{"id":8589,"date":"2020-01-21T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=8589"},"modified":"2020-01-27T16:17:34","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T16:17:34","slug":"podcasts-and-flipped-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2020\/01\/podcasts-and-flipped-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcasts and Flipped Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"
Post by Julian Hopkins <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This blog post will summarise some of the literature\nregarding the uses of podcasts in further and higher education. Podcasts are\naudio recordings based on the radio programme format \u2013 however they differ\nthrough their asynchronous availability, typically updating dedicated apps on\nmobile devices through an RSS feed or made available for direct download (for\nexample, via a VLE). The diagram below summarises and builds upon prior work,\nshowing how podcasts can be produced by lecturers or students, or obtained from\nthird parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Although the classic lecture receives much bad press, it\ndoes have the advantage of being face-to-face. Speech was humans\u2019 first means\nof communication, and the \u201cauditory dimension of podcasting\u201d (Al Qasim and Al Fadda, 2013: 33) such as intonation, emotional\nexpression, and tonal variations go beyond the limitations of printed media and\noffer the potential of engaging with different learner types and forms of\ncognition. Podcasts have also been argued to support \u201cactive, social and\ncreative aspects of learning, and strengthen reflection and self-regulated\nlearning\u201d (Palenque 2015, cited in Dau et al., 2018: 424). Podcasts can also reduce\ndigital literacy barriers and improve access for all students, not all of whom\nhave easy access to personal computers or laptops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An expected advantage is that they can be listened to during\n\u2018downtime\u2019 \u2013 for example when travelling or doing household chores. However, early\nresearch suggested that students preferred to listen to podcasts in their usual\nstudy context \u2013 such as on their laptop in their home, while taking notes (Sutton-Brady et al., 2009: 223). This could reflect their\nperception of study content as requiring a different interaction to other media\nthat they may access via their mobile device (Bell, 2008: 183\u20134). However, more recently, Dau\net al. (2018)\nreport students listening to the content \u201con the go,\u201d and perhaps in the\nintervening years these practices have become more habitual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lecture Recordings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The most common type of podcast reported are simply audio lecture\nrecordings. Although they are sometimes dismissed as replicating the lecture\u2019s\ntransmissive mode of content delivery and not leveraging the full range of\ninteractive e-learning opportunities (e.g. Forbes, 2015; Turner et al., 2011; Zanten et al., 2012), they are also reported as\nhaving effective use as revision material, for students who miss classes, for\nthose with language difficulties, or for adult learners with multiple\ncommitments (Kazlauskas and Robinson, 2012; McLoughlin et al., 2007; Schreiber et\nal., 2010; Zanten et al., 2012).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Student-produced Podcasts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Podcasts produced by students can help improve\nconstructivist learning environments (Turner et al., 2011) through engaging them in the\nreflective production of material and improving problem-solving, collaborative\nand digital skills that address desired student outcomes in most further and\nhigher education contexts (Al Qasim and Al Fadda, 2013; Fernandez et al., 2015; Forbes, 2015) However, it is important that\nstudents are not disadvantaged by the necessary technical skills required to\nproduce a podcast \u2013 thus extra training may be needed, potentially detracting\nfrom the learning goals of the class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1112\/2020\/01\/JulianHopkins_picture_PodcastWomen_2.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1\")
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