Podcasting

The lesson for this week was about podcasting.  I can honestly say I knew nothing about the term.  I learned that podcasting is creating an audio file that you can listen to on different devices, such as ipods, mp3 players, and even cell phones.  The files are meant to be used on portable devices, which is why it is called podcasting.  To be honest, I have never really considered podcasting for classroom use.  When I weigh the pros and cons, I think I would consider podcasting a good education tool.  I think it is useful in the event that a student has to miss a class.  IF a student is in an online class it sometimes helps to hear the teacher explain something, rather than trying to read and comprehend something that they don't understand.  I know first hand this can be frustrating because if you do not understand the material all the words will just blur together and you do not learn anything.  So, I think that in those situations podcasting would be very useful in a class and could help to improve overall grade point average.

I think that podcasting differs quiet a bit from other web 2.0 tools.  Other types of web 2.0 tools would be wikis, social bookmarking, and voice thread.  I think one of the biggest differences is level of interaction.  For all the other tools there is much bigger level of interaction for students.  For wikis they can even go so far as to update information themselves.  They have a bigger voice with the others. Even if they can't alter something or ask questions, I would think the learning experience would be better with other tools, simply because you're providing more information.  If you use a voice thread, they can not only hear your lecture, but they can see diagrams or pictures or whatever you need to enhance the learning experience.

I actually do not own an ipod or an mp3 player.  I do have a cell phone that I am able to stream media on, but to be honest I do not use it much.  I liked learning about podcasting in this lesson because it is not something I would have normally considered as a tool for education.  I think that I would definitely use podcasting in my classroom.  As I mentioned above, I think it is particularly useful in the even that someone misses a class, or takes an online course.  I also think that the biggest reason I think I would be interested in using podcasting in my classroom is because all students learn at different speeds.  I think there would be a major advantage to have an audio file they can review on their own time before completing homework.  I think that there are both advantages and disadvantages to online communication tools.  While I understand that they are useful in the classroom setting, I think that we run into the danger of a teacher being obsolete. Students may learn to rely more on technology than on face to face communication with a teacher.