Position and Perspective

Podcasting can enhance teaching and learning through mobile, flexible, and easy-to-use audio (and visual) technology. But where does podcasting fit in the contemporary curriculum? Before selecting podcasting, it may be worthwhile to consider it in relation to other technologies.

What Podcasting Can Do

Podcasting is a mobile technology. It is portable, either through personal computers or mobile devices (MP3 player, handheld, cell phone, or laptop). It also enables just-in-time, 24 x 7 access to information. Traditional podcasts deliver only audio, while enhanced podcasting may be multimedia, incorporating images or video.

Delivering course content via audio or video is not new. Mailing audiocassettes or VHS tapes to learners defined one of the earliest forms of distance education. What’s new about podcasting is the ease of publication, subscription, and use across multiple environments. For example, you can listen to podcasts over computer speakers, on a car stereo, and over headphones—all while you are moving, whether walking or exercising or driving or traveling. Creating and subscribing to podcasting “feeds” makes listening and viewing much easier than ever before—for the developer and end user.

Perhaps the most significant attribute of podcasts is the ability to provide a rich, self-paced learning environment that is accessible anytime, anywhere. Whether for delivering content to free up face-to-face class time or for reviewing archived material, podcasts are relatively easy to access, create, and distribute. The uses of podcasts include:

• Content distribution: Whether the information is new or for review, podcasts can be used to distribute
  • archived lectures for student review
  • tutorials for lab work or other common processes
  • video or audio to demonstrate difficult concepts
  • travel experiences for educational use
  • research findings with colleagues
• Guest speakers: A convenient way to introduce guest speakers to a course is to provide interviews of experts or recordings of talks.
• Reports or journals: For class reports or journals, podcasts provide students a simplified, multimedia approach for reporting.
• Language learning: Recordings make it possible for students to review vocabulary, syntax, and speech. Students can also record their own audio sessions for review or archiving.
• Authentic assessment: Students can record their reflections or provide samples of their work that are evaluated by faculty or archived in an e-portfolio.

Beyond academic uses, colleges and universities are finding podcasts are useful for:

• Student orientation: Podcasts can help students locate campus services, navigate the library, learn how to connect to the campus network, or explore virtual city/town tours. Podcast campus tours have multiple uses—from recruitment to “precampus visits.” They can be tailored for the audience—high school students considering an application, admitted students, parents. Campus departments can use podcasts to orient students to specific services—for example, an introduction to the IT help desk, library reference services, student success centers, or financial aid services.
• Retelling history: Institutional, departmental, and program histories are part of the campus culture and are used for student recruitment and alumni engagement. Involving students, administrators, athletic boosters, and alumni in retelling histories through podcasts can provide a media-rich outlet for expressing and archiving this important institutional resource.
• Professional development:Available anytime, podcasts can provide staff with “click-into” access to information ranging from human resources, technology tips, health and wellness, and targeted faculty development.

How Does Podcasting Fit the Technology Landscape?

In selecting podcasting for a learning activity, it is important to address questions focused on where it is positioned across the audiovisual technology spectrum and how it relates to other technologies in terms of mobility, platform neutrality, instructional flexibility, and accessibility (see Table 1).

Table 1. Attributes of Podcasts

The figures below represent a general categorization of podcasting. Use them as a starting point for discussing podcasting at your institution.

Figure 1 represents where podcasting fits in the overall landscape of audiovisual-based technologies; the landscape is defined by how easy the technology is to develop (create) and how flexible it is for users to access and/or manipulate. It shows that, compared to other audiovisual technologies, podcasting is relatively easy to develop and create and provides a high degree of user flexibility, especially when compared to more traditional A/V formats (e.g., video and audio taping).

Figure 1. Development and Delivery of Audiovisual Technologies

Click on the figure to download a customizable copy of it in Microsoft Word.

Figure 2 represents specific uses of podcasting and defines those uses through flexibility as an instructional strategy (faculty-transmission to learner-created) and degree of learner engagement (passive to active).

Figure 2. Podcasting: Instructional Flexibility and Learner Engagement

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As you think about podcasting and the diagrams above, the following questions may stimulate dialogue about where podcasting fits at your institution:

• Is podcasting a good match for your instructional goals? What kinds of instructional problems could podcasts solve?
• Would you use podcasting as a delivery technology or as an active learning tool?
• Do you have the necessary technology, expertise, and support to ensure that podcasting is successful?