上海师范大学2010年教育技术学专业研究生复试试题

考试科目二：外语

The New Oxford American Dictionary defines podcast as “a digital recording of a radio

broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a

personal audio player.” In other words, it’s a digital audio file that’s created,

shared, and heard.

Although many podcasts contain only music or only speaking, most are a creative mix of

voice, music, and sounds. Some now include video or photos. There is a wide variety of

content, such as National Public Radio programming, a university lecture, an

international news update, a band’s newest music, or an individual’s enthusiastic view

of a political issue. Podcasts range in length from a few minutes to several hours.

What’s so revolutionary about a pod­cast? MP3 files have been around for a while and

were accessed easily from the Web. But the arrival of podcasting and its Really Simple

Syndication (RSS) feed means that you no longer have to go to the Web to get newly posted

MP3 files or to download them to an MP3 player. Instead, you can subscribe to a podcast

series. Anytime you log onto the Internet, the software reaches out and automatically

downloads newly posted podcasts to which you’ve subscribed. The new files wait on your

computer or MP3 player until you’re ready to listen.

In September 2004, when podcasting was in its infancy and a Google search of “podcast”

brought up only 24 results, Doc Searls of IT Garage said, “Podcasting will shift much of

our time away from an old medium where we wait for what we might want to hear to a new

medium where we choose what we want to hear, when we want to hear it, and how we want to

give everybody else the option to listen to it.”  Indeed, more and more we want

information when we want it—whether it’s TV or radio programming or other information.

We don’t want to wait. Podcasting gives the end user one more option for information

access at the point of need.

Podcasts are portable. Although accessible via computers, they can also reside on MP3

players and go anywhere. This is a real plus. Librarians can capitalize on this

portability by creating a walking library-orientation podcast for students to carry

around on an MP3 player, following instructions as they learn about different areas and

resources within the library. Or while doing research on a field trip, students can use a

digital recorder to document interviews, observations, notes, and other information and

then come back to the library to produce their own podcasts to share what they learned.

Examples of this type of community research include the work of students from several

primary schools in West Bromwich, U.K., who report on visits to special places in their

community. Students from Mabry Middle School in Marietta, Ga., conducted oral history

research by interviewing World War II veterans as a way of passing history from “one

generation to another and enabling students to create digital representations of their

new knowledge in a medium that is relevant to their teen culture.”

Podcasts actively engage students in their own learning. Since they are already used to

hand-held MP3 technology, integrating it with curricular content comes naturally.

Students even become teachers as they help lead the way during implementation.

一、翻译：书面翻译上面的材料

二、面谈：考生根据上面的材料与导师进行讨论