Recently, I have been finding myself defending why podcasts work better as lesson objects when compared to other types of e-learning, such as webcasts. So, a quick review:
What is a podcast?
A podcast is simply an audio or video file that is automatically delivered to you via an RSS subscription. You can think of it as subscribing to a magazine that automatically gets delivered to you home every month as opposed to the inconvenience of having to visit the local newsstand. Podcasts & RSS makes staying up-to-date easier, as well as in our case acting as an ultra-efficient method to distribute customized, learning materials.
Why are podcast lessons different?
1. Rapid Publication Cycle
Unlike traditional textbook publishing, which takes years and then is infrequently updated, our podcast lessons usually take only a few weeks from ideation to publishing. This means that we can publish extremely relevant and contemporary topics. Take today’s ChinesePod lesson on the Sichuan earthquake published only 2+ weeks after that tragic event.
2. Set Schedule Creates ‘Learning Events’
As a new lesson is published every day, a sense of anticipation is created amongst users. This surprise or ‘breaking news’ effect helps create a sense of continuous, on-going learning. Or in Ken’s words:
The balance between the familiar (structures, formats, hosts, etc) and the unexpected (topics, themes, moods) keeps interest high. Through user response, the daily learning events are negotiated conversations rather than lectures.
Contrast this approach with a traditional archive. If we simply created an archive, of say 100 lessons, and then released it to the public where would students focus their attention & comments? By releasing one lesson a day, we can focus a mass of attention around one lesson thereby adding fuel to the conversation. We tend to view our lessons as almost ‘pre-baked’ and are only finished after students can comment, question and add their own insights or stories. This is the difference we see between a ‘lesson’ and a ‘lesson event’.
3. Style
A common mistake I often see with the use of podcasting in education is ‘lecturecasting’ - simply recording a lecture and publishing it online in the form of an RSS podcast. Content needs to be designed for the medium. Could you listen to a radio show in a movie studio? Yes, but radio is clearly not optimized for that medium. Similarly, lectures may work when they have a captive - if not always awake - audience, but they need to be optimized for the podcast medium. Put yourself into the shoes of an iPod-bearing student. First, the lesson needs to be engaging enough for them to listen to it over their favorite song - which is only a click away. By using two teachers and a radio-style, conversational approach the audio is more engaging. The student must want to listen to this lesson input (edutainment?). Second, the student will likely listen to the lessons while doing something else (in transit, shopping, at the gym, etc.) so short, 10-15 minute, manageable chunks of content are more easily adaptable to their physical world activities.
Then for language learning specifically you have additional benefits. Again, in Ken’s words:
The high-frequency language takes the listener into real-life situations. Hosts offer expert insight into the language and the learning in short, manageable lessons that include, stories, anecdotes, humor, mnemonic devices, and more.
4. Re-mixable, Modular Lessons
Maybe the most unique feature of our approach is that each lesson is modular, but graded by difficultly level. For example, a new student to ChinesePod could start with any Newbie lesson on the site and be able to start learning Chinese. Even though this modularity is native to podcasting technology, many of our fellow language podcasters have tried to force course architectures onto their lessons, e.g. one lesson should follow another. A podcast is not a physical textbook, so why limit oneself to the constraints of the previous media?
By making lessons modular, it enables lesson re-mixing allowing for fully customizable study regimes. The study goals of learners can be identified and learning pathways can be charted by freely selecting and combining lessons according to their needs as determined by themselves, software tools or their language teacher.
5. Channel Agnostic / Mobile
Part of ‘Learning on You Terms’ is to be able to consume learning materials on one’s own preferred media. A personal RSS feed is used for the ultra-efficient delivery of learning materials. Once subscribed to this feed in a program such as iTunes, the student can subscribe to future lessons at various difficultly levels, bookmark lessons from the archive or be assigned lessons from their teacher and have them automatically delivered to their iPod ready for consumption. Because the lessons are delivered via RSS, they could be delivered through a web browser, to an iPod, on a mobile phone, in a customized workbook or CD (more on this later), on TV or through a learning service/API.
This is learning adapting to your lifestyle, rather than you adapting to the learning.
Hank.
