Levy’s article, which I found the least dry of the two, had me critically analyze my view of podcasting in relation to writing – since we do, at least I, often make the distinction between audio and paper.

I like to write, maybe that’s obvious, and I often listen to podcasts – less obvious unless you know me – and implement them into my instruction (in an ESL setting). But what I hadn’t considered before is this intersection between blogs and broadcasting and how podcasts negotiate that area.  Typically, in a pedagogical sense, I separate writing activities from listening activities (though all the skills are integrated): write a response to this reading, listen to this podcast and shadow the stress, intonation, & rhythm of the speaker. Sadly, I hadn’t contemplated, beyond the surface anyways, the benefits of engaging with a podcast with all four skills: reading, writing, listening, & speaking. And it has me wondering why more ESL instructors have also neglected this area – it seems to be a wealth of “natural” language use for students to engage with.  So while it seems podcasts are dying off these days (or making a come back), I’d definitely like to explore the idea of playing with language through creating podcasts – which I’ve done in a 106 setting, but acknowledge would look quite different in 106i or 620.