Academic Podcasting: An Introduction

UVic Vancouver Island Higher Education Information Technology Day Conference

February 20, 2007

Who?

•    The instructor as podcaster We are already very good at verbalizing complex information and are sensitive to voice It’s a creative medium (and quite fun to produce) Proprietary concerns and discomfort (this makes your lectures public) • Other people and sources of support:      RSS as the most frequently used distribution medium (aggregator) Option of uploading to a university or college server and generating an URL for student download (and avoiding public access to podcasts) Podsafe music sites Media Tech support at your institution: studio facilities, home production A large number of universities now using podcasting in various forms (e.g., Duke University), and offering pedagogical and technical information relating to the medium

What?

• Demonstrate Powerpoint and podcast here from my history of communication class at Royal Roads (fall 2006) • Use of Garageband (Apple’s proprietary audio mixing technology) • Other audio mixing technologies: Audacity for the PC is very popular • Demo: podcast and Powerpoint on communication and television history

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Where?

A vital part of the pedagogy of academic podcasting is deciding just where to locate podcasting with respect to the other elements • • • (i) There are three layers to my courses: course notes (used to summarize readings; prepared in advance of the course) (ii) Powerpoint slides (used to provide context for readings, develop case studies, and address key concepts and difficult material; developed fresh each week, and sensitive to current and topical material) (iii) Podcast (used to animate the Powerpoint; teach the difficult material in a different way) Podcasting for face-to-face classrooms can involve digital recording of lectures Vodcasting: possibilities for visually intensive lectures (sciences, drama, fine arts)

Why?

• iPods (and other mp3 players) and its presence in the lives of students (achieved saturation and comfort) • The need for a pedagogical rationale for podcasting (or as some call it, “podagogy”) • Podcasting and the constructivist view of education • The value of the human voice as part of the online teaching repertoire • The ability to simulate the best parts of the inclass learning experience in an online format • Students use podcasts themselves as basis of some team presentations

Media Tech’s role in faculty support for podcasting?

• Training faculty in use of sound mixing software (Garageband, Audacity) • Set-up and maintenance of sound equipment (though low tech podcasting can be done of at home) • Advocating for wider distribution of podcasting capacity on campus (e.g., iTunes University model) • Helping higher education institutions and staff make the right choices in balancing technology and the integrity of the student experience (“blended learning”)

Student response?

• “The podcasts were very informative and entertaining. It should be mandatory for all profs to have a weekly podcast. It adds a human element to the very distant and lonely on-line world. It acted as a starting point of where to focus that week. Sometimes with so much information it can be hard to sort out what the important points are. David’s Powerpoints and Podcast helped in this way. “ From a course evaluation

Resources

• iTunes University site • Profcast site • Podsafe music site (copyright free) • UBC site on academic podcasting • Edupodder (a weblog on academic podcasting) • Academic podcasting blog and site • Campus Technology magazine on podcasting