The What, Why, and How of Podcasting
Burks Oakley II (Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs)
The word 'podcast' was selected as the 2005 Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary. With podcasting, anyone can easily distribute audio to a worldwide audience. The podcasting phenomenon builds on the power of RSS, and is leading to anytime, anyplace mobile learning, or "m-learning." In his presentation, Professor Burks Oakley explained what a podcast is, how podcasts work nicely with RSS feeds, and how instructors and students can produce and distribute podcasts in order to enhance learning.
Presentation Summary
Professor Oakley began his presentation by providing a general overview of podcasting and RSS feeds. According to Oakley, podcasting is a combination of two words - iPod and broadcasting. However, this interpretation may seem misleading since you don't need an iPod to listen to a podcast - instead, any PC or (most) mp3 players will work. A more inclusive definition of podcasting identifies the "pod" as an acronym for "Personal On-Demand," which when combined with broadcasting gives us the word POD-casting.
Putting semantics aside, Oakley answered the following questions: what does podcasting actually mean, and what do podcasts actually do? To answer this, Oakley provided a definition of podcasting from wikipedia, which describes podcasting as "a term used to describe a collection of technologies for automatically distributing audio programs over the Internet using a publisher/subscriber model. It differs from earlier online delivery of audio because it automatically transfers the digital media files to the user's computer for later use." As such, podcasting is different than streaming media because it downloads files to your computer automatically through the use of "Really Simple Syndication" (RSS) technology.
RSS technology is emerging as an important component used in both
blogging and podcasting. RSS files are written in XML, contain
content from a web page that is condensed into a smaller size file,
and are revised every time a web page is updated. RSS technology
allows individuals to subscribe to web sites that provide RSS feeds,
with most subscriptions being free. (A large amount of information
is available through RSS distribution on the web, including news,
blogs, and podcasts.) Subscribing to an RSS feed is a one-time
deal, and with the help of an RSS aggregator, such as iTunes,
new podcasts are automatically detected and downloaded right onto
your desktop. Oakley referred to RSS aggregators as "podcatching" software,
because the software provides the user with multiple functions. "Podcatching" software
allows users to subscribe to multiple RSS feeds; the software automatically
checks all of your subscriptions for updated RSS files, downloads
any new RSS files found, and stores the files in a searchable database
saved on your desktop.
Once new podcasts are downloaded to your computer, they can be
played right from your desktop, or the file can be synched with
a portable devise, such as an iPod, for mobile or "m-learning."
"Podagogy" - The Pedagogy of Podcasting
Podcasting provides a new avenue in which to distribute information
to students. For example, in an online course, professors can podcast
their lectures, rather than simply post their lecture notes or
other course information online. Podcasts are great assets to students
who learn better by listening to their professors speak, rather
than simply reading their words. The advantage of podcasts is
that students can pick up important inflections in the professor's
voice, which help to contextualize some of the meaning and importance
of what the professor is saying. Oakley suggested that in traditional
face-to-face lectures, podcasts are not necessarily a good thing
because such technology might keep students from attending lecture.
However, there are many other effective uses of podcasting that
can help enrich the learning environment.
With the advent of mobile learning, the creative and valuable
uses of podcasting for education can be endless. For example, students
can take their professors' podcasts on "field trips" in
which they tour a museum while listening on their iPod while their
professor provides a guided tour. Or, professors can conduct online
office hours in which they record their meetings with students
and podcast the meeting out to the entire class. Speakers and lecturers
at professional conferences can record their talks and podcast
the information on the Internet for others who could not attend
the conference.
The Growth of Podcasting
Oakley suggested that the growing interest in Internet-based mobile technology has helped to stimulate the growth of podcasting in the general public and in academia. It has become commonplace to see students on campus listening to mp3 players, (currently, Apple sells more iPods than Macs - about 100 iPods per minute) so this leads educators to guess that m-learning is more feasible. However, it is still unknown where students are listening to podcasts. Right now, it is estimated that probably ½ of the time students listen to podcasts in front of the computer, and ½ of the time they listen to them on mp3 players.
In his current teaching, Oakley affords students the opportunity
to podcast their assignments for extra credit. He believes that
this is a good way for students to get familiar with and start
using the technology, and if the podcasting assignment works well,
Oakley plans to use podcasting in upcoming classes as graded assignments.
According to Oakley, creating podcasts is relatively simply, and
he recommends free and easy-to-use software such as Audacity, Blogger, Audioblogger, Odeo,
and iTunes for
creating, posting, and listening to podcasts. In order for his
students to podcast their assignments, the students have to set
up a Blogger account, and from there they can use any of the free
sources for creating podcasts. Oakley has found that, overall,
students enjoy listening to his podcasts, as well as creating their
own podcasts for class.
About Burks Oakley II
Burks Oakley II is an Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois. His areas of interest include distance education, outreach, and instructional technologies on all three campuses of the University of Illinois (Chicago, Springfield, Urbana-Champaign). Oakley also holds appointments as a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in the Departments of Computer Science and Management Information Systems at the University of Illinois at Springfield, and in the School of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Through his innovative use of technology in teaching, Professor Oakley has earned a national reputation as a practitioner and promoter of Internet-based asynchronous learning environments. In the past four years, he has given more than one hundred invited talks at national conferences and on university campuses. He continues to inspire faculty and administrators as director of the University of Illinois Online initiative, a program designed to facilitate the development and delivery of University of Illinois courses, degrees, and public service resources over the Internet.
For more about Professor Oakley, please see his web site at: http://www.online.uillinois.edu/oakley/biosketch.html
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