Today teachers often implicitly assume that their own learning skills are shared by their students. At my Grammar School 40 years ago in the UK, I was taught not only how to write and spell but also how to take dictation and how to make a precis (summary) of dictated speech. This skill stood me in good stead at university where the dominant mode of teaching was the lecture read aloud at high speed. I was compelled to listen attentively, digest the material and write condensed notes which I later deciphered and expanded. Moreover, the sole mode of assessment was the written exam where students had to write concisely and coherently from memory. Attentive listening and careful writing, therefore, was an essential part of a successful college career.
But nowadays young people live in a culture which bombards them with media; their senses are saturated by visual and auditory stimuli. Increasingly, the effort to discern relevant and truthful information from fabrication, to filter signal from noise, and to distinguish depth of argument from shallow emotionalism, has become a challenge. Students often respond by opting out of critical thought. Thus, teaching by lecture, which relies heavily on auditory communication, and is still the primary mode of teaching in Higher Education, is subject to formidable competition from the surrounding culture. Class time may be an oasis of calm but outside of class students plug in to portable music players, cell phones, and mobile game consoles which supply a continual background bedlam which cannot fail to have an impact on how they listen and process information and arguments.
So how can educators address these problems of attentive listening and intelligent processing of what they hear in a constructivist way which actively engages the student?
There can be no doubt that podcasting is currently one of the hottest computer technologies. Podcasting is to radio what the WorldWideWeb is to newspapers: by packaging audio files using XML and processing in a podcast reader (such as iTunes or iPodder) audio content or 'podcasts' are delivered automatically to your computer and can be played there or on a portable music player. Moreover, subscribing to a podcast allows new shows to be automatically downloaded and outdated shows to be deleted. It is not an exaggeration to assert that podcasting has empowered amateur broadcasting to an unprecedented degree. Educators have been quick to see the potential of this technology. However, a swift survey I made of recent developments indicates that in higher education so far the technique has been used in rather unimaginative ways. For example, some Professors record their lectures so that students have the option of listening to them outside of class. Moreover, information about the use of podcasting in education is scattered and fragmented.
No sooner had I returned from giving an invited talk to a podcasting workshop at the Center for Educational Technology at Middlebury last November1 than I received a phone call from Meg Streepy in Geology. She had heard about podcasting and was keen to know how she might use it with her classes2. After several conversations she decided on a three part listening assignment involving subscriptions to science podcasts using iTunes. She presented an overview of this work at the recent Moodle lunch. Thus there seems to be burgeoning faculty interest at Earlham in podcasting and blogging.
But what about podcasts created by faculty themselves? What material can be profitably podcast and what kind of creative assignments can make use of this type of podcast? How can attentive listening be integrated with minimal effort into the course curriculum? What better way to address this than to model podcast listening assignments in my own course?
But the process of recording material (lectures for example) and creating a series of podcasts needs to be smooth and straightforward.
In the longer term I would like to create a podcasting studio in ITAM where faculty (and individual students) can create their podcasts. This may be a component of a grant application (see below).
In Social Impact of Computer Technology (CS182), the class I taught last year, I had the students create their own podcasts from their papers3. I have anecdotal evidence that having students read aloud what they have written in order to record it as a podcast improves the quality of their writing style. I would like to analyze this more fully from comments they have recorded in their blogs.
I would also like to pursue the possibility of investigating the relationship between student podcasting and writing by means of an experiment4. The optimal way to begin such an investigation would be to conduct a pilot study to determine whether student writing can be influenced by recording and podcasting. What better place to do this than my own course? Indeed, what would a course look like where audio is a crucial medium of communication?
I have already begun what I hope will be a fruitful collaboration with Janet Russell, Director of Instructional Technology at Wooster, involving the use of student podcasting and blogging5. We have a proposal for a joint presentation at the Educause conference and I would like to work more on this venture. In addition, I would like to find a granting agency to further this work and make a reasonable sized grant application. This work is likely to take place over the next six months and so I am not requesting anything specific at this time.
Since I have some personal leave time remaining my plan would be to take two weeks of leave during May to address these tasks. I already have a useful book in this subject area, "Podcasting Basics" published by O'Reilly, so in lieu of books I'd like to purchase some software items which might prove useful.
| Task | Description | release time requested |
equipment/software needed | Funding requested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Create Podcasting in Education web site | 1 week | — | $250 |
| 2 | Model podcast listening assignments | 1 week | — | $250 |
| 3 | Recording & creating podcasts | voice recorder & software | $700 | |
| 4 | Create innovative student podcast assignments | together with task 2 & 3 | Flash AV Player license | $70 |
| Total | 2 weeks | $1,270 |
1 Producing a podcast for iTunes — a presentation for the podcasting conference at Middlebury. On the web at http://www.earlham.edu/~markp/middlebury/pod_ped.html
2 Pursuit of Podcasting— Instructional Technology blog entry for November 14 at http://www.earlham.edu/~markp/it/
3 CS182: Social Software : class blogs & podcasts — CS182 blog entry for Nov 14th 2005 at http://www.earlham.edu/~markp/CS182_blog/archives/005332.html
4 Ideas for a podcasting experiment — Instructional Technology blog entry for Dec 08 2005 at http://www.earlham.edu/~markp/it/
5 Podcast collaboration with Wooster — On Wooster's Moodle at https://woodle.wooster.edu/mod/wiki/view.php?id=471&page=ProposalPage
More Podcasting ideas — Instructional Technology blog entry for January 6th 2006 at http://www.earlham.edu/~markp/it/