Podcasting Is Dead. Long Live Video!
- ISSN: 14797860
Abstract
Podcasting (an automatic mechanism whereby multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client, is becoming increasingly popular in education. Although podcasts enable students and teachers to share information anywhere at anytime, the most frequent application of the technology to date has been to allow students to download audio recordings of lessons or lectures. However, both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the use of audio podcasts showed that these were not popular with students. In this article, the author describes how he had abandoned his podcast learning support model in favour of direct access to short online videos in the style of YouTube (www.youtube.com). These were delivered via on institutional VLE without the option to subscribe via RSS, since this choice had previously been rejected by the students. The videos ranged in length from three to five minutes and consisted of a short "talking head" introduction, screencasts (digital recording of computer screen output with audio narration), and occasional interventions by a puppet character with helpful tips. Focus group comments supported the positive reception for the video format in comparison to the audio podcasts. Audio podcasting and the RSS subscription model in particular is severely limited in its acceptability and hence its utility to many student consumers, whereas short YouTube style videos have very broad acceptance and offer a much richer format for instruction. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)
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