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The Value of PodcastingThere has been a lot of hype about podcasting and its value to teaching and learning. Although many people still have misconceptions about what podcasts are (for example, you don't need to have an iPod to listen to a podcast -- nor, for that matter, is a podcast confined to audio-only delivery -- there can be video podcasts as well), there is a groundswell of activity about the value of, and need for, podcasts in education. Much of this has been pushed by the popular media -- as well as pushed by a vendor or two ;-) -- and only a few studies of significance have been done about the effects of podcasting on teaching and learning.
An article in Campus Technology about the value of podcasting caught my eye. It's about a recently published survey on the uses of podcasting by Carnegie-Mellon University, and provides an interesting insight into the use of podcasting in education, including some helpful tips on what works and what doesn't. If you're interested in the topic of podcasting's effects on teaching and learning, I suggest that you download and read the study itself (don't just read the article and assume that it has covered the topic well -- it hasn't!) Contrary to the title that Campus Technology puts on their summary ("Consensus: Podcasting Has No 'Inherent' Pedagogic Value") there are several examples in the study of how podcasts have been helpful. The key word in the title, after all, is "inherent."
The obvious principle to take away from this study is: "what you do with the technology is the most important factor, not the technology itself." One could easily say that a classroom, or a book, or a teacher(!), has no "inherent" pedagogic value, too. It's the interaction between the student and the delivery medium that is most critical (yes, a teacher could be described as a "delivery medium!").
I'm short on time now for a more lengthy discussion, but I plan to come back to this topic later.
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