Based on this first experience with Podcasting, I could easily have a change of heart about the technology! I fancy myself to be above average in the use of technology, but I certainly felt like I had hit a brick wall these last couple of days using podomatic's site.However, after two days worth of attempts (and even my husband recording on one computer while I did on another), I had to resort to downloading Audacity and working with that software instead. Thank goodness I did! I was able to successfully record my podcast, export it out as an mp3 and then upload that to the podomatic site. I still could not get the music intro/outro's to work, so those are absent from my podcast (which I'm quite distressed by as I was really digging the rock track! :) ).
Alas, I digress. Since I am a techno-geek, of course I would support using podcasting in education. I wrote a research paper on podcasting last summer, as a matter of fact, in hopes of better understanding this technology that I had not yet tackled.
From my paper (2007):
"Teachers already serve as publishers of content in the form of syllabi, documents, presentations, lectures and assignments. These publications, so to speak, are delivered both in text and, in many cases, in online environments via course management systems such as Blackboard and WebCT. Students, then, are really subscribers to the content, so to speak (Malan, 2007).
As a college educator, it is rare to see a student working in a computer lab without their mp3 player, or iPod‚, attached to their heads. With the popularity of these devices, it would seem a waste to not figure out how to integrate this technology into the classroom. This is part of the beauty of podcasting", or its visual counterpart, vodcasting.
As Stacie argued in her blog post (http://staciep.blogspot.com/), I, too, am a visual learner and having the opportunity to watch content, as well as hear it, would definitely help me as a learner. Since I teach visual communications, my students are much the same way, so I think the benefit for me would be in vodcasting.
For example, I am going to try to utilize vodcasting in my summer online course this year for the first time. There is software available that allows you to track mouse movements on your screen and I believe it would be quite helpful for students to see me walk-through an activity, just as I would in a synchronous lab classroom.
As far as the benefits of podcasting in education, for the right audience and demographic, online or distance delivery is sometimes not only the best option, but the only option. Let’s look at the people who really need non-traditional delivery of course content: location-bound students who cannot physically get to a college campus; students with disabilities; students who have to work swing shifts and cannot commit to a 12-16 week set schedule of classes. For these students, alternative learning styles, facilitated with podcasting or vodcasting, makes complete sense.
5 comments:
Lisa,
You may find helpful the series of vodcast by Donna Eyestone if you want to do more with this in your courses. Go to the iTunes store and type in her name and then download her series on vodcast and podcasting from there. And of course there's the link on the wiki for vodcasting: http://community.vlogmap.org/support/how_to_video_blog
Lisa, I had the same problem with the music intro/outros on podomatic. The site would just freeze up or give an error and reroute me back to the homepage whenever I tried. I also ended up using Audacity, but mostly so I could record in shorter "chunks" which I found easier than recording in one long shot.
You make a good point that sometimes digital delivery is the only option for students who otherwise would not be able to participate in a traditonal course (or would only be able to with great difficulty). I think podcasting/vodcasting can add to the learning experience of distance education for these students by expanding beyond what are often mostly text-based interfaces. This not only helps the auditory or visual learners like yourself; I think everyone can benefit from instruction and learning in more than one "mode". I think using different formats/modes helps to both reinforce ideas and also bring new ones to light as people look at a topic in multiple and different ways.
Lisa,
I share your frustration with getting a first podcast completed. My experience was similar to yours. I would like to learn more about the features of audacity; some of it was difficult to figure out - like how to embed music. I think the site offers more features and would be quite useful once we get acquainted with it. I appreciate your comments about learning styles as well; that was something I had not considered.
Renee
Well Lisa,
I can certainly echo your thoughts about the podcasting. I fancy myself to be an above average technofile as well...but I also found myself less that pleased with the response of the podmatic site and software uploads.
I fought with this software as well for hours- switching browsers, computers, and finally creating a podcast in garage band on the mac and uploading it to the podmatic site.
However, even then it did not work...it was less than clear on file formats supported and the upload process..well I wont got there.
I agree with what you pointed out here...this software, in my mind, has to be as simple as something like I-tunes and the I-pod where you just install, plug it in and go for it to be adopted on a widespread basis.
If this is the process that we as computer folks have to fight with- I can guarantee my mother, a 7th grade teacher for 25 years, will ignore it completely.
-Russ
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