First Pod-casting meeting: Monday, June 18 at 2 pm
Ways in which pod-casting is currently being used:
Larry Sleznikow: Used for faculty development and training Helped organize PassPort to Technology to promote the use.
Bob Hoar: Posting solutions to class and/or quiz problems in a math course. These pod-casts were posted on the course web page. Used Camtasia to capture screen writing as a problem is verbally described. On quizzes, used this opportunity to highlight common student errors and roadblocks as well as suggesting and guiding students through problems. Majority of students used these pod-casts throughout the semester. Much positive feedback given about having them available.
Brian Udermann: Used for an on-line intro-health course. Audio only lectures were recorded and students were also encouraged to open and move through the powerpoint lecture as they listened to the audio recording. These pod-casts were posted on D2L. 80+% of students said they had never used a pod-cast before. At the end of the course, only around 14-15% said that they used all of the pod-casts. Most said that they only used some. Biggest downfall was that students felt that they could read the information off of the powerpoint slides and that the audio didn't add much value. We wondered if the question was asked about MP3 files the response to knowing about pod-casting would be much higher.
Bill Cerbin: used to record interviews with lesson study groups as well as with experts on lesson study. These were then posted on a Blog for other lesson study groups to use.
Rick Rodrick: Used for a communication theory course. Students asked to develop three pod-casts during semester (audio only). First is just to introduce themselves and learn how to use the free software: Audacity or garbage band. Students then had a smaller mid-semester project and finally a larger group project on describing a communication theory that was not in their text books. These were then posted on the course web page. After several semesters, these are now generating a library of pod-casts on communication theory. In general, students did not have issues finding and using the technology needed to generate these pod-casts. Students gave very positive feedback on this experience.
Equipment available:
Two quiet rooms for generating pod-casts: one in education technology and one in the library room 274 (see Bob for a key)
Some microphones available from educational technology and Bob has one in the library room
Bob ordered several extra copies of Camtasia (~$70-80) if anyone is interested in purchasing one
Tablet PC's may be available from educational technology
Bob recently purchased an external tablet that links into any PC (~$150), you can ask him more about this item if you are interested.
Future interests include:
Using this to train Pre-K-12 teachers on instruction as well as content
Studying the overall effect on student learning and/or perceptions on learning using pod-casting
Adding in problems from more math classes that could be linked to upper courses as help for gaps in understanding
Posting lectures with pod-casting and using lecture time for more group/active learning
Asking students to generate pod-casts at the beginning of a course to capture pre-/mis-conceptions about content
Asking students to think out loud how they solve problems
Writing a collaborative grant to support faculty time to generate pod-casts, equipment needs (although much is available already), faculty development opportunities (including inviting outside speakers who research pod-casing in educational settings). Possibly support from UW-system curricular redesign. Wondered if Pod-casting might be a good topic for a future LTDC meeting.
Larry mentioned organizing three 1-hour meetings per semester on technology related topics for faculty development.
Several people in the group agreed to help each other with peer-review of pod-casts that we generate.
