EMU professors use podcasting to broaden teaching horizons

Guey-Meei Yang has used podcasts to tape guest speakers in her classrooms and plans to expand the technological practice to include students, faculty and art gallery viewers discussing a particular piece of art. Toni Knechtges has used podcasts as a launching point to have her students debate business practices that showed up in the news. And, for Jim Berry, using podcasts is a key component to using technological pedagogy in the classroom as a whole new way of teaching.  

ART LESSON: Amy Yancho, a senior from Montrose, simulates listening to a podcast of artwork in the New Student Center. Guey-Meei Yang, an assistant professor of visual arts education, plans to have some of her students, during the winter term, use podcasts that include comment from faculty showing art at the Faculty Art Show, art historians and gallery visitors. Yang was one of a dozen EMU faculty and lecturers who participated in the EMU Podcasting Initiative, a pilot program, this past fall. Photo by John Ryan

Ten Eastern Michigan University faculty and two lecturers recently participated in the EMU Podcasting Initiative. The pilot program, which took place during the fall term, was an innovative collaboration between ICT, Continuing Education, Faculty Council and the Bruce K. Nelson Faculty Development Center.

"One of the things faculty have worked on and learned is how to put together a quality streaming and audio podcast that supports learning in the classroom," said Debi Silverman, assistant professor in the School of Health Sciences and a Faculty Development Fellow.

A podcast is a Web feed of audio or video file that is placed on the Internet for anyone to subscribe. The subscription feed automatically delivers new content using an RSS or Really Simple Syndication. This feature distinguishes a podcast from a simple download or real-time streaming audio or video. The process of podcasting enables educators to provide students with audio recordings that can be accessed — any time and any place — even when the student is not connected to a computer.

Silverman said the Faculty Development Center worked with faculty to learn and pedogogically understand how to use a podcast while ICT provided a framework of support with equipment. The program was modeled after those used at Purdue, UCLA, Duke and Penn State, which are recognized nationally as early adopters of using podcasting.

"We're definitely at the front end of the pack in using this type of technology as a resource for student learning," Silverman said.

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