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Podcasting in Instruction: Moving Beyond the Obvious
6/25/2008
Challenges
As with any new technology, challenges with its integration into instruction do not lie with the technology itself. Rather, educators are challenged in the areas of methods and design flexibility. Also like any new technology, the immediate uses of the technology often mimic existing methods but in new formats. So, early Internet-based distance education courses simply attempted to recreate the classroom experience online and simply opened its distribution to a wider and distant audience. Likewise, early uses of the podcasts in instruction often mimic in-class experiences of lectures and notes. The challenges to educators are to transition beyond this immediate and obvious use of the technology and develop new uses that are:
- Representative of changes in teaching methods and learning outcomes;
- More reflective of both the essence and capability of the technology itself; and
- More appealing to the new, more diverse student.
Managing that transition is the challenge--how to move one's professional practice forward using new technology without causing chaos for oneself or one's students. One way of addressing this challenge is to think through the methods first and then integrate the technology. Therefore, in thinking through the importance of individual student voice and publication (authorship) and collaborative knowledge building, educators can then realize the potential of newer technologies in accomplishing those goals. Podcasting presents itself as having great potential for educators addressing these challenges.
References Reynard, Ruth, "Blogs in Higher Ed: Personal Voice as Part of Learning," Campus Technology, 1/11/2005, http://www.campustechnology.com/articles/38786/ Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1996). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. In T. Koschmann (Ed.), CSCL: Theory and practice of an emerging paradigm. Mahwah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Stahl, G. (2000). A Model of Collaborative Knowledge-Building. In B. Fishman & S. O'Connor-Divelbiss (Eds.), Fourth International Conference of the Learning Sciences (pp. 70-77). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. http://www.umich.edu/~icls/proceedings/pdf/Stahl.pdf |
Ruth Reynard is the dean of faculty services for Career Education Corp. She can be reached at rreynard@careered.com.
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