How podcasts can help in the classroom

Here's an idea for podcasts, that goes beyond simply offering lectures for download: Use podcasts for additional course material -- discussions of the readings, stream-of-conciousness thoughts about the subject matter, what have you -- so professors can spend more classroom time on key concepts and answering questions from students.

That's exactly what Univesity of Oregon journalism professor Al Stavitsky is doing, according to Eva Sylwester of the Oregon Daily Emerald. From the article:

Stavitsky, associate dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, said his podcasts differed from podcasts available at some schools in that they did not reproduce class lectures. Instead, they provided new content bridging the lectures and the assigned readings, freeing Stavitsky from spending large amounts of class time talking about the readings.

“Lectures can be the lectures and the readings can be the readings,” Stavitsky said. “These podcasts can be the way I help students see connections.”

To record his podcasts, Stavitsky sat down in his office with a digital voice recorder and a stack of lecture notes and talked for 20 minutes a week. He incorporated information from lectures, guest speakers and current news, he said.

There are a few drawbacks, however:

[McCall ] Hall, a journalism major, said in an e-mail that Al Pods were helpful for finding the most important points of lectures and readings, and for being able to review class discussions. But the flexibility provided by the technology may have been too much for some students to handle, he said.

“I’m pretty sure that kids didn’t read the book because Professor Al (Stavitsky) made the Al Pod so convenient,” Hall wrote. “Also, some kids wouldn’t show up to class due to the fact that they could simply download the Al Pod and listen to it while they were at the Rec Center. I think some kids abused the Al Pod.”

Read the article for more information on how UO is developing podcasts.