PoducateMe: Practical Solutions for Podcasting in Education
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for a mobile listening experience. Roughly a month after Curry made RSStoiPod
available to the Internet community, IPodderX, the first podcast receiver with a graphic
user interface (GUI), was born.
In suggesting a possible term to describe the unique marriage of an iPod with
broadcasting, journalist Ben Hammersley coined the term "podcasting" in the February
12, 2004 issue of The Guardian. The catchy label quickly gained traction, and the New
Oxford American Dictionary selected podcasting as the Word of the Year for 2005.
Podcasting in Education
New research claims that the podcasting phenomenon is headed for massive growth in
the coming years. Analysts at The Diffusion Group believe US demand for podcasts will
grow from "less than 15 per cent" of portable digital music player owners today to "75 per
cent by 2010." The report, "Podcasting: Fact, Fiction and Opportunity," suggests that
between 2004 and 2010, the use of podcasting among US consumers will enjoy a
compound annual growth rate of 101 percent. Because students tend to be early
adopters of emerging technologies, demand in this demographic is likely to skew even
higher.
Campus Podcasting Pioneers
Approximately one year following Apple’s introduction of the first iPod in 2001, Georgia
College and State University (GCSU) was among the first campuses to experiment with
integrating iPods with academic programming. After observing the extreme popularity of
the music players around campus, Hank Edmondson, a government professor, began to
use iPods to supplement his course lectures with “value-added” content. Since those
early efforts, GCSU has greatly expanded its use of iPods in the classroom, and other
institutions have followed suit.
In an effort to encourage the creative use of technology in education and campus life,
Duke University made headlines in 2004 when the school distributed free, recorder-
equipped iPods to its more than 1,600 incoming freshmen and a handful of faculty. The
students were then given an opportunity to download lectures, songs and historical
speeches, as well as produce their own content.
comprehensive evaluation of the project. The following observations are detailed among
the university’s findings:
Students reported that the iPod had enhanced their course experience, with 75
percent of freshmen surveyed using at least one iPod feature for some academic
purpose. Students reported that they feel the iPod has been "underutilized" or
"had potential" that has not been realized. When students were asked how iPods
could or should be used in classes, common responses included
