Podcasting for mobile learners: exploiting opportunities

A/Prof. Dick Ng’ambi

Centre for Educational Technology

University of Cape Town

Keynote presented at the DUT e-Learning Festival held at the Durban University of Technology

17-19 November 2010

SMS Questions on Today’s lecture

• Our course is called: edn6099• Today’s lecture is number 7• It’s a big class• Our short code is: 31642• Text as I lecture (during), and text as you listen

to the podcast (post-lecture)

Edn6099-7 + [type your question]

e.g. Edn6099-7 + How is the weather in Durban?

Background

Global Literature on m-learning

–Mobile phones connectivity vs. non-connected devices

• Desktop experience is extended through mobile learning (both connected / non-connected)

– Opportunity: Leverage classroom activity/ interaction

• Devices with no connectivity have not proved popular or sufficiently useful (FutureLab Handbook, 2006)

– Opportunity: Use MP3 players and iPods along side mobile phones

• Most mobile devices are not integrated into institutional networks

– Opportunity: Link students with educators & peers, mobile devices with learning

• Significant blurring of distinction between mobile phones and data-centric handheld devices e.g. PDAs (Becta, 2004)

– Opportunity: design learning activities that are device, space, time and distance independent

SA ICT Indicators

Indicator Per 100 inhabitantsComputers 8.25 Fixed telephone lines 8.91 Internet users 8.43 Broadband Internet subscribers

0.77

Mobile cellular subscriptions 90.60

Radio sets 24.24

TV sets 19.50

% population covered by mobile signal

99.79

ITU website

Note: These

statistics

focus on

devices /

tools and not

on what they

are used for

Content

PedagogyInteractivity

Connectivity

Content

PedagogyInteractivity

Connectivity

• Server: site archiving and storing podcasts

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Podcast Servers

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Record a podcast directly from a mobile phone Provide Internet access to

MP3 of your voice messages

Using Mobile Phones to Podcast

ON BUS TO / FRO CAMPUS

MINGLING / INFORMAL AREA

COMPUTER LAB

STUDY ROOM / LIBRARY / RESIDENCE

Learning resources / collective knowledge

RSS feed to mobile devices

Mobility On Campus Off Campus

Access to broadband High Varied (low to no-access)

Speed & Cost of downloading podcasts

Fast & free Slow & expensive

Time to reflect on learning

Low High

Mobile network Excellent Excellent

Use of ubiquitous technologies

Low High

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Challenge

Text as expression of thought

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Technology Mediated Expression

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Transformation of mind

• Three reasons for using podcasts are:– making learning more flexible – increasing the accessibility of learning materials – enhancing students’ learning experiences (McGarr,

2009)

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Podcasting and Learner Mobility

Case Study (Undergraduate)

Information Systems Dept

• 2008-MP3• 428 1st year students

(28 tutors) • Lectures; theory/prac

in lecture theatre

• 2009-MP4• 608 1st year students

(44 tutors) • Lectures; theory/prac

in computer lab

Pedagogy

• Podcasts in pedagogy loosely coupled

• Didactic teaching approach

• Learner choice and flexibility high

Case Study (Postgraduate)

Graduate School of Humanities; School of Education

• 2008• 16 postgraduate

students• 8 week module (4-

7PM Tues & Thurs)

• 2009 • 18 postgraduate

students• 1 week block release

module (Mon-Sat)

Pedagogy• Podcasts in pedagogy

tightly coupled• Reflective learning

teaching approach• Learner choice and

flexibility medium

Teaching Strategies for Podcast

Type Teaching Strategy Comment

Under-graduate

Personalised teaching through listening to podcasts on mobile devices (personal tutor metaphor)Student who struggle to understand English and / or accents listen to lectures again & again to enhance their understanding of lecture content (self-pacing & confidence building)

Frequently accessed podcasts represent a topic of interest to students (feedback to educator)Both student & educators may want to share these resources or recommend them (evidence based reuse)

Post-graduate

Students use podcasts to scaffold reflective learning (deep learning)Create podcasts as portfolios of work (constructivist learning)

Self ranking of podcasts by frequency of use(summative evaluation)

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Comparing Teaching Approaches

• Undergraduate course in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Cape Town

• Lecturers recorded their lectures, and uploaded the audio files on the course site on the LMS

• The total number of students was 411• Most of the students commuted to campus and

had no access to Internet when away from the campus.

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Context (Undergraduate Experience)

• Mobility was between home (without Internet connection); buses, campus, computer laboratories and classroom

• Time for socialisation and engagement with peers was also limited

• Mobile learners traversed high broadband Internet empowered environments (campus) to zero or expensive connectivity (home)

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• Action Research approach• An ethnographic method• Two types of recording were done: a scheduled

live lecture and a practical briefing • Practical briefing involved details of what

students were to do in the lab that week

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Methodology

• A total of six lecturers gave lectures over the course of the semester

• Five lecturers agreed to have their lectures recorded

• None of them had any prior experience with using podcasting to support student learning

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• Students choosing not to use the course site to access the podcasts– Access via RSS feed: 44– Access via course site: 242

• Access via RSS feeds and via LMS accounted for 10.7% and 58.9% respectively.

• Some students were already exposed to the technology via music downloads.

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Observations

• 286 students accessed podcasts, more than half the total number of students registered for the course. – 69.6% of students registered for the course accessed

the podcasts at least once• Some files were downloaded more than once by

the same user– which indicates that students do not listen to each and

every lecture. They might listen to some lectures more than once.

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• Some students report not being aware of the availability of podcasts at the time of administering the questionnaire.

• Some students felt that the podcasts need video in order for them to be effective and so did not use the audio files, others used the slides and textbook only and some students forgot about them while others never thought of using them.

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• Some of the ways in which the podcasts were found to be useful in learning include:– enabling students to gain a better understanding as

they reviewed what was said by lecturers– an effective way of grasping concepts at one’s own

pace– helpful when classes weren’t specific

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• Students may not be downloading and keeping the files for later reference, but rather download as and when they need to use them.

• Number of times users accessed podcasts:less than 5 (35%)

Between 5-10 (47%)

Greater than 10 (17%)

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• Principle reason for using podcasts is to give students additional resources that they can use for study and reference purposes.

• Using the latest technology for learning purposes is meant to give students a choice in what resources they use to meet their needs.

• Lecturers report that the time spent on consultation and lecture preparation is not affected by the availability of podcasts.

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• Improved attendance. Previously, this component suffered declining attendance resulting in poor student performance in the exam.

• Podcasts revamped the course, increased student attendance:– The podcasting worked very well as I was able to

construct notes from the lectures after the lectures were finished. (extracts from 2009 course evaluation)

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Discussion

• Challenges of Producing Podcasts– Inability of the microphone to pick up the students’

voices when they were speaking. – Filtering out outside noise also posed a significant

challenge.

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• Recording equipment– Recorder was easy to use as well as small enough for

the lecturers to carry around in their pocket.– Technical problems experienced were accidental

switching off the recorder as the lecturer moved around and interference with the sound system in the venue, which resulted in poor sound quality.

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• Recording and Editing Audio Files– reduce the size of the files to enable students to

download on small-cost playback devices. • The advantage of low-sized files was that the few students

with iPods were not privileged at the expense of those who did not.

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Mobility On Campus Learning Opportunity

Access to broadband HighLearning Management System (LMS) de facto learning environment

LMS used as a Podcast Server. Student download podcast to personal devices for ‘take home’

Speed & Cost of downloading podcasts

Offset Offset

Time to reflect on learning Alternative productive use of time

Podcasts Scaffold self study

Mobile network Physical proximity of peers neutralized need of

use

Anonymous SMS/Texting arising from podcast

Use of ubiquitous technologies

Students shared knowledge on putting audio file on varied

devices

Students shared knowledge on putting audio file on varied devices

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Content

PedagogyInteractivity

Connectivity

Learning Design

Sociology of knowledge

Cognition

Knowledge construction

Content

PedagogyInteractivity

Connectivity

Free

Softw

are

Open

Sourc

eM

obile Devices

Social Media

Learning Design

Sociology of knowledge

Cognition

Knowledge construction

Recommendations 1 of 4

• Designing tasks for learning while on the move requires both educators and instructional designers to focus on the medium view of mobile devices

• Aligning pedagogical goals with affordances at medium view level draws on existing device uses, reduces the learning curve and engages learners

Recommendations 2 of 4

• Ensuring that none of the learners are excluded, use a tools view to determine type of devices that learners have– Don’t develop learning tasks that requires an

iPhone when learners don’t have the device or a wap application when only a handful of learners have wap-enabled phones

Recommendations 3 of 4

• Design learning activities that combine the rigidity of lecture schedules, fixed desktops, learner mobility and ubiquitous technologies

Recommendations 4 of 4

• Leverage institutional LMS with popular social media so as to: – Maximize use of tools– Provides multiple ways of accessing content and

social networking

• Value of using ubiquitous tools– No additional costs in acquiring & training students to

use new tools– Ensures more equitable access to content

Discussion

• Answer SMS Questions

Search Engines And Directories For Podcasts.http://www.podcast411.com/page2.html (reflects numerous directories)

http://www.vodstock.com/vodstock/vodcast-directories.php (listing video podcasts and “vlog” directories as of Nov. 10, 2005)

http://podcasts.yahoo.com/ http://www.podcast.net/

http://www.podscope.com/ http://search.singingfish.com/sfw/home.jsp

http://www.podcastalley.com/index.php http://www.digitalpodcast.com/

Podcatcher Programs.A list is available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Podcatchers

Finding Podsafe Content.http://creativecommons.org/ http://www.audiofeeds.org/

http://music.podshow.com/ (the podsafe music network) http://www.podsafeaudio.com/

http://www.ipodarmy.com/2005/06/how-to-find-podsafe-music/ (how-to article) http://www.magnatune.com

http://promonet.iodalliance.com (a service from IODA (Independent Online Distribution Alliance) that offers podcasters, and others access to thousands of pre-cleared tracks from independent record labels)

http://www.pumpaudio.com/index.html (proper licensing of independent music for use in advertising, television, film and the web)

http://www.garageband.com/htdb/feed/partners.html (music supplier with large catalog of CC music) http://www.gcast.com (free and simple service that provides entire GarageBand catalog that is podcast

safe) Sourced from: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide

Useful Resources

Thank you

Contact details:

Dick Ng’ambi

Centre for Educational Technology

Dick.Ngambi@uct.ac.za

Skype Id: dngambi

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