Interview for managerSeminare
Because of the infos about Podcasting and E-Learning, I posted here on my blog, Silvia Jumpertz from the Journal managerSeminare asked me to give an interview about my impressions of the usability of Podcasts in E-Learning and the project we accomplished at the FernUniversität. So, we had a conversation at phone where I sketched my notions about Podcasts, E-Learning and our project. The result is the article "Trendiges Training " which appeared in the May 2006 edition of the journal.E-Learning and Podcasts
I'm workin at the Department of Data Processing Technologies at the only distance teaching university in the german speaking area. Therefore we are always interested in new technologies that support our students in reference to learning methods, e-learning, distance and mobile learning.
A Podcast is a new technology which is originated by the Apple I-Pod and I-Tunes software. Basically a podcast consists of some mp3-files, linked into a RSS-feed, published at a public web-site. Special Podcast-readers like IPodder or the new version of the I-Tunes software are able to synchronize the mp3-files automatically to your PC or your MP3-player. Hence a Podcast combines the possibility to publish some kind of radio program for everyone with simple but powerfull distribution methods.
As today almost everyone is in the possession of an mp3-player (IPod, cellphones, usb-sticks, ...) our students could use so far unused time (like waiting time) for learning. Our idea is to create either some extra material for our courses or to use the course material itself for creating a learning-podcast for our students.
Right now, I'm working on the production of some course materials of the course "Objectoriented Programming". The first prototype of the audiobook is now availible at the web-page of the course for public download. The section covers a general introduction of algorithms, their implementation in computer programs and a comparison with examples from the everyday life. The audiobook was spoken by two professional speakers (male and female) and recorded in a sound studio. Thus, the results correspond at least to professional radio shows, both in quality of sound and the stressing of the voices.
I also published the url of the rss-feed to a couple of podcast listings. So, the mp3-files should also be availible in ITunes and other listings for automatic retrieval soon.
For the creation of a podcast from written text, especially the difference of written text and the spoken word is important. As an introduction i read the article:
In the following, some links to web-pages that inspired my work.
- Podcast.de
A german webpage with an introduction about podcasts, lots of software and links.
- Epnweb.org
The Education Podcast Network
- Leonardo
A german radio show.
- Shortbooks.de
Spoken abstracts of current literature.
- Weblog Entry with some hints to common problems
- Edupod.net
Other peaple, havin the same idea
- ipods in Education - Review (August)
This review, by Jerry Leeson, education.au Business Development Manager, aims to provide an overview of the functionality and potential of iPods in a loosely defined educational context. iPods (portable music players) have been a phenomenal success for Apple Computers and would seem to be setting the benchmark for these types of devices. This review should not be treated as a formal evaluation of the devices, but rather as an informal look at iPods and also a summation of some of the activity that is occurring or has taken place in education. The first part of the review contains an evaluation of the iPod along with some speculation/suggestions for how it may be used in an educational context. The following section provides a scan of projects or evaluations that have taken place using iPods in educational settings.
