Podcasts and lectures are as much a part of the 21st century student’s life as beer and beans. Your average week at University might look something like this: attend lectures (4 hours); guffaw away to Karl Pilkington or Chris Moyles via podcast (7-8 hours); eat, sleep, drink (the rest of the time). This may seem like a logical division of your time, but what it you could combine the podcasting with the learning? University lecturer David Hearnshaw didn’t seem to think this was very viable way back in 2006, arguing that “more than words” were needed to ensure a rich learning environment. He may have been right with regards to the nuts and bolts of University lectures, but that doesn’t mean that podcasts can’t be a valuable learning, tuition and self-help resource in other ways. This week we look at how the podcast can help you study.
For the newbs: what is a podcast?
First things first. Those of you still firing up the Atari from under your rock may benefit from a brief explanation of what a podcast actually is. Very simply, a podcast is a pre-recorded digital media program which is distributed via download. The term mixes ‘web-cast’ with ‘iPod’, the pre-eminent medium for playback of podcasts. Programs are often recurring programs released episodically, but can also be one-offs. Podcasts can be found all over the internet, but here’s a good place to start. N.B. It might be an idea to get iTunes too, you philistine!
How to get more out of podcasts for learning
Podcasts can be a great way to learn on the hop, requiring little to no effort to listen to on public transport on the way to town, or in the comfort of your own home whilst waiting for Deal or no Deal to come on. This makes them a win-win resource – no effort and guaranteed gain. However, to get the most thorough learning experience out of educational podcasts you should seek to engage more fully with the material where possible. You can take notes as you would do in a normal lecture, but the beauty of the podcast is its flexibility in allowing for a fuller learning experience. For example, you will at some point in your University career be frustrated as a lecturer brushes a point aside without clarifying, or moves on too quickly from a tricky concept. With the podcast, you can pause and search out a definition or explanation on Google before resuming your listening. You can also create a forum with course mates where a handful of you can listen together and discuss the points made with one another, filling in your knowledge gaps as you do so. It might sound unbelievably dorky, but it could be extremely helpful, particularly when revising.
5 great educational podcast resources from top Universities
Many of the world’s best institutions for learning now offer course material and other interesting educational bits and pieces via podcast. Here are a few to get you started:
Oxford - http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/
Stanford University - http://itunes.stanford.edu/
Princeton - http://hulk03.princeton.edu:8080/WebMedia/podcasts/
LSE - http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/publicLecturesAndEvents.htm
UCL - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl/streamed
Also, you can find a variety of engaging ‘edu-casts’ here and here. Until next week – I’m off to copyright ‘edu-casts’…
Have you downloaded any podcasts? Have you got any favourites that you can recommend to our readers?
