Podcasts in Education
From ETEC 510
This page originally authored by Sean McMinn (2009). This page was edited by Ritwa Smith, March 2010.
Contents |
What is Podcasting?
The acronym Podcasting means Portable-On-Demand Broadcasts. It refers to broadcasting programs that are in the form of a digital media file, or a series of such files. These files are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, allowing people to subscribe, download and listen to these files on their laptops, desktop computers, iPods, and MP3 players. There are numerous genres in podcasting, including music, documentary, storytelling, and educational. Users can find podcasts that may interest them at numerous online directories, such as Podcast Pickle and Podcast Alley, or through Apple's iTunes Store. A user can have constant access to podcasts by subscribing through RSS feeds. An example of how to subscribe to a podcast can be accessed at Podcasting Workshop.
Educational Uses Of Podcasts
Educators are finding creative ways to implement podcasting into curriculums. Types of podcasts that can be used in a classroom include, authentic (meaning the podcast was produced for an audience other than the teacher or students), teacher produced, and student produced podcasts. As podcasting in education grows, networks, such as The Education Podcast Network are quickly appearing.
Sean FitzGerald provides an extensive list of educational uses for podcasting on his Podcasts in Education wiki. Below is a partial list:
- Teachers/lecturers can record their lectures for absent learners and for learners to review later
- Podcasts can accompany presentations (e.g. powerpoint slides) which can be made available on a blog, along with other support material such as web links and references
- Podcasts can provide extra material for self-paced learning
- Recordings of guest speakers from remote locations
- Interviews with subject experts or industry figures (can be recorded using Skype)
- Audio lessons for visually impaired & recordings of lectures
- Support for learners with reading and/or other learning difficulties
- Multi-lingual education
- Foreign language lessons
There have been some studies within a wide range of educational backgrounds which focuses on teacher produced podcasts and student attitudes towards the technology (Frydenberg, 2006; Janossy, 2007; Edirisingha, Rizzi, Nie and Rothwell, 2007). Edirisingha, Rizzi, Nie and Rothwell (2007) provide empirical data about student attitudes towards podcasting, focusing on how podcasting can provide teachers and students support for an English Language and Communication class. Janossy examines how students may benefit by listening to text while reading the same text themselves (2007). Lee and Chan discusses the results of providing podcasts used for supplementary listening material to distance learners (2007) and the views, experiences and perceived learning value of podcasts from the perspective of student learners (2007). Frydenberg gives insights into how students use podcasts to contribute to their learning (2006).
There appears to be very little research on the subject of student-produced podcasts and there affects on learning, although papers about student-produced podcasts and their impact on knowledge-building do exist (Lee, McLoughlin and Chan, 2008; Seitzinger, 2006).
Knowledge-Building and Podcasts
Scardamalia and Bereiter note that knowledge is a product and that there is a continuity among knowledge-building communities beyond the school. They state that the term "building" implies that the classroom community works to produce knowledge (1994). They suggest having a class produce scholarly journals with peer reviews as an example of a knowledge-building community. This would be very similar to students producing an audio or video podcast for similar purposes. Campus Beat is an example of a student-produced podcast that incorporates knowledge-building principles.
Lee, McLoughlin and Chan note the following about knowledge-building and student produced podcasts in their research (2008):
"[...] the shared social context and focus on a common goal resulted in a highly cohesive team of student-producers, where mutual respect, open communication and the pursuit of a common goal were key factors that ensured ongoing exploratory dialogue and a commitment to sharing ideas, as well as to individual and group learning."
"the presentation phase of the podcast production process allowed the student-producers to jointly and synchronously create tangible learning objects for sharing with a wider, peer audience via the Internet."
The image above demonstrates how knowledge-building occurs with student-produced podcasts. Again, while there has been numerous papers published on the subject of podcasting and education, there appears to be little research in the area of student-produced podcasts and knowledge-building.
Podcasts and M-learning
M-learning is the idea that the use of portable technologies, such as mobile phones and MP3 players, can create a dynamic learning environment. The subject of M-learning with podcasts has been the focus of a lot of research (Evans, 2007; Lee and Chan, 2007; McCarty, 2005; Campbell, 2005; Tynan and Colbran, 2006).
Evans notes from his research that students feel that the flexibility created by the option of listening to course materials and/or lecture outside of the classroom is effective (2008). According to his research, "students report that they were more receptive to podcast material than material delivered in the form of a revision lecture or from the textbook. All of these are forms of direct communication between the educator and the learner. This suggests that learners may feel more engaged when listening to a podcast" (2008).
Examples in Education
Teacher-Produced Podcasts
Student-Produced Podcasts
Software and Services
Since 2005, there have been numerous software and services made available for producing audio podcasts.
Software
Free and paid audio editing software used for producing podcasts:
- Audacity (free)
- Record for All (paid)
- Sound Forge (paid)
Services
Free and paid services (includes RSS and servers for storage):
- Podomatic (free)
- Liberated Syndication (paid)
Creating Podcasts in the Classroom
In creating Podcasts requires utilizing Software and Services as mentioned above. The steps involved are:
- Preproduction
- Recording
- Post Production
- Publishing
When creating a Podcast, one needs to take the quality of sound into consideration. Since there is much noise in the classroom (door opening and closing etc.) one can reduce by using sound booths that blocks extraneous noises.
References
- Campbell, G. (2005). There’s Something in the Air: Podcasting in Education. EDUCAUSE Review, 40(6), 33-46.
- Edirisingha, P., Chiara, R. Nie, M. and Rothwell, L. (2007). Podcasting to Provide Teaching and Learning Support for an Undergraduate Module on English Language and Communication. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. 8 (3), 87-107. Retrieved March 4, 2008, from http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde27/pdf/article_6.pdf.
- Evans, C. (2008) The effectiveness of m-learning in the form of podcast revision lectures in higher education. Computers & Education. 50 (2), 491-498. Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6VCJ-4R2Y44V-1-1&_cdi=5956&_user=1022551&_orig=search&_coverDate=02%2F29%2F2008&_sk=999499997&view=c&wchp=dGLbVtz-zSkzV&md5=2792ba0c2d97c023db2860711cbff6fc&ie=/sdarticle.pdf
- Frydenberg, M. (2006). Principles and Pedagogy: The Two P’s of Podcasting in the Information Technology Classroom. The Proceedings of ISECON 2006. Volume 23. Retrieved March 10, 2008, from http://isedj.org/isecon/2006/3354/ISECON.2006.Frydenberg.pdf.
- Janossy, J. (2007). Student Reaction to Podcast Learning Materials: Preliminary Results. Engaging the Learner. Annual Instructional Technology Conference. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED496202).
- Lee, M and Chan, A. (2007). Pervasive, Lifestyle-integrated Mobile Learning for Distance Learners: An Analysis and Unexpected Results from a Podcasting Study. Open Learning, 22 (3), 201-218. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ776788).
- Lee, M. and Chan, A. (2007). Reducing the Effects of Isolation and Promoting Inclusivity for Distance Learners Through Podcasting. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education. 8 (1), 85-104. Retrieved March 10, 2008, from http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde25/pdf/article_7.pdf.
- Lee, M., McLoughlin, C. and Chan, A. (2008) Talk the talk: Learner-generated podcasts as catalysts for knowledge creation. British Journal of Educational Technology. 39 (3), 501-521. Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=8&sid=aa1c39c5-dcc1-47ee-9003-594202980489%40sessionmgr9.
- McCarty, S. (2005). Spoken Internet to Go: Popularization through Podcasting. World Association for Online Education (WAOE). Retrieved March 4, from http://jaltcall.org/journal/articles/1_2_McCarty.pdf.
- Meredith, R. (2006). Podagogy.com. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from http://blog.podagogy.com/?page_id=48.
- Rosell-Aguilar, F. (2007). Top of the Pods – In Search of a Podcasting ‘podagogy’ for Language Learning. Computer Assisted Language Learning. 20 (5), 471-492.
- Scardamalia, M. and Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3(3), 265-283.
- Seitzinger, Joyce. (2006). Be Constructive: Blogs, Podcasts, and Wikis as Constructivist Learning Tools. The eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions. Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.elearningguild.com/pdf/2/073106des.pdf.
- Tynan, B. and Colbran, S. (2006). Podcasting, Student Learning and Expectations. Retrieved November 4, 2007 from http://www.ascilite.org.au.
