Digesting ‘podcasts’ in education
There was a rather pleasant meeting of minds organized by Mark Morton in Lt3 with one simple agenda item: podcasts and what is going on around campus? The short answer is that a lot is going on around campus but nothing organized as yet. There will definitely be lots to blog about in the future. For now though… what does it all mean?
The seminar last week in Toronto made some really good points. What I took from it was:
- Technology introduced to the classroom needs a reason to be there, using the technology for the sake of using it just does not work.
- In most cases podcasts are well received and used by students who appear to benefit from it.
- Podcasts learning curve is flat enough for most people to take advantage of from both the content creator and listener point of view.
- Podcasts aren’t only about recording and distributing lectures.
- Senior level buy-in is important.
From my point of view I want to think about how podcasts can be used in communications and marketing. Is there something we can offer the UW community as a whole that is worth at least trying out? I think there is.
There are a number of issues however:
- Accessibility – text alternatives, are they required in all cases?
- Copyright – although if you are worried about the copyright of content in your lectures maybe you should just avoid the podcast altogether
- Being evaluated by the quality of the podcast – again if that is a concern don’t do it.
A few more issues are likely not listed there but generally at this point in time podcasting should be for those that want to do it and I hope more people try it out. Accessibility is probably the biggest concern though, I am working on a podcasts and accessibility post so look for that shortly.
