Podcasting in Education
August 17th, 2009
Podcasting is a relatively new addition to many classrooms and as such, research on it is somewhat limited. McGarr recently reviewed existing studies and identified three types of usage:
- Substantial – delivering full lectures
- Supplemental – reviewing and/or synthesizing material
- Creative – having students create podcasts
Podcasting is interesting to me because although it uses new technology, it largely replicates the passive learning of lecture, rather than advancing active learning (with the exception of the creative use above, which was found to be by far the least common use).
McGarr reports that, across studies, substantial podcasting did not appear to reduce attendance at in-person lectures and that students reported preferring the in-person lectures. In classes I teach, I don’t give the same lecture via podcast and in-person. Rather, I have used the podcasts to move the lecture portions of class to out-of-class time so I can use inclass time for more active learning. That doesn’t seem to have been a model that was investigated.
A couple interesting findings:
- A majority of traditional students listened to the podcasts on their computers (so much for my fantasies of students listening to my voice as they run on the treadmill at the gym).
- Some findings suggest students given podcasts used them instead of reading the assigned text, rather than as a supplement (40% of students in one study reported this).
Most findings report that students like the podcast option, but there have yet to be studies done on how they can be used in ways that will be most beneficial educationally. More work for researchers…
McGarr, O. (2009). A review of podcasting in higher education: Its influence on the traditional lecture Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 25 (3), 309-321
Tags: lecture, podcasting
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