Bobhegwood.com

Educational institutions may not always be the first to embrace new technology. But once they do, the new technology becomes firmly entrenched that after a few years, it becomes unthinkable not to have it.

Just look at personal computers and the internet to confirm that almost all schools and colleges in the country can’t get by without them. And these days, learning institutions are gravitating towards a new communication media that promises to revolutionize the way subjects are taught in schools. It’s called podcasting.

Teachers have adopted podcasting as a novel means to either enhance their classroom instructions or to allow make up lessons to those who missed their classes for whatever reason. Podcast instructions are being used to supplement and complement classroom lessons. Some college websites have password protected podcasts to restrict their benefits to students who are enrolled. While others make them publicly accessible.

And over the last couple of years, a new derivative term has emerged,called “coursecasting.” The term has been recognized by the academe to describe course lessons recorded and made available as podcasts.

Why is podcasting so attractive to professors and students alike? Well, it’s almost natural for the academe to embrace technologies that profoundly alter the way they conduct teaching and the learning processes. If there’s any sector in society that has the demographics for it, it is the student’s eagerness to learn new things and the faculty’s receptivity to teaching methods that are paving the way for podcasting technologies to enter campus life.

It is technically involving and yet simple enough to understand and implement. Just like professors and students who flocked to PCs and the internet like magnets in the 90s, they look at podcasting as another neat technology for teaching. The parallel is nearly impeccable.

Colleges have started to introduce students to the concepts of podcasting as they relate to business, politics, industrial relations, social responsibility, commerce and culture. Students are often required to listen to podcasts to supplement classroom sessions, but also to produce their own podcasts. Obtaining a complete and thorough understanding of the podcasting technology often becomes a requirement in some courses.

There are course materials that easily lend themselves to podcasting more than others. Foreign language and speech courses are ideal for podcasts as students can listen to diction, accents, intonations, and conversational speech patterns. Science lab experiments and engineering how-to subjects use video shots in their podcasts. More aptly called “videocasts” they provide instructional material in a medium that make it easier for students to understand and transcend the difficulties often experienced in attending classroom instructions.

Educators have always been at the forefront of imparting their knowledge to eager students. The adoption of new and emerging technologies has proven to be an effective tool in sharing knowledge with increasing ease. Podcasting technology now occupies the bleeding edge of technologies meant to enhance the learning process and facilitate the exchange of information in a format both the faculty and students can easily understand and use.

Podcasting enables professors to extend their reach beyond the classroom while enabling students to maximize their study times in between classes and during commute. And just as the PC and the internet have become indispensable in modern homes and schools, educational podcasts or “coursecasts” inevitably take on the same path to make technology an integral part of our lifestyles.