Thursday, August 20, 2009

Podcasts


Wet Green Apple
Originally uploaded by Brett Butler
I had already been a fan of podcasts for my personal use. I must confess that I do have a slight crush on "Hamish and Andy" from the radio show. Imagine my sheer delight when I came across their podcasts on itunes. But I must admit I was not really aware of what a podcast was until I decided to play around with my itunes program when I purchased my Ipod. I thought my Ipod could be used to play all my favourite music with little or no awareness of any educational advantage my Ipod might posess. So what is a podcast in technical speak? According to Apple Inc. (2009) a podcast is a program delivered via the internet with the publisher broadcasting these episodes to a web server. Podcasts can include several of the most common types of media and can be used to offer many different kinds of programs. As a pedagogue there would be many advantages to using podcasts in my classroom. One of the podcasts that I feel could help my students in a prep classroom was the educational podcast program "Hooked on Phonics" this is a podcast was released August, 2009 and has 21 episodes. This program could be used by a teachers-aide working one on one , or with small groups of students. The advantage of this program is that not only can they see the animation but they can hear the correct way in which to pronounce letters and sounds. Alternatively this podcast could be sent to parents/carers of students for them to subscribe to for their children to peruse in their own time(in a perfect world).
The Learning Design Construct (Oliver, 1999) refers to different ways of designing learning experiences for students. It is a sequential set of activities based on the level or components of a subject. The Learning Design is the framework supporting learning experiences (Oliver, 1999). Podcasts can form part of the sequential learning activities. It can be summised that the use of a podcast need not be the only learning experience but form part of a framework of a learning experience which may incorporate other learning tools which inturn forms the learning design construct.
There is substantial research that suggests that university students who download a podcast lecture achieve substantially higher exam results than those who attend the lecture in person (Callaway 2009). The podcasted lectures allows students to replay difficult parts of a lecture and take better notes. To be able to podcast lessons would allow those students with different learning styles another avenue to gain the most from a lesson.

References
Apple Inc., 2009, Itunes, http://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/podcasts/fanfaq.html, viewed 19th August, 2009.
Callaway, E., 2009, New Scientist, Itunes university better than the real thing, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16624-itunes-university-better-than-the-real-thing.html, viewed 19th August, 2009.
Oliver, R., 1999, Learning Design, The learning desing construct, http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/project/learn_design.htm, viewed 19th August, 2009.

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