Perhaps someone would care to respond further to Ian’s comment today about screencasting: http://syndicateblog.petersons.com/wordpress/index.php/highered-blogcon-day1-podcasting-and-screencasting-in-the-classroom/#comment-673

Mark,

I found your presentation very interesting. I think one of the strongest arguments for screencasting over podcasting also has to do with learning styles. For students who are primarily visual (vs. aural) learners, podcasting can be very difficult. Screencasting, on the other hand, works for both visual and aural learners - allowing them to see and hear the material. You touched on this, but I wanted to make that explicit point.

Thanks.
Holly Peterson
World Learning

Mark–

Thanks for sharing your insights here. I’d like to offer a couple comments and then a question.

First, as we’ve used the term “podcasting” at our school, we’ve taken it to mean any recorded audio content posted to the Web (or a LMS) and/or made available via RSS. As defined in your presentation, podcasting refers to recording a live lecture. We’ve used it in this sense as well but also in the sense that an instructor might record audio notes for students in the privacy of his or her office. This would avoid all of the pauses, discussion, and questions that you cited as drawbacks of recording a live lecture.

Second, a screencast (as defined in your presentation) can also be created as an “enhanced podcast.” With software like Profcast (see http://www.profcast.com/public/index.php), instructors can embed PowerPoint slides into an audio file. These are viewable in iTunes and on newer iPods. One great advantage of this approach is that the software creates markers in the audio file for each slide, thus making it easy to find specific topics within a presentation. Unfortunately, Profcast is available only for the Mac; no Windows equivalent exists yet (although the files can be played in iTunes for Windows).

Lastly, this leads me to a question for you and the larger community. How do you (and your school, IT, ET departments and any others who are involved in the process) determine what tools to use to create content? Is it simply up to the instructor? Or are certain tools recommended/required/supported by IT/ET? Because we have a few Macs but mostly Windows machines on our campus, we don’t all have access to the same content creation tools. As such, an instructor on a Mac might use Profcast to create enhanced podcasts that can be viewed in iTunes or an iPod, while another might be using Camtasia Studio on Windows to create Flash slideshows that are viewable in the browser. For the students, does the plurality of options become an impediment to the learning process? Should campuses strive to limit content output options?

Michael -
Your comments regarding my language are well taken. I did state that I was referring only to web lecturing, as in traditional ‘lecture’ content. And also remember, I am coming from a hard science. Podcasting (audio only) of other disciplines might be just fine. (History, or sociology for example) As with any new term, it gets redefined by everyone who uses it. I will try to make myself a little clearer next time. Thanx. Honestly, the number of people at my college who are doing any podcasting at all I can count on 1 hand. Getting ‘buy in’ here from the faculty has been difficult. Those that have done anything have only posted a select few (<5) episodes. I am far a head of the curve with 2 whole semesters worth of material posted.
Since so few of use are doing anything just yet, our IT department only supports Camtasia. I could see, however, that some consistency needs to exist, for the same reason that everyone at one institution should agree on what word processing program to use.
I produce my videos in two formats, the flash version (requiring a live internet connection) and I post a version on video.google.com. I do that for a few reasons, namely there the students can download the file if they wish, and also, all the screencasts are then searchable (try searching for 'electronegativity' at google video to see what I mean). I talk more about where to post what (and why) at my education blog: www.docott.com/education

Recently, I’ve begun taking video with a webcam, importing it to Camtasia, and then posting those files to a distance education web server. We need to visually stimulate young learners and show them we are tech-savvy.

Thanks for the information; I am totally sold on the screencasting over podcasting concept. Even in English, I think screencasting makes more sense. For example, I review comma rules about 20 times a day; it make so much more sense for me to screen cast those rules.

I also think it is wise to give students as many options as possible to access material.

I like the idea of the mini lectures. The students can fit them in around other activities and review for exams from them. I have been trying to figure out how to get some bits of lecture out of class to free up more time for activities and discussion (engaging with the material rather than passively being exposed). Students are always asking if i’ll put hte powerpoint notes online (normally I don’t because as static files they’re not very useful). I think if i made these short screen casts of the basic topics and put them online - that would actually be useful.

I also need some way to offer some guidance to students new to reading academic research articles and i think some on screen prompts with an intro little lecture about some of the early-in-the-semester readings might be the kind of help I want to offer.

Hi everyone, greetings from Happy Valley (Penn State, University Park, PA).

As a relatively large organization, PSU is slowly starting to get into these technologies. I am involved in a podcasting pilot, so I had a few comments.

I feel that the main advantage of a podcast has not been communicated on the screencast or comments, so I’ll put it out there: portability/convenience. Laura Guertin, an instructor at a PSU commuter campus (Delaware), has had success using podcasts for that primary reason. People can listen to podcasts (audio only) while doing other things (jogging/driving/taking the bus/etc).

One immediate concern: How long does it take to do post-production on your content? Our faculty is heavily involved in research, so I’m not sure if they are able to put in that much time outside of class to “repeat” the lecture.

Overall, I was very impressed by the creative use of screencasts. I guess I’d just reiterate what everyone is saying: it truly depends on the content. It works wonderfully for the hard sciences with many equations, illustrations, etc; on the other hand, a simple podcast might work well for a Music history class (if only we didn’t have to deal w/ all the copyright issues, I think podcasts would be used VERY WIDELY in music instruction).

I think that capturing the student discussions can be part of the post-production if another mic pointed the room is used. Of course this brings complications with two signals having to be mixed, etc.

The reason I bring up that suggestion is because I have heard about podcasts being recorded only using iPod + iTalk (someone from Utah State presented at the Philadelphia Area Education Technology Conference). She mentioned that with the proper filtering/post-production, she was able to pick up the presenter and comments/ questions from a 100+ audience room with that mic alone.

If someone can truly dedicate 2-3 hours to post-production, then a simple iPod + iTalk (just a portable recorder) solution can be used to record a second, separate track, which can then be easily mixed in using your software of choice. Again, this seems like a lot of work, since we’re talking about lectures that take place 2-3 times a week.

Just thinking out loud.