(January 24, 2008) — Students in Melissa O’Gara’s Spanish classes had the opportunity to combine Spanish with technology in a recent podcast project. Each student chose a Spanish-speaking artist to research. They wrote scripts about the artists and created a podcast summarizing what they thought were the artists’ three greatest or worst artworks. The students used their knowledge of Spanish, the information about the artist, and assistance from Matthew Stroup’s Cinematography students to create podcasts. Katie Warren of ETIS also assisted the three Spanish classes on their projects. O’Gara’s idea for the project developed over the summer, when she was attending a class on creating podcasts with Warren. O’Gara learned how to use Garageband which is the program used to make the podcasts, and decided to incorporate it into her class. In order for her students to be able to create podcasts, they needed Mac computers. O’Gara got Stroup’s permission to use the Mac Lab on the condition that she let his students help so that they could learn from the experience as well. The students added audio, sound effects and pictures of the artist and their artworks. The podcasts were then transferred to iTunes, then submitted to podomatic.com . The project not only allowed the students to learn about how to make a podcast but about Spanish culture as well. Sophomore Arielle Chongco gained enlightening knowledge of the Spanish culture and of artist Antonio Claudio Antolinez. She was surprised to discover that even though he painted religious works, he was sarcastic and rude. “I was glad that the project allowed me to reveal the true nature of this man, instead of just complimenting him based on his artwork,” Chongco said. She also liked how the podcast assignment did not require actually memorizing the script and presenting in front of the class. The podcasts can be found on podomatic.com . Although the pictures can only be viewed on a Mac, audio is available for all computers. Links to podcasts: http://ogaraperiod1.podomatic.com http://ogaraperiod3.podomatic.com http://ogaraperiod5.podomatic.com