The potential of using museum podcasts for educational purposes for intercultural exchange

Abstract

Digital technologies take museums beyond the academic framework and expand their capabilities in the educational sphere. Web 2.0 tools allow museums to target the current generation of young people as well as transfer the basic values of humanity to develop an all-sided, harmonious personality capable of lifelong education. Museum podcasting for educational purposes seems to be authentic intercultural content that helps to establish efficient intercultural communication between students from Kazakhstan and other countries, aimed at popularizing cultural heritage and promoting social inclusion and civic engagement. Eleven EFL students agreed to take part in recording five museum podcasts for educational purposes to improve listening and speaking skills, work on interactive student problems, and create a dialogic space that affords student-teacher agency. Student involvement resulted in the development of a meaningful strategy for creating educational museum podcasting, where each episode deals with the art-historical findings of the researchers from the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of Buketov Karaganda University. We think that by using this digital content during curatorial hours, university teachers will help spread awareness of Central Kazakhstan's historical and cultural heritage among students and young people both domestically and abroad.