Podcasting as a critical digital literacy practice to promote preservice teacher narratives in Colombia

Abstract

This narrative study describes how podcasting framed as a critical digital literacy (CDL) practice can promote student narratives from a bachelor's degree in English language teaching. I applied the research in a private university in Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia. I planned and designed four steps (Student podcast instructions, research student narratives, producing, and socializing the podcast among participants). During this period, the students create and socialized their podcasts; They had to build these files using their life experiences and their narratives. I collected the data by four field notes, podcast scripts, the student's podcast, and a semi-structured interview. The results could evidence that podcasting has different benefits in the educative field. First, it could become an academic practice valuable for generating critical digital literacy among participants. Second, this practice allows the learners to build and spread their narratives using the English language as a tool for developing themselves and their criticality. The results also evidenced that podcasting as a CDL practice promotes student narratives when students are the search engines, editors, broadcasters, and protagonists of their narratives. All of these characteristics are possible when podcasting becomes a social practice and a scenario where students recognize what the English language is for, and the critical purpose of a narrative. I propose in Chapter V, a guideline for doing podcasting as a CDL practice to promote preservice teacher narratives