This assignment was very interesting and I enjoyed doing it very much. When given this assignment I knew exactly who I would be interviewing. It was my privilege to interview my friend and ministerial collegue Dr. Kelly Nix. I won't restate Dr. Nix credentials or what was discussed in the interview but I will say that he teaches theology/religion at 2 seperate colleges. I basically asked 3 questions.
What is your experience teaching and developing curriculum in an online adult educational environment?
What is ONE technology that you could tell us about that you have used and the promises and downsides to that technology.
Finally, what was a success or failure that you can tell me about in regards to this technology.
Dr. Nix lives in San Antonio, Texas and I live in Olathe, KS so the following interview is an audio only podcast recorded on the same equipment that he uses for his students. Thank you for listening!
Once again we look at the good and the ugly of incorporating technology into the classroom. This weeks focus is on audio/video and podcasts. Being able to produce instructional material in audio format or even in video may seem foreign to teachers and students alike just a few short years ago but according to King, podcasting entered the technology scene in 2004 and originally came from the independent music industry. King also notes that despite its musical beginnings, 8 out of 10 podcasts are language learning. With these statistics it proves that podcasting in Adult Education is very popular and widely used. Therefore one can assume that many if not most adults are familiar with the technology.
A podcast is an audio file such as a recorded lecture, assignment explanation, FAQ's etc. that is hosted on a server and pushed to those who have asked (subscribed) to the content. Though the technology is fairly simple, there are both pro's and con's I would like to discuss.
Podcasts are available 24/7 and students and access the information any time they want. If they are struggling with "getting" everything in a lecture or are bad note takers, a podcast will allow a student to watch a lecture as many times as they need until they have successfully grasped the intent of the lecture. There are also many options to listen to podcast such as mp3 players, computers, iPods, cell phones, iPhones, Smartphones, etc. Assignments can also be done through podcasting to better show a students competency in the material that is being learned as opposed to just writing a paper which is sometimes difficult to disect whether a student has fully grasped the material or not. Lastly, for this discussion of pro's, a professor can slice and splice a lengthy lecture or instructional video to show the most important and information parts and reduce the audio/video time to 5-8 minutes or less. This helps to bring the important information to the forefront without becoming bored or tuning out the unimportant information.
Of course, as wonderful as the podcast technology is, there are some drawbacks. There are definitely going to be some of the students who are not comfortable with this type of technology and will not embrace it. There could be some resentment in the fact that the instructor is just "making a video" and they feel disconnected from the actual person. This makes some students feel alone in their learning. Also, making a video takes talent and good speaking abilities that many people don't possess. They can be intimidated by podcasting assignments because of their personal appearance and since these are open for public scrutiny they may tend to not be comfortable speaking as open as they would otherwise. One final issue is the legal issue of content that is posted on a podcast. You must have the proper permissions prior to posting copywritten material such as songs. Without these permissions you could be guilty of breaking laws.
Podcasts can be a great tool in adult education which should be utilized. As an instructor, you should be aware of the drawbacks and be willing to accomodate or assist in area's that could hinder the learner from learning. I plan to incorporate podcasts into my future classes as the positives outway the negatives in my opinion.
Here is an example of an educational VIDEO podcast. The sky really is the limit!
