We PODCAST

For anyone yet to experience the wonders of Videojug, here’s an example of one of their technology ‘how to’s’:

Keith, Paul and myself spent an hour or so trying to work out how to get an enhanced podcast to show its images full screen on an iPod Nano . . . and we failed miserably. As usual the answer was to be found on the inter-web; press the centre button 3 or 4 times and hey presto the full(ish) screen images appear at the relevant chapter markers.

After a recent meeting of M-Champions involved in the MyPodcast project (held at Swindon College) it was decided to use this blog as a space for reflection and discussion and as a means by which we can map and capture the valuable conversations we share as part of the action research team. We hope these will include discussions centred around:

• Sustainability of the project (and the implications for staffing and costs);
• The pace of change of new digital technologies (and the implications for teaching/learning);
• The impact of introducing new technologies into classroom situations, including classroom management issues;
• Examples of useful digital tools for podcasting in education;
• Issues around networking Apple Mac and WindowsPCs;
• Issues arising directly from our collaborative research;

This is not an exhaustive list and I am looking forward very much to reading your contributions.

Wednesday 28th November saw the launch day at New College of the MoleNet podcasting project. The day was well attended with M-Champions and senior management representatives from Swindon, Cirencester and Wiltshire colleges, technicians, the local press and New College’s Principal Graham Taylor. The highlight for me was the presentation and training given by Apple Distinguished Educator David Baugh, who is currently ICT Advisor to Denbighshire schools. David spent the morning talking through the basics of podcasting before taking our M-Champions through the process of creating an enhanced podcast using Garageband on an iMac, and a basic podcast using Audacity on a Windows PC. On the iMacs we used the built-in mics to create a short piece of audio, then added images via the built-in iSight cameras. David also demonstrated how to add URLs and Chapter Markers before saving the podcast as an mp4 file in iTunes and listening to our masterpieces.

Feedback from participants suggested they preferred the creativity and fun element of creating podcasts using iLife, although access to Macs may be an issue as New College is predominately a Windows environment. We are currently investigating the possibility of using either an Apple Mobile Classroom or stand-alone iMacs set-up as ‘podcasting workstations’ (or possibly a combination of the two).

David’s presentation is available to view here although the sound quality is not great.

There is also a local media report on SwindonWeb.

We are considering using iTunes U for distributing the podcasts we will be creating as part of the project. Does anybody have any thoughts or experience using this solution?

There’s now a wealth of information on the internet associated with both the practical and pedagogical aspects of podcasting. One of the best pieces yet that I’ve read is a Teaching with Technology White Paper published in April 2007 by Carnegie Mellon University (and available here). One passage in particular struck me as being useful for our project, and stands as a useful corrective to the technologically determinist idea that we can simply throw technology at teachers and students and expect immediate results in terms of success rates:

As with any educational technology, whether and how podcasting impacts the quality of the learning experience and/or educational outcomes depends largely on how the technology is put to use. Does podcasting enhance education? The answer to that question depends entirely on the educational context, including goals and appropriate learning activities, and on how the tool is implemented. Podcasting does not contain any inherent value. It is only valuable inasmuch as it helps the instructor and students reach their educational goals, by facilitating thoughtful, engaging learning activities that are designed to work in support of those goals.

‘My Podcast’ is the name of an LSN/MoleNet funded project designed to get staff and students at five Further Education colleges in the south-west of England involved in producing podcasts which are then hosted and disseminated via a central website. I am the Lead Practitioner/Researcher on the project and my role is to evaluate the progress of the project through a process known as ‘action research’ – essentially the collaborative critical reflection on a project with the main aim of improving practice. Hopefully this blog will form part of this process and will serve to clarify my own thought-processes on some of the practical and pedagogical implications of the project, as well as providing a forum for the exchange of ideas from participants and other interested parties.

One of the central aims of the project is to provide innovation in the use of personalised and mobile learning for students, partly through the provision of ipods to approximately 1000 learners. Key staff in each organisation (known as ‘m-champions’) will be responsible for training other staff and students in the podcast creation process, focusing on a number of subject areas (Science/Languages/ESOL, Sport, Engineering & Construction, and Health and Social Care). The podcasts themselves will be a mixture of lecture snippets (’Profcasts’), practical demonstrations using video and student-generated content.

Although the emphasis is on creating an innovative personalised learning environment which meets the diversity of learners’ needs, there are a couple of points worth mentioning. Firstly the project will need to be a collaborative process which draws upon the collective wealth of knowledge and skills of managers, lecturing staff, technical support staff and students; hence the title of this blog ‘We Podcast’ which emphasises the collaborative production of knowledge and content in the podcast creation process. Secondly there is nothing particularly new or innovative about the use of iPods and/or podcasts to enhance learning. As with any learning technology any claim to ‘innovation’ will depend to a large extent on how it is implemented at a classroom level, and consequently the success of the project will hinge on the skills and enthusiasm of teachers and students.