Study: Podcasting Has No Inherent Value In Education
Jul 9th, 2007 | By James Lewin | Category: Audio Podcasting, Educational PodcastsAn article at Campus Technology reports that the pedagogical value of podcasts depends almost entirely on student motivation and the learning “context” of the application.
“Podcasting does not contain any inherent value,” said researcher Ashley Deal. “It is only valuable inasmuch as it helps the instructor and students reach their educational goals, by facilitating thoughtful, engaging learning activities that are designed to work in support of those goals.”
In a survey of the latest academic studies on the impact of podcasting on learning and teaching, Deal, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, found that podcasting follows the pattern of many campus technology innovations.
“As with any educational technology, whether and how podcasting impacts the quality of the learning experience and/or educational outcomes depends largely upon how the technology is put to use,” Deal wrote.
Sure this is obvious to anyone? No technology or teaching tool has “inherent value”; a blackboard or whiteboard has no inherent value – its value comes from use and those using it. The same is, of course, true for educational podcasting!
Dr Leaver
This seems obvious – but it’s important for educators to understand that just offering a podcast of each lecture may not offer any educational benefits.
If schools are going to invest tens of thousands of dollars in recording and distributing educational podcasts, which many are already doing, they should be doing it in ways that enhance people’s education – and this may require more research and experimentation to figure out what is the most effective.