The winds of digital revolution have taken education by storm and do not appear to be relenting. Today’s new buzzword — raved about by e-learning fanatics — is podcasting and it is being hailed as an innovation that will enhance the quality of teaching and learning.
For instance, it is projected that by 2009, 50% of all courses and modules will use a hybrid of face-to-face and online learning and 80% of students will use cellular technology as a learning tool.
Podcasting is broadly defined as an online-based creation, which manages audio and video material that people can download and listen to on easily available portable devices.
Apple, a global leader in the education market, recently hosted a presentation where experts and academics shared perspectives on how the technology could help improve teaching.
In their presentations, they emphasised the need for teachers to adapt and continue to keep up with new trends and technological advances within the education field.
Bill Ashraf, a senior lecturer in the microbiology department at Bradford University in Britain was one of the presenters. Ashraf is a great proponent of podcasting as an effective teaching tool. He believes podcasting provides a rich digital environment which makes learning more interactive and serves as a social network.
Today’s learners, he said, are diverse as ‘they live and learn in a 24/7 society juggling family, work and social commitmentsâ€.
The majority of learners, he said, spend most of their time on the phone, iPod, google, face-book, and iTunes to communicate and engage with one another on academic-related and social issues.
With this in mind Ashraf decided to put his lectures on iTunes so that when learners missed a class they could still access it afterwards to catch up and also do reviews. ‘What I like about podcasting is its accessibility and portability. The technology is also intuitive and it does not demand in-depth computer knowledge. All you have to do is to switch from PC to a Mac,†said Ashraf.
He said an increasing number of academics and theorists have come to realise that lectures have become a ‘least effective or efficient way to communicate with, inspire or engage with learnersâ€. Since Ashraf began using podcasting he no longer experiences a problem with his students crowding his office for consultation.
‘All I do is post my diary about which days I am available for consultation. Students do not have to come all at once,†said Ashraf. He said learners with disabilities such as dyslexia, visual impairment and those who require palliative care, can also benefit from podcasting as they can simply record the lecture and go through it again at their own time and in their own space.
Critics of podcasting fear it might discourage learners from attending lectures and, therefore, deal a blow to traditional ways of learning. But, said Ashraf, based on his experience, the opposite actually occurs.
‘When I tell the students the lecture they are in is going to be available as a podcast, they engage even more than usual and start asking questions in the full knowledge that they know it would be available on iTunes,†said Ashraf.
Learners who are uncomfortable asking questions in a big class situation can also SMS the questions anonymously and ‘I can then respond in real time to questions or save issues for later and address them via my blog,†Ashraf said.
The problem with these kinds of techno-digital devices has always been their inaccessibility to ordinary, poor public schools in the developing world. The costs of buying gadgets as well as putting up the supporting infrastructure are often prohibitive.
But Ashraf allayed these fears by saying: ‘distribution costs are basically nil. All you need is a simple PC with internet connection. You don’t need any of the fancy hi-tech equipment.â€
He said South Africa is among those countries with a sound infrastructure that would make it easy to introduce technology-driven initiatives such as podcasting: the advanced cellphone connectivity in the country could be used as a launch pad for programmes.
The success of launching such technological innovations also depends on the willingness of relevant players in the telecom industry. It was only recently that e-rate was signed into law to enable poor schools to access internet connections at a discounted rate.
The delay was blamed on Telkom’s reluctance to introduce discounted rates for internet services that left thousands of poor children out of the information technology loop.
Now that this has become law, the departments of communications, education and Telkom must work hard to help bridge the digital divide that still keeps the rich urban and poor rural schools apart.