Spent some time today to look at podcasting, one of the hottest thing lately, and well to look at its possible use for teaching and learning of course.
In short, if we compare podcasting to blogging, a blog post is a typewritten post, while a podcast publish an audio clip. The content for both can be similar, it’s the form that is different.
To begin podcasting, you simply need a digital device that is capable of capturing sound/voice. One commonly used piece of hardware by podcasting fans is the iPod. (origin of the pod in podcasting)
In this experiment, I used the built-in microphone of my latest toy. You need a software capable of capturing your voice and converting it to MP3 format. The freely available opensource software Audacity is the perfect choice. And here goes my 1st ever podcast!
Looking from the perspective of language(s) teaching and learning, podcasting is most useful for the developing of oral skills. Students can be asked to tell a story, to comment on any issue (just like in an oral exam), or simply to retell their day’s event! These are but some possiblities. Teacher may also use podcast to give assignments, such as ‘completing the story after you have heard this podcast‘.
As this tool is most useful in the development of the oral skills, where Mother-Tongue Languages are concerned, it may be more suitable for the primary level, where they are still learning to speak/narrate. For the secondary level, the Normal(Techinical) students would benefit most as a large proportion of their examination is based on the oral component.
Changing patterns of Internet usage and challenges at colleges and universities
Increased enrollments, changing student expectations, and shifting patterns of Internet access and usage continue to generate resource and administrative challenges for colleges and universities. Computer center staff and college administrators must balance increased access demands, changing system loads, and system security within constrained resources.
To assess the changing academic computing environment, computer center directors from several geographic regions were asked to respond to an online questionnaire that assessed patterns of usage, resource allocation, policy formulation, and threats. Survey results were compared with data from a study conducted by the authors in 1999. The analysis includes changing patterns in Internet usage, access, and supervision. The paper also presents details of usage by institutional type and application as well as recommendations for more precise resource assessment by college administrators.
Access the full paper here.
[source: elearnopedia.com]
Communication Dynamics in Discussion Board and Weblogs
The ASCILITE Conference 2004 held in Perth, Australia was just over.
Among the many papers presented during the conference, a paper “Communication dynamics: Discussion boards, weblogs and the development of communities of inquiry in online learning environments” by James Farmer was among them.
More computers at home hinder learning?
Some German researchers studied a sample of 175,000 15 years old students in 31 countries and discovered that too much exposure to computers may actually affect the developing mind.
Research shows that ability in maths and reading had suffered significantly among students who have more than one computer at home. And while students seemed to benefit from limited use of computers at school, those who used them several times per week at school saw their academic performance decline significantly as well.
“You could argue that’s the big issue here: People need guidance in how to use [computers in education],” says Dr. Marcia Linn, professor of education and director of the Technology Enhanced Learning in Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley.
The people here will refer to not only teachers but parents as well. Many of our current parents have grown up and learnt in the no-internet era. So it seems that there are still some gaps to be closed in our education before computers will bring less ‘side-effects’.
Read the source of report here.
Top Ten Tips for implementing e-Learning
If you are looking into implementing e-learning solutions, you may want to read this article by Jane Knight first.