Producing Open Online Learning Systems

“Podcast, Shmodcast”… Why not “Poolcast”?

This whole “…casting” business seems to my untutored eye to be a bit of a terminological free-for-all at the moment. I haven’t seen “Wormcast” in the debate yet, but the proliferation does somehow remind me of the number of little mounds left on the beach behind my house after the tide goes out. It can only be a matter of time. Some folk seem to go the “techie” route. (If it’s for your PC it’s a “thiscast”, but for your iPod it’s a “thatcast”.) Others seek to distinguish audio from video - eg Podcast versus Vodcast. While for others still it’s all just Podcasting. From the POOLS point of view (language learning application) isn’t the main point that bits of language, be it written or spoken, heard or seen, can now be captured and shared around, and in a way that is supposed to be more accessible than before? Isn’t the datalist of digital materials on the POOLS site (67 at the last count?) a catalogue/archive of podcasts/vodcasts, call them what you will - why not Poolcasts?

Gordon Wells