Podcasting for mobile learners - exploiting opportunities

Podcasting for mobile learners: exploiting opportunitiesA/Prof. Dick Ng’ambiCentre for Educational TechnologyUniversity of Cape TownKeynote presented at the DUT e-Learning Festival held at the Durban University of Technology 17-19 November 2010

SMS Questions on Today’s lectureOur course is called: edn6099Today’s lecture is number 7It’s a big classOur short code is: 31642Text 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?

Global Literature on m-learningMobile phones connectivity vs. non-connected devicesDesktop experience is extended through mobile learning (both connected / non-connected) Opportunity: Leverage classroom activity/ interactionDevices with no connectivity have not proved popular or sufficiently useful (FutureLab Handbook, 2006)Opportunity: Use MP3 players and iPods along side mobile phonesMost mobile devices are not integrated into institutional networks Opportunity: Link students with educators & peers, mobile devices with learningSignificant 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 IndicatorsNote: These statistics focus on devices / tools and not on what they are used forITU website

ContentConnectivityInteractivityPedagogy

Server: site archiving and storing podcasts8Podcast Servers

Record a podcast directly from a mobile phoneProvide Internet access to MP3 of your voice messages9Using Mobile Phones to Podcast

MINGLING / INFORMAL AREAON BUS TO / FRO CAMPUSLearning resources / collective knowledgeCOMPUTER LAB STUDY ROOM / LIBRARY / RESIDENCE

Text as expression of thought13

Technology Mediated Expression14

Three reasons for using podcasts are:making learning more flexibleincreasing the accessibility of learning materialsenhancing students’ learning experiences (McGarr, 2009) 16Podcasting and Learner Mobility

Case Study (Undergraduate)PedagogyInformation Systems Dept2008-MP3428 1st year students (28 tutors)

Lectures; theory/prac in lecture theatre2009-MP4608 1st year students (44 tutors)

Lectures; theory/prac in computer labPodcasts in pedagogy loosely coupledDidactic teaching approachLearner choice and flexibility high

Case Study (Postgraduate)PedagogyGraduate School of Humanities; School of Education200816 postgraduate students

8 week module (4-7PM Tues & Thurs)2009 18 postgraduate students

1 week block release module (Mon-Sat)Podcasts in pedagogy tightly coupledReflective learning teaching approachLearner choice and flexibility medium

Teaching Strategies for PodcastComparing Teaching Approaches 19

Undergraduate course in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Cape TownLecturers recorded their lectures, and uploaded the audio files on the course site on the LMSThe total number of students was 411Most of the students commuted to campus and had no access to Internet when away from the campus.20Context (Undergraduate Experience)

Mobility was between home (without Internet connection); buses, campus, computer laboratories and classroomTime for socialisation and engagement with peers was also limitedMobile learners traversed high broadband Internet empowered environments (campus) to zero or expensive connectivity (home)21

Action Research approachAn ethnographic methodTwo types of recording were done: a scheduled live lecture and a practical briefingPractical briefing involved details of what students were to do in the lab that week22Methodology

A total of six lecturers gave lectures over the course of the semesterFive lecturers agreed to have their lectures recordedNone of them had any prior experience with using podcasting to support student learning23

Students choosing not to use the course site to access the podcastsAccess via RSS feed: 44Access via course site: 242Access 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. 24Observations

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 onceSome files were downloaded more than once by the same userwhich indicates that students do not listen to each and every lecture. They might listen to some lectures more than once. 25

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. 26

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 lecturersan effective way of grasping concepts at one’s own pacehelpful when classes weren’t specific27

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%)28

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.29

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)30

DiscussionChallenges of Producing PodcastsInability of the microphone to pick up the students’ voices when they were speaking.Filtering out outside noise also posed a significant challenge.31

Recording equipmentRecorder 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.32

Recording and Editing Audio Filesreduce 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. 33

Knowledge constructionContentConnectivityCognitionLearning DesignInteractivityPedagogySociology of knowledge

Knowledge constructionOpen SourceMobile DevicesContentConnectivityCognitionLearning DesignInteractivityPedagogyFree SoftwareSocial MediaSociology of knowledge

Recommendations 1 of 4Designing tasks for learning while on the move requires both educators and instructional designers to focus on the medium view of mobile devicesAligning pedagogical goals with affordances at medium view level draws on existing device uses, reduces the learning curve and engages learners

Recommendations 2 of 4Ensuring that none of the learners are excluded, use a tools view to determine type of devices that learners haveDon’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 4Design learning activities that combine the rigidity of lecture schedules, fixed desktops, learner mobility and ubiquitous technologies

Podcasting for mobile learners - exploiting opportunities

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