I’ve been playing around with podcasts and podcast technology for the last several years and have come to appreciate the usefulness of podcasting in several arenas. I have dual job functions at my college, so my opinions are based on classroom use as well as marketing techniques that can effectively employ the use of podcasts. This blog entry will focus on podcast usage in the classroom.
In the area of classroom use, podcasts, as well as vodcasts (or vidcasts) have proven to be useful for both instructors and students at my college. Unlike Duke University, we have not implemented podcasts on a large scale yet, so only a handful of lecture classes have experimented with offering them. The overwhelming positive response has been that by making podcasts of lectures available, it has freed the instructor and students from the traditional “come to class, listen and take notes” style of instruction. Yes, the students need the information, but, depending on the course and material presented, there’s often no compelling reason for them to have to sit in class for 60 minutes M-F to get it. ☺ So, classroom time is freed up for more engaging learning activities.
I recently had a “podcast-worthy” situation occur in a class I teach. Last month I was unable to hold and attend classes for a week due to my husband’s heart surgery, so rather than give my students lots of busy work to do (ack!) or give them half the work load, which would put us way behind, I located my class lectures that I had recorded sometime last year for another project, repurposed them into podcasts, uploaded them on our course management system and class weblog, and held lecture class asynchronously that week. We’ve managed to stay current with our syllabus, and now I’m considering creating more podcasts for next term! My class is really hands-on, since we’re working with industry- specific software in a computer lab, so I’ve been really reluctant to give up my f2f time, but now I’m rethinking it. Also, the students reacted favorably to the podcasts. The final exam results will be helpful, too, in determining how effective the podcasts were for that particular section of information.
On a personal note, my husband, mentioned earlier in this entry, had heart valve replacement surgery on Feb. 14th – yes, Valentine’s Day! He’s home and doing really well. I can actually hear his new techno-valve if I’m sitting really close – it sounds like a Timex watch in there. Bonus: the valve comes with an identification card listing his “part number” on it. LOL! Not sure if he’s supposed to carry that around in his wallet, or what…
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3 comments:
I'm so glad to hear your husband is doing well.
At a conference I attended last year, I saw a pretty cool process one university used to automate podcasting of classes. They added a box to all the rooms that already had PA systems that created an mp3 stream. Teachers could then sign up to have their class podcast, and a server would grab the PA output at their class time each meeting and move it to the web and add it to a feed.
Our classrooms don't have PA systems, but they do all have computers, so I think we might be able to do something.
This is just an FYI. In the article that I reference in my blog, Podcasting in Education, they refer to higher education lecture recordings as "profcasts." I think that this special term is kind of interesting in referring to a particular use.
I am still grappling with when to podcast (or profcast, vodcast,etc)... It is quite popular at the undergrad level - but I also wonder for those who do such 'casts' whether or not attendance to class increases or decreases...of course, it probably depends on the instructor. Also, I think of my F2F classes where I do a combination of lecture, demonstration, discussion, direct instruction, etc (of course, depending on the course and objectives for the particular class). However, I have had instances in those F2F classes where students cannot attend - and recording our class might be beneficial.
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