Podcasting for mobile learners: exploiting opportunities A/Prof. Dick Ng’ambi Centre for Educational Technology University of Cape Town Keynote presented at the DUT e-Learning Festival held at the Durban University of Technology November 2010

SMS Questions on Today’s lecture Our course is called: edn6099 Today’s lecture is number 7 It’s a big class Our short code is: Text as I lecture (during), and text as you listen to the podcast (post-lecture) Edn [type your question] e.g. Edn How is the weather in Durban?

Background

Global Literature on m-learning –Mobile phones connectivity vs. non- connected devices Desktop experience is extended through mobile learning (both connected / non-connected) –Opportunity: Leverage classroom activity/ interaction Devices with no connectivity have not proved popular or sufficiently useful (FutureLab Handbook, 2006) –Opportunity: Use MP3 players and iPods along side mobile phones Most mobile devices are not integrated into institutional networks –Opportunity: Link students with educators & peers, mobile devices with learning Significant blurring of distinction between mobile phones and data-centric handheld devices e.g. PDAs (Becta, 2004) –Opportunity: design learning activities that are device, space, time and distance independent

SA ICT Indicators SA ICT Indicators IndicatorPer 100 inhabitants Computers8.25 Fixed telephone lines8.91 Internet users8.43 Broadband Internet subscribers0.77 Mobile cellular subscriptions90.60 Radio sets TV sets % population covered by mobile signal ITU website Note: These statistics focus on devices / tools and not on what they are used for

Content Pedagogy Interactivity Connectivity

Content Pedagogy Interactivity Connectivity

Server: site archiving and storing podcasts 8 Podcast Servers

9 Record a podcast directly from a mobile phone Provide Internet access to MP3 of your voice messages Using Mobile Phones to Podcast

ON BUS TO / FRO CAMPUS MINGLING / INFORMAL AREA COMPUTER LAB STUDY ROOM / LIBRARY / RESIDENCE Learning resources / collective knowledge

RSS feed to mobile devices

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Text as expression of thought 13

Technology Mediated Expression 14

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Three reasons for using podcasts are: –making learning more flexible –increasing the accessibility of learning materials –enhancing students’ learning experiences (McGarr, 2009) 16 Podcasting and Learner Mobility

Case Study (Undergraduate) Information Systems Dept 2008-MP st year students (28 tutors) Lectures; theory/prac in lecture theatre 2009-MP st year students (44 tutors) Lectures; theory/prac in computer lab Pedagogy Podcasts in pedagogy loosely coupled Didactic teaching approach Learner choice and flexibility high

Case Study (Postgraduate) Graduate School of Humanities; School of Education postgraduate students 8 week module (4- 7PM Tues & Thurs) postgraduate students 1 week block release module (Mon-Sat) Pedagogy Podcasts in pedagogy tightly coupled Reflective learning teaching approach Learner choice and flexibility medium

Teaching Strategies for Podcast TypeTeaching StrategyComment Under- graduate Personalised teaching through listening to podcasts on mobile devices (personal tutor metaphor) Student who struggle to understand English and / or accents listen to lectures again & again to enhance their understanding of lecture content (self-pacing & confidence building) Frequently accessed podcasts represent a topic of interest to students (feedback to educator) Both student & educators may want to share these resources or recommend them (evidence based reuse) Post- graduate Students use podcasts to scaffold reflective learning (deep learning) Create podcasts as portfolios of work (constructivist learning) Self ranking of podcasts by frequency of use (summative evaluation) 19 Comparing Teaching Approaches

Undergraduate course in the Faculty of Commerce at the University of Cape Town Lecturers recorded their lectures, and uploaded the audio files on the course site on the LMS The total number of students was 411 Most of the students commuted to campus and had no access to Internet when away from the campus. 20 Context (Undergraduate Experience)

Mobility was between home (without Internet connection); buses, campus, computer laboratories and classroom Time for socialisation and engagement with peers was also limited Mobile learners traversed high broadband Internet empowered environments (campus) to zero or expensive connectivity (home) 21

Action Research approach An ethnographic method Two types of recording were done: a scheduled live lecture and a practical briefing Practical briefing involved details of what students were to do in the lab that week 22 Methodology

A total of six lecturers gave lectures over the course of the semester Five lecturers agreed to have their lectures recorded None of them had any prior experience with using podcasting to support student learning 23

Students choosing not to use the course site to access the podcasts –Access via RSS feed: 44 –Access via course site: 242 Access via RSS feeds and via LMS accounted for 10.7% and 58.9% respectively. Some students were already exposed to the technology via music downloads. 24 Observations

286 students accessed podcasts, more than half the total number of students registered for the course. –69.6% of students registered for the course accessed the podcasts at least once Some files were downloaded more than once by the same user –which indicates that students do not listen to each and every lecture. They might listen to some lectures more than once. 25

Some students report not being aware of the availability of podcasts at the time of administering the questionnaire. Some students felt that the podcasts need video in order for them to be effective and so did not use the audio files, others used the slides and textbook only and some students forgot about them while others never thought of using them. 26

Some of the ways in which the podcasts were found to be useful in learning include: –enabling students to gain a better understanding as they reviewed what was said by lecturers –an effective way of grasping concepts at one’s own pace –helpful when classes weren’t specific 27

Students may not be downloading and keeping the files for later reference, but rather download as and when they need to use them. Number of times users accessed podcasts: less than 5 (35%) Between 5-10 (47%) Greater than 10 (17%) 28

Principle reason for using podcasts is to give students additional resources that they can use for study and reference purposes. Using the latest technology for learning purposes is meant to give students a choice in what resources they use to meet their needs. Lecturers report that the time spent on consultation and lecture preparation is not affected by the availability of podcasts. 29

Improved attendance. Previously, this component suffered declining attendance resulting in poor student performance in the exam. Podcasts revamped the course, increased student attendance: –The podcasting worked very well as I was able to construct notes from the lectures after the lectures were finished. (extracts from 2009 course evaluation) 30

Discussion Challenges of Producing Podcasts –Inability of the microphone to pick up the students’ voices when they were speaking. –Filtering out outside noise also posed a significant challenge. 31

Recording equipment –Recorder was easy to use as well as small enough for the lecturers to carry around in their pocket. –Technical problems experienced were accidental switching off the recorder as the lecturer moved around and interference with the sound system in the venue, which resulted in poor sound quality. 32

Recording and Editing Audio Files –reduce the size of the files to enable students to download on small-cost playback devices. The advantage of low-sized files was that the few students with iPods were not privileged at the expense of those who did not. 33

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Content Pedagogy Interactivity Connectivity Learning Design Sociology of knowledge Cognition Knowledge construction

Content Pedagogy Interactivity Connectivity Free Software Open Source Mobile Devices Social Media Learning Design Sociology of knowledge Cognition Knowledge construction

Recommendations 1 of 4 Designing tasks for learning while on the move requires both educators and instructional designers to focus on the medium view of mobile devices Aligning pedagogical goals with affordances at medium view level draws on existing device uses, reduces the learning curve and engages learners

Recommendations 2 of 4 Ensuring that none of the learners are excluded, use a tools view to determine type of devices that learners have –Don’t develop learning tasks that requires an iPhone when learners don’t have the device or a wap application when only a handful of learners have wap-enabled phones

Recommendations 3 of 4 Design learning activities that combine the rigidity of lecture schedules, fixed desktops, learner mobility and ubiquitous technologies

Recommendations 4 of 4 Leverage institutional LMS with popular social media so as to: –Maximize use of tools –Provides multiple ways of accessing content and social networking Value of using ubiquitous tools –No additional costs in acquiring & training students to use new tools –Ensures more equitable access to content

Discussion Answer SMS Questions

Search Engines And Directories For Podcasts. (reflects numerous directories) (listing video podcasts and “vlog” directories as of Nov. 10, 2005) Podcatcher Programs. A list is available at: Finding Podsafe Content (the podsafe music network) (how-to article) (a service from IODA (Independent Online Distribution Alliance) that offers podcasters, and others access to thousands of pre-cleared tracks from independent record labels) (proper licensing of independent music for use in advertising, television, film and the web) (music supplier with large catalog of CC music) (free and simple service that provides entire GarageBand catalog that is podcast safe) Sourced from: Useful Resources

Thank you Contact details: Dick Ng’ambi Centre for Educational Technology Skype Id: dngambi 47