Introduction for complete outsiders
Recent developments in technology make it very, very easy to record and distribute audio recordings (and indeed other file types) regularly. The distribution is known as podcasting, and can be done on almost any PC. The recordings can be listened to on a PC or on personal audio players such as the Apple iPod.To test whether there is any educational benefit to be had by exploiting this, Joe Maguire recruited two lecturers and five courses in the 2005-6 session. Lecturers and seminars were recorded and distributed; and evaluations done based on staff and student opinions. These proved strongly positive. Since this relies only on equipment the university and students already own, the only barrier to rapid expansion of this is communicating the advantages and promoting ways of using it.
The most obvious application is recording lectures, and circulation of the audio recordings could become as standard as providing lecture notes or slides on the web. The effect of this is probably going to be as various as lecturing styles: for instance in dense lectures, students (especially foreign students) may welcome being able to listen without taking notes, and then re-listen to the recording to update their notes; while in sparse cases e.g. where a topic as student already knows is being gone over again, they may choose not to attend, but listen to the recording at a convenient moment to check they haven't missed any points. However the most interesting issues in the longer term are probably going to be other kinds of recording. Already a hit on one course was recording seminars: the recordings allowed staff and students to discover what went on in the other group's discussions. And it allows staff to record and distribute short talks: perhaps with a different tone, of a different length (no need to think in 50 min. chunks). Even more interesting would be getting student comments and reactions to the current topic, and have these circulated as a collection of short spoken pieces. Current technology promotes class discussions by text e.g. in emails, VLE discussion forums; but most people feel more spontaneous when speaking rather than writing. Current technology would allow discussion to be promoted in this older medium and circulated outwith booked teaching rooms.
From the point of view of the field of educational technology there are several notable features of this. It takes technology (iPods, podcasting) that are already used by students, and asks how to get educational value from them, rather than introducing new devices. It matches the central activity of our teaching: lecturing, and seeks to get additional value from these occasions. Further, the podcasting mechanism allows bundling of the heterogenous media used in practice in lectures: audio, handouts, short videos. It also matches the way most courses evolve during delivery, in response both to the audience (which topics seem to need more time, different examples, etc.), and to the presenter (e.g. material dropped due to lack of time). This responsiveness is a feature, not a defect. The ready mechanism of progressive updates also matches and promotes a sense of community and interaction. If student discussions can be launched as part of the circulated material, then these would be further enhanced.
From the viewpoint of policy issues:
- Flexible delivery is promoted (flexible in time and place of listening to the material).
- Foreign students will especially benefit from being able to re-listen to material in a language they may not be fully fluent in.
- Promote interactivity between staff and students, and among students, and so increase engagement.
Papers and articles
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Joe's original report: Maguire,J. (2006) Podlearning: Reality of a mobile learning method (Dept. of Computing science, University of Glasgow) PDF (0.5Mbytes) |
A journal article on the same work:
Draper, S.W. & Maguire,J. (2007) "Exploring podcasting as part of campus-based teaching" Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education" vol.2 no.1 pp.42-63 PDF / HTML |
General articles
Learning while commuting?
- A first such article
- "Student led educational technology" University newsletter article April 2006 issue 275 p.16.
- "Aural Recording of Lectures" University newsletter article September 2006 issue 278 p.8.
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"Lecturer is iTunes chart topper"
University newsletter article November 2006 issue 280 p.13.
- Olga Wojtas "Kant get no satisfaction, try iTunes new No 1" Time Higher Education Supplement 15 Dec 2006, front page
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"Kant take my iTunes off you" Donald MacLeod
Thursday 14 December, 2006 Education Guardian
- Draper, S.W. & Maguire,J. (2007)
"Exploring podcasting as part of campus-based teaching"
Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in
Higher Education" vol.2 no.1 pp.42-63
- Maguire,J., Stuart,S. & Draper,S.W. (2008) "Student generated podcasts: Learning to cascade rather than create" Proceedings of LICK 2008. See this page