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Podcasts as a Learning Tool in Economics
Geraint Johnes Lancaster University Management School
Published July 2005
This note concerns my use of podcasts as a learning tool in economics during academic year
2004-05 at Lancaster University Management School. A podcast is an audio clip that is broadcast
over the internet and which may be listened to at a computer or on an MP3 player (such as an
iPOD).
To create the podcasts, I recorded a series of three minute clips based on topics in my final year
undergraduate human resource economics course. These were recorded as wave files using the
windows sound recorder, and then converted to mp3 files using dBpowerAMP Music Converter
(http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm). The files were then uploaded onto an weblog account
freely hosted by blogger (http://www.blogger.com/start), one each week. The account was given
RSS syndication using the FeedBurner service (http://www.feedburner.com). Students were then
given the web address for the RSS feed.
To retrieve the podcasts, students need to install a podcast receiver on their computer. A popular
option is iPodder (http://ipodder.sourceforge.net/index.php). Once this is installed and the address
for the RSS feed has been entered, the student's computer will automatically download each
podcast at the time that it is uploaded. Each podcast will also be downloaded automatically onto
students' iPODs, though for some other types of MP3 player the files may need to be manually
ported from the PC to the player.
Since many students will not have their own computer, it is important that the audio files should be
made available also through direct web access (ideally within the module's virtual learning
environment). Students accessing the material using lab machines then simply need to connect
headphones to the PC to listen to the podcasts.
All of the software referred to above is free, and the processes of creating and receiving the
podcasts are straightforward.
A virtue of the podcast system is that it is, to some extent at least, a push technology, contrasting
with the pull technology that is characteristic of many internet applications. The podcasts are
automatically delivered to the student; the student does not have to remember to fetch them each
week.
There are several lessons to be learned about the pedagogy of using podcasts. First, a podcast is
(currently at least) an audio event only. It lacks the impact of an audio visual presentation. This
means that podcasts should be short, and should contain material that is vivid and arresting, and
supplementary to what has been covered in class. Secondly, the material delivered in a podcast
should be provocative and should aim to make students think. Thirdly, it should be remembered
that, immediately after listening to a podcast, the student will most likely listen to music. This
means that thinking time needs to be included within the podcast itself. Do not be afraid to leave
gaps of silence embedded in your podcasts. If you want your listeners to think about a question,
give them time within the podcast to do so - they won't do it afterwards. Fourthly, the podcasts
should be embedded in the curriculum; students should see that there is advantage to them in
listening. In my course, this advantage was apparent in that assessment was by way of a learning
journal, and students knew they could get ideas for this journal by following thinking leads given in
the podcasts.
Students who used the podcasts report that they found them immensely helpful. However these
students were in the minority. This seems to be because the facility is most useful to students who
have their own PC (and ideally also an MP3 player), and broadband access. (While the podcasts
can be downloaded on a dial-up connection, this is slow. Broadband access is of course a problem
for many students living in private rental accommodation, since broadband providers typically
impose a 12 month contract.) Of course, students could access the audio clips through the virtual
learning environment, but many did not do so - presumably because this is a reversion to a pull
technology. In these respects, podcasting may be a learning technology for the future rather than
the present. Nonetheless, the results of my experiment suggest that the podcasts have, for the
students that access them, measurable pedagogical merit.