G-cast, Netvibes and my French classes

So, a Spanish teacher on campus told me how she had set up an account on G-cast, and gave the PIN to her students and they called in speaking assignments on the land line or their cell phones. This seemed rather cumbersome to me, but I went and explored the site. Lo and behold! They have XML for the podcasts themselves! After I practiced with my own account, I took each class to the lab today - gave them only 20 minutes to create their Gcast account, record a sample and email me the URL for their podcast's XML. I gave them a specific protocol for naming their account so I wouldn't have BunnyMamma333 sending me podcasts - they had to put their level, first name, last initial (ie 3MaryB).

It just took me about twenty minutes to pull in all their feeds, mostly because I put each level in a different column on my Netvibes page, and then alphabetized them. (I know, I know).

Anywho - and here's the cool part!!! - on one page in Netvibes I can now' play and go' every student's assignment. No more linking to another page! This is the coolest thing ever - or at least in the last two months!

If you have thoughts on this, please share a comment!
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KPM

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Comment by Tonya Wagoner on February 25, 2009 at 8:19pm: I just opened a G-Cast account and would like to know how you're using it. I plan to have students research a classroom appropriate song and then G-Cast to me in French an oral response about what their song of choice is about. . . . I would like to learn how to upload a youtube video onto G-cast if that is possible or even a word document. In short, I'm very inexperienced with G-Cast but am eager to get my feet wet and start as soon as possible. I want the BEST for my students. . . .

Comment by Karen Maginnis on February 25, 2009 at 9:42pm: If you can explore the Gcast account, that will be the best way to see what it can do. I put the rest of my reply on your wall.
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