Podcasting

A podcast can be seen a radio or television like program with music, news, commentary, etc but they aren’t broadcasted over TVs or radios, they can be obtained over the internet as digital audio or video files. In late January, podcasts were popularized with the launching of "iTunes U", which is a free service that distributes podcasts from universities through iTunes.

Podcasts are useful tools that can be used to communicate and distribute educational material. Over time, podcasting has had a positive impact on education. It is a cheap and efficient way for schools and universities to share information and a great way to communicate with the students, parents, teachers and their community. A podcast can consist of anything conveyed by an audio or video file, including lectures, foreign language lessons, and demonstrations of science experiments.

Recently, educators have started to integrate podcasting into their curriculum and have achieved positive results. Through the use of podcasting, teachers can use music and recorded audio to enhance learning for students. They can add more visual content with images and videos, which is even more helpful for students. It is very simple for teachers to create podcasts of daily classes and work from classes and publish it so they can be accessed by all students. Students can also create and publish their own work on podcasts, which can be accessed by teachers and other students. The digital natives of today use the latest technology and software. Using podcasts as an educational tool is very efficient as people can listen to them as they are doing any other activities.

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(Image Taken from: [www.sharpened.net/.../review.php?Apple_iPod_3G])

But the use of podcasts has also had a negative impact. Teachers have started to complain because as students go over class material on podcasts, they fail to show up for classes. Students may believe that it would be okay to not show up for classes as they could listen to the materials from class on podcasts, but they would miss out on the chance to interact with other students and participate in class discussion.

Here are some great websites and online news articles on the effect of podcasting on education:

http://www.apple.com/education/solutions/podcasting/

http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/14237774.htm

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/03/31/1526278.htm