iTunes University

WheelCipher — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:02:00 GMT

I have mentioned in the past how much I really love my iPod Touch. I bought it a few months ago at the same time I bought my iPhone. I also mentioned what a great tool it is for learning. I currently have the following podcasts archived on the iPod:

The Thomas Jefferson Hour (http://www.jeffersonhour.com)
Big Ideas (http://podcast.com/show/2799/Big-Ideas/)
Career Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/career-tools)
Manager Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com/podcasts/manager-tools)
The Invisible Hand (http://invisiblehandwriting.typepad.com/)

…and many more

Now there is an article from New Scientist Magazine about how awesome this whole educational podcasting thing really is.

Students have been handed another excuse to skip class from an unusual quarter. New psychological research suggests that university students who download a podcast lecture achieve substantially higher exam results than those who attend the lecture in person.

Podcasted lectures offer students the chance to replay difficult parts of a lecture and therefore take better notes, says Dani McKinney, a psychologist at the State University of New York in Fredonia, who led the study.

"It isn't so much that you have a podcast, it's what you do with it," she says

One of the major “issues” with distance learning is the lack of interaction between students and instructors. Some deal well with it and others not so much. I have always believed that if instructors would create an audio or video podcast of the lectures, it would greatly enhance the online learning experience.

I hope that this trend continues. The educational potential of podcasts, mixing traditional lecture with technology seems like a wonderful idea that everyone should adopt. It’s quite inexpensive and the payback for the student is tremendous.

While I am not a part of these classes that are offered at iTunes University, I listen just for the fun of it. It’s a great experience.

Add to:

My Norwich University Experience : Technology

iTunes University