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By Kurtis C. Clements
It’s no secret that technology continues to
transform the way educators teach and the way students learn. Increasingly,
students want to be able to learn on their own terms--that is, they want to
be able to study whenever, wherever, and however they choose, and they
expect institutions and faculty to be accommodating. We’ve likely all had
students who for one misguided reason or another believed that their
professors—particularly those teaching online—were available around the
clock to answer questions, provide feedback, and generally just be there if
needed. As unrealistic as this belief is, wouldn’t it be nice if
instructors could approximate being available 24/7? Well, you can—sort
of—through the power of podcasting.
Podcasting is the transmission of regularly
occurring or thematically connected media (audio, still images, and/or
video) across the Internet. Research has shown that students respond
favorably to podcasts (Chester, Buntine, Hammond, & Atkinson, 2011) in
that they see value in and will listen to such content. Although podcasting
has experienced its share of peaks and valleys in popularity, it is still a
technology that educators should not overlook, as podcasting is an
excellent tool instructors can use to meet the needs of today’s students.
For starters, podcasting allows educators to
reach students around the clock. Once students have access to the podcast
(via a Web link or direct download), they are free to listen to it on their
own terms and as many times as they like. So, if it’s 2:00 a.m. and a
student wants to, say, revisit an instructor’s thoughts on the three
appeals of argumentative writing, he or she can. In addition, students will
listen to shorter podcasts (five to 12 minutes) more than once (Jalali,
Leddy, Gauthier, Sun, Hincke, & Carnegie, 2011; Luna & Cullen,
2011), not to mention the fact that students can click “pause” so that they
can think and reflect and maybe even take notes before barreling forward.
Students can also rewind and replay segments as much as they want, or they
can listen to the entire podcast again.
There’s also something comforting about
hearing an instructor’s voice. The way an instructor presents himself or
herself goes a long way in revealing personality as well as establishing
the tone and mood for the learning community. In addition, with just the
right amount of enthusiasm and conviction (I am not suggesting putting on a
dog and pony show), an instructor can, for example, help students realize
just how important the use of the Oxford comma actually is in clear
writing. The instructor’s enthusiasm for the topic can be infectious and
generate interest in students that may not have existed before.
In the online world, podcasts can help the
instructor develop presence—the sense that the person leading the course is
a real live human being. While students cannot connect with a physical
person, they can connect to an aspect of the instructor—the instructor’s
voice--and perhaps other media, and thus gain a better sense of the
instructor as a multidimensional being and not a flat computer icon. With
regular podcasts, students come to anticipate new episodes at particular
times and are drawn to the learning community to the point where the
mediated space becomes increasingly transparent. Podcasts can serve the
same function in face-to-face class settings and extend the learning
community beyond a specific time and place. Podcasts can fill the gaps
between opportunities of live interaction.
Podcasts have great flexibility and can
serve a multitude of educational purposes, including but not limited to the
following:
- Introducing new material
- Providing an overview of
key concepts
- Conveying course
information and policies
- Archiving FAQs
- Addressing issues as needed
- Capturing interviews
What’s great about creating podcasts is that
they can be used over and over again. And if editing or updating is needed,
it’s relatively easy to make such changes to the existing podcast without
the need to start from scratch. In this sense, while initially creating
podcasts might require extra time, once they’re created, they actually save
faculty time.
Perhaps the biggest plus for podcasts is the ease with which they can be
created. Podcasting is not any more complicated than the old cassette
recorder in which the user pressed “record” and “play” to start recording.
Not only is the process of recording content simple and straightforward,
but the software is likely already on your device or available free online.
For faculty who use Macs, GarageBand http://www.apple.com/mac/garageband/
is an easy-to-use application that is included free with the Mac.
GarageBand has a clean interface and more than enough editing functionality
for the average educational podcaster. Faculty can also use Audacity http://audacityteam.org/
(available for both the Mac and PC platforms) to record podcasts. Audacity
is a good, basic recording option with decent editing capabilities. And if
your computer happens to be a dinosaur, then you can use a smartphone.
References
Chester, A., Buntine, A., Hammond, K., & Atkinson, L. (2011).
Podcasting in education: Student attitudes, behaviour and self-efficacy. Educational Technology & Society,
14(2), 236-247. Retrieved from ERIC.
Jalali, A., Leddy, J., Gauthier, M., Sun, R., Hinke, M., & Carnegie, J.
(2011). Use of podcasting as an innovative asynchronous e-learning tool for
students. Online Submission, US-China
Education Review, A(6), 741-748. Retrieved from ERIC.
Luna, G., & Cullen, D. (2011). Podcasting as complement to graduate
teaching: Does it accommodate adult learning theories? International Journal of Teaching and
Learning in Higher Education, 23(1), 40-47. Retrieved from
ERIC.
Kurtis C. Clements is an
assistant chair in the School of General Education at Kaplan University.
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Podcasting Article
ReplyDeleteBeckie Yarger Response
I had not thought very much about the benefits of Podcasting until I read this article. This would be a great format for me, in particular. I do not sleep much. Four hours of sleep gets me by on most nights. Usually, once a week I sleep as long as 6 hours. I guess I naturally do this to ‘catch up’. With the benefit of the Fit Bit, I have learned some interesting facts about my sleep habits. Although my husband goes to bed religiously at 10pm every night, and sleeps a good 8 hours, he gets LESS sleep than I – REALLY. My family is amazed. They have all told me for years that I am shortening my life by not sleeping enough.
Although my husband is in bed 8 hours, and I am in bed only 4-4.5 hours, I get more sleep than he. When I go to bed, the Fit Bit has identified a fact that I knew long ago…. I go to sleep in less than one minute, and when I am asleep, I hardly move at all. I don’t hear noises and lights do not bother me. My husband, on the other hand, is restless and takes 30 minutes to fall asleep. I am saying all that to say that my studying can take place very late at night or early in the morning. A Podcast would certainly be a GREAT tool for me.
I love taking notes and would appreciate the ability to pause the Podcast or restart it. Looking at the video over and over would greatly increase the chances of me and other students adequately following the directions of the instructor.
I am not sure it is ‘comforting’ to hear the instructor’s voice, but it IS reassuring to be able to make CERTAIN that you understand the directions before proceeding down the wrong path on an assignment. (I’ve done it!).
Another benefit that I would appreciate is having a ‘connection’ with the instructor. Online classes do not allow much of that, but a Podcast could display the demeanor of the instructor and help a student get a better feel for what is most important to the instructor.
As far as benefits to instructor goes, I believe it would be very beneficial to have a Podcast made for a class that could be utilized for new groups of students each semester – WITH the ability to easily edit the Podcast as needed.
Thank you for sharing this article.
Beckie Yarger
Thank you Dr. Frutchey for adding this article to our blog. I love Faculty Focus and I love the idea of podcasting. My thoughts on podcasting are that the podcast can be in place or addition to a powerpoint so that students can listen to the lecture whenever and as many times as necessary to understand or master. The best use IMO is for the flipped classroom concepts so that when the students come to class-the class time can be spent doing application type activities rather than listening to a lecture. podcasting is not a new tool it is just becoming more popular in the education sector. I have used podcast to listen to archived sermons from my pastor when I could not go to church or needed to listen to a really good sermon again and maybe even a few more times after that! Ha.
ReplyDeleteI can easily create and alter podcasts to add to the course content already established in my courses. I have a lot of athletes who miss class and rely on recorded lectures from classmates or notes from classmates to get content-by implementing the podcasts-the athletes could listen to the lectures whenever possible.