Connecting with e-Learners Through Podcasting

Okay, today is a little bit different. And the reason is; I've found an article that may catches your interests so nicely...and it's about the benefits of podcasting to e-learners.

Connecting with e-Learners Through Podcasting

By Heather Zink

July 20, 2010

Online instructors often struggle to find ways to connect with students on a consistent basis through a means other than written discussion such as forums and emails. In an online learning community where students are primarily reading a body of course material, the goal of an online instructor is often to establish a sense of connectedness between the student and the material. Words in a textbook or PowerPoint presentations do not provide enough engagement to ensure students are actively participating in their learning, therefore it is crucial to use additional modalities to facilitate connectedness.

Podcasting offers an opportunity to connect with students and enhance the instructor-student interaction. It also provides an avenue for instructors to meet students at a time most convenient for the student with information that can be repeated as often as the student needs. Students already use various types of mobile devices, which provide access to the most current news stories, weather forecasts, movie trends, and restaurant reviews. Being able to add on-the-go course content and guidance related to textbook readings would resolve the "non-interaction" that occurs between students and their online instructors, as well as greatly enhance an instructor's "visibility." Busy students want to receive information through a convenient delivery method... enter the RSS feed. The utilization of an RSS feed captured in a podcast allows instructors to "push" course content out to the students instead of students needing to search for information.

By definition, a podcast is a series of digital content files that are released as episodes through the use of Web syndication or RSS feeds. The files can be audio or video, and—if crafted carefully—can create an environment similar to a face-to-face classroom, but with the advantages of availability, accessibility, and repetition. The podcast can be played over and over again until comprehension is achieved. As modern learners experience an increasing demand on their time, podcasting can facilitate a more flexible, mobile learning option.

The Journey to Connect: A Case Study As a teacher of online pathology courses, I have come across instances that present perfect segues into possible podcasting topics. Traditional textbooks use strategically placed "think about" questions throughout each chapter to force the reader to review the material in manageable segments. This format provided a perfect template for the webisodes. I began the episodes with a brief discussion of the assignments for the week. The bulk of the episode consisted of me answering the questions posed throughout the chapter of the textbook. This methodology provided the students with time to read each section, answer the question on their own, and then play the podcast to hear my answer. I used a "disease of the week" to wrap up each episode, choosing conditions that were not covered in the class but were of professional interest.

P.S. This is only the first part of this article, the next part'll be about the concept development, theme choosing and developing and advancing plan...stay tuned.

What is Blog?

Well, well...Let me talk about something else apart from English thingies today. It's about a thing that we always see it on cyberspace; everyones use it and it'll mean they're out of trend if they don't! You can write everything you want on it, publish it, and even make money from it. Oh, of course...I think I almost forget something; you can stay in touch with your friends by using this thing too. I think you finally know what I'm talking about, right? It's the thing that calls "Blog"!

So what is blog anyway? The only crystal clear definition for this thing will be 'the personal journal' which you can use to speak your mind on everything you want. And there'll be no matter if it's about your everyday life, technologies, teaching topics, games, cartoons and even surprisingly sensitive topics like politics and religions if you dare enough to put them on your blog.

The thing that I'd like to highlight for the blog is, every blog entry has its own message box for everyone who cares to leave messages or speak, or even share some ideas with the blog owner. It is a good thing if you ask me, because the visitors can stay in touch with the blog owner by this mean.

Is it difficult to make a blog for your own? Of course it is! but that was the good old day, since the making of the blog requires the same methods to make as the original webpage. That's the reason why you have to learn how to decode the html codes, javascripts, and other codes essential to make wonders. However, the answer for how difficult nowadays will be "No!" The making of the blog today is as easy as counting 1 to 3 now and that's why the softwares like WordPress and Moveable Type come into actions; the main instruments that can effectively eliminate the difficulty of how to make a blog. All I have to say is: try it if you're an enthusiastic blogger...

As I've said before, there're so many people all over the world have their own blogs and use them in various ways to reflect their own personalities, sharing ideas and even spreading news for others to hear. What a fantastic thing, that is!

And because of all these things, the blog has already become one of the most important media as those from the TV, newspapers and other published media, radio and videos.

Blog is a website, the website that serves as one's online journal, with message boxes and links to related sites attached to it. And that's all what the blog really is, case closed.