Teaching with Podcasts

Imagine a mobile classroom that’s accessible to the student wherever he or she may be, and that holds lectures whenever he or she is in the mood for it. This is the kind of learning scenario that those with the knowledge to share are able to provide through Podcasts. With these downloadable files from different learning sources, portable digital audio and video players now offer the anytime, anywhere option to learning.

Before the iPod and other portable media players became popular, on-demand learning was possible through audiotapes and compact discs primarily featuring audio versions of books. Now that more advanced technology has made it possible for more people to make podcasts at a smaller cost, more and more of these audio lectures are turning up, thus more information in this format has become available to just about anyone.

Aside from being able to choose the time and venue for your learning experience, you are also able to dictate the pace as well as be able to better retain the information by replaying, or learning by repetition. However, this method of learning will not provide you with clarifications in case something in the content of the podcast is unclear to you. Yet it provides students a convenient means of preparing for class discussions and quizzes, even while on the commute to school.

Visiting podcast directories aimed to answer the user’s learning needs, one will find podcasts on science, language, philosophy, management, history, and arts, to name a few subject groups that may be included in the student’s curriculum at school. There are also podcasts on the topics of spirituality, self-development, and professional advice. Of course, podcast versions of many major literary works that may be discussed in class are also accessible through the Internet.

Teachers and professors have caught on and they even look around on the Internet for recommended listening to prescribe to their students. They even provide their lectures in podcast format and make them available to students online, even for the purpose of reviewing or helping students who missed the actual lecture. This just goes to show how much technology has affected how people learn.