Week 14: Podcasting, Webcasting, and Course casting

Week 14: April 12, 2010

Our focus this week was on podcasting. I have listened to podcasts and have nursing colleagues that have made podcasts which were added to online courses. However, I have not made a podcast yet. It is not that I don’t know how or am fearful, I basically have not taken the time to make one.

One of the articles that I read this week that I liked was: Deal, Ashley (2007, June). Podcasting. A Teaching With Technology White Paper. Educause. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://connect.educause.edu/files/CMU_Podcasting_Jun07.pdf

The article states: "Only 20% of students in the UW study listened to more than 75% of recorded lectures. In addition to picking and choosing which lectures to review, many students also scan the lectures, fast-forwarding to specific points or sections, and listening to particular portions multiple times (Lane, 2006)."

This is a whitepaper that provide some good info on podcasting. Below are several suggested uses for podcasts:

Reviews for lectures. The article goes on to say: “the true value of podcasting is its “potential not necessarily to educate better, but to educate further” (p. 390) by creating “new opportunities to teach, sans credits and degrees, those for whom attendance, enrollment, or education itself might not otherwise be possible” (p. 393).

For Supplemental Course Related Material. Instructors at many institutions are also experimenting with the delivery of supplemental materials, often designed and produced specifically as podcasts.

For Podcast Assignments. Have students create podcasts as assignments, rather than the instructor creating the content for the assignment.

There were many of us in the discussion forum this week that felt podcasting was beneficial while driving the car or doing some other kind of activity while listening to an ipod. We also seem to feel the same that is unlikely that we would go back and listen to a podcast lecture if we had been in the lecture and taken notes. Finally, we also agreed that an Adobe Connect of a lecture would be more beneficial than a podcast.

Justin (our moderator this week) went on to say in the forum: “ I think there are some inherently different ways of learning based on what technology is being used and if we can reach more people and get them more educated, great. I think the bottom line is we need to understand advantages and disadvantages to different types of technology and we need to try to provide a framework that can be used for learning with different types of technology.”

Cool Resources:

http://learninginhand.com/podcasting-booklet free ebook from Tony Vincent on creating a podcast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb0syrgsH6M from Justin… a talk about Openness in Education

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hrBbczS9I0 tutorial about making a podcast using audacity


Cool Podcasts:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/blog and http://www.thisamericanlife.org/podcast blogging and podcasts on current news and issues called This American Life

http://thiagi.net/podcasts New addition to Dr. Thiagi’s site on creativity and gaming in learning