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Podcasting

By Meredith Farkas - Posted on January 28th, 2007
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Executive Summary

People have had the ability to put audio content on the Web for over a decade, but not until the term “podcasting” was coined (two years ago) did so many people start taking advantage of this. This can be attributed to both the incredible ease of use of newer recording and syndication tools and the incredible popularity of the iPod and other MP3 players. Go to almost any place where young people congregate and you will see the ubiquitous white iPod earbuds. Podcasting became popular so quickly that, at the end of 2005, podcast was named the Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary.

Podcasting allows people to create their own Internet radio shows. You can find podcasts on almost every subject from cars, to sports, to wine, to Web technologies (and even library-related topics!). People create podcasts about their life, about their hobbies and about their work. CEOs, educators, comedians and radio personalities are podcasting, but so are average Joes and Janes. They are all on equal footing online; whoever has the best podcast will get the most listeners, regardless of who they are.

Libraries have been looking for new ways of communicating with their patrons online beyond their traditional Web site. Like blogs, podcasts offer libraries another way to disseminate information, but podcasts offer a portability that blogs do not have. Since podcasts can be uploaded to an MP3 player, they can be listened to on the way to work, on the way to class, at the gym, or while waiting for an appointment. This allows the patron to listen to the podcasts wherever she or he wants. Podcasts can easily be created by anyone and can also be used as a way to empower young patrons and encourage their creativity. The applications in the educational realm are even more plentiful and educators can really have an impact on student learning by using this simple technology.

What It Is

A podcast is an MP3 audio file syndicated via RSS. People have been putting audio content online since before the birth of the World Wide Web, but with podcasting, the audio is syndicated so that a user can subscribe to the RSS feed of a specific show and have the audio automatically downloaded to their computer as soon as a new podcast is produced. Podcast is a combination of the terms iPod and broadcast. The name is a bit of a misnomer since you do not need an iPod to listen to a podcast. Podcasts can be listened to on any MP3 player, on your computer, or can even be burned to a CD.

What Can Be Done With It

Librarians: Many libraries are using podcasts to disseminate information to their patrons. Some podcasts offer library news and other relevant campus information. Others offer brief descriptions of a library resource and tell how it can be used by students. Other libraries actually create full-length radio shows that include library news, interviews with faculty or staff on-campus and offer other random tidbits that may be of interest to students.

The other way that libraries are using podcasting is to get patrons involved in developing creative content. Younger patrons really enjoy creative endeavors like making radio shows and movies, and libraries can provide a lab setting to enable the development of creative content. This benefits young people by giving them a space to easily create this sort of content. It also benefits the library by creating content that markets the library as a space that is friendly to young people (and fun).

Educators: Podcasting is a great format for lectures. It’s essentially just an audio recording of the professor giving a lecture that the user can play at any time and from any media that can access mp3s. Podcasting can really enrich the educational experience and can be a tremendous help to non-traditional learners. Allowing users to play-back lectures at their leisure recognizes the diversity of learning styles. People learn differently. Some are auditory learners, where listening to a lecture is great, but looking at a page full of notes is a nightmare. Students with learning disabilities or ADHD might learn better through repetition, and with podcasting, they could replay lectures to their heart’s content. If professors were really interested in the medium, they could even offer extra lectures or audio content for interested students. It would prevent educators from teaching to the lowest common denominator or teaching over their heads to the highest achievers. There really could be some sort of tailoring of the course to accommodate different learners.

Podcasting allows professors the ability to easily use guest speakers. They could interview the speakers over VoIP (Voice over IP) or even the phone so that the speaker never actually has to come to class. This way, the professor could get great guest speakers who would otherwise not be able to make the trip. It would be less of a burden for the speaker and the professor could use the recording over and over again. Additionally, the professor doesn’t have to use class time for guest speakers and can have students listen to the podcasts before class.

Students are also creating podcasts in the classroom. Creating a weekly or monthly podcast about what they’re learning forces students to reflect on what they’ve learned, which has great value. For students who enjoy creative endeavors, this can be just the hook to get them engaged in the course material so that they can report on it for the podcast.

Finally, podcasting would be a useful tools for student presentations. For many students, the idea of doing a presentation in front of their entire class is terror-inducing. If they could create a podcast of their presentation ahead of time it would be much less stressful, and the professor would not need to use class time for listening to the presentations. Comments and questions about presentations could take place during class, or, if the podcast is posted on a blog, they could actually use the comments feature for asking questions. Podcast presentations would also be excellent in the distance learning environment where presentations are often done in a chat medium or simply as a Word document.

Examples

Who Should Be Using It

Librarians interested in disseminating information to students via a device that is popular among their patron population may consider podcasting. There are some important things to consider when disseminating library information via a podcast. Remember that podcasting prevents people from skimming and scanning your content; if they are only interested in a single fact, they may not want to listen to an entire podcast. Also, podcasts of this kind need to be kept short and to-the-point. Most people will not want to listen to 20 minutes of a librarian droning on about the library. It helps to have background music, multiple voices, and show notes that show you where in the show specific information can be found.

Librarians who work with children and teens may want to consider getting them involved in creating podcasts. One of the most important considerations when working with this population is to really avoid controlling the product too much, especially with teens. The teens will feel much more committed to the project if they feel a sense of ownership over it. The librarian should play the role of a facilitator; not a manager.

By podcasting, educators can really have an impact on the learning experience for students. They are probably the group that should most strongly consider podcasting. Some faculty may be concerned that podcasting lectures will lead to students not coming to class since they can just listen to the podcasts later. Faculty who are podcasting have thus far not found this to be the case. One way of addressing this concern is to podcast the lectures in advance of the class and then spend class time on more interactive endeavors, such as answering student questions, asking students to reflect on what they’re learning and going over assignments.

Tools

Recording Tools

Podcasting Services

Podcast Directories

Podcast Aggregators

More Information

Podcaster David Free has an excellent list of podcasting resources, with links to presentations, articles and blogs that discuss podcasting.

He also has a page with links to podcasting tools.

The Library Success Wiki has a comprehensive list of libraries that are podcasting.

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