet.
Another great aspect of this tool we have been feeling is the interaction between students/teacher. They
argue that they feel they are with the teacher at home, creating ties of complicity, creating thus a good
relationship with the students.
Conclusion
In spite of being in its very beginning the podcast has been widely accepted by the majority of the
students. The feeling of being with the teacher at home has an unquestionable impact on the relationship
between students/teacher which is improved. The students have been enjoying listening to the episodes
available on the podcast. It is something new to them and we believe we will have more fans until the end of
this study.
The teacher has double work to do in the creation of the podcast. Nevertheless, the students’ reactions are
rewarding and this is what keeps us going on. Speaking of podcast is talking about contents that can be
studied or recalled anytime, anywhere. Speaking of podcast is to talk about a new relationship with students.
This form of distributing free contents is taking its first steps in Portuguese schools and it is without shadow
of a doubt a tool with great potential to work as a learning support tool through the implementation of M-
learning, developing soft, digital skills and, in this case, language skills.
6
We decided to divide the book into three files because some of our students’ mobile devices have a small storage
capacity.
 In schools where the Technological Plan stubbornly fails to arrive on time, the podcast is a tool not to be
forgotten. The spatial and temporal flexibility in the management of individual moments and spaces of
learning is something to take in consideration, as well. These are some of the contributions that the podcast
has been showing us and it has definitely brought innovation to the language educational scenario.

Bibliography
Ainley, J., & Searle, D. (2005). Students in a Digital Age: Some implications of ICT for teaching and
Learning. Austrália.
Ausubel, D. P. (2003). Aquisição e Retenção de Conhecimentos: Uma Perspectiva Cognitiva. (L. Teopisto,
Trad.) Plátano Edições Técnicas.
Fontichiaro, K. (2008). Podcasting at School. Westport, Connecticut, USA: Libraries Unlimited.
Information Society and Education: Linking European Policies (2006). European
Commission for Information Society and Media. Luxembourg.
Jonassen, D. H. (1996). Computers in the Classroom - Mindtools for Critical Thinking. New Jersey, Ohio:
Prentice Hall.
King, K. P., & Gura, M. (2007). Podcasting for Teachers. Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age
Publishing, Inc.
Lima, J. R., & Capitão, Z. (2003). E-Learning e E-Conteúdos - Aplicações das
Teorias Tradicionais e Modernas de Ensino e Aprendizagem à Organização e
Estruturação de E-Cursos. Lisboa: Centro Atlântico.
Projecto Educativo (2007). São Martinho Do Campo.
Menezes, C. Q. (2008). Utilização de Ferramentas E-Learning no Contexto de
uma Unidade Programática na Aula de Inglês 9ºAno - o Blog. Actas do Encontro
sobre Web 2.0 (pp. 306-312). Braga: CIEd-UM.
Moreira, F., & Paes, C. (2007). Aprendizagem com Dispositivos Móveis: Aspectos Técnicos e Pedagógicos a
Serem Considerados num Sistema de Educação. Challenges - Actas da V Conferência Internacional de
Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação na Educação (pp. 23-32). Braga: CCUM.
Portal da Educação. (s.d.). Obtido em 23 de Junho de 2008, de Ministério da Educação Portal da Educação:
http://www.min-edu.pt/outerFrame.jsp?link=http%3A//www.dgidc.min-edu.pt/
Solomom, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools. Eugene, Oregon, Washington DC:
ISTE.
Williams, B. (2007). Educator's Podcast Guide. Eugene, Oregon, Washington, DC: ISTE.