Uses of podcasting

Podcasting refers to the creation and regular distribution of podcasts through the Internet. Podcasts, which can include audio, video, PDF, and ePub files, can be subscribed to and downloaded through web syndication or streamed online to a computer or mobile device.^[1] Subscribers are then able to view, listen to, and transfer the episodes to a variety of media players.

Public services

• Advocacy. The 5,500 locked out staff (editors, journalists, technicians, hosts, etc.) of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation were podcasting news and other programming during August and September 2005.
• Law enforcement. The Chicago Police Department has a free video podcast of its half-hour weekly news magazine CrimeWatch, which airs on local TV. It documents community policing (CAPS) success stories.
• News outlets distribute supplemental audio or video via podcasts. For example, Wikinews began to podcast its News Briefs in 2005. Companies also use podcasts to distribute their multimedia news to journalists and consumers through companies like MultiVu. In 2006, the online magazine Slate began textcasting articles to their readers, by attaching a written article to a blank audio file and delivering the content to readers through their regular podcasting mechanism.^[2]
• Public libraries can podcast local publications free of Copyright, offering spoken word alternatives to the visually impaired. Non-profit organizations podcast readings of short-format magazine articles for visually impaired readers.
• Tours - educational Institutions use podcasts for self-guided Campus Tours.
• Tours - official cultural or historic audio tours of cities
• Tours - unofficial audio tours of museums^[3]
• Youth media. Podcasting has become a way for youth media organizations, such as Youth Radio, to bring youth perspectives to a wider audience.

Education and academia

Podcasting in K-12 Education

K-12 schools have also begun adopting podcasting as an instructional tool. Podcasts are used for many educational purposes and there are several advocates of podcasting who believe that it can offer unique educational benefits to learners.^[4] The main advantage of podcasting is the simplicity that it offers to learners. Listeners are no longer constrained by time and space with regard to their learning. Podcasts give superior support to auditory learners who comprise 30% of all learners.^[5] Expensive equipment or sophisticated know-how is not needed to create a podcast. There are free programs that are easily accessible to all people to create podcasts. Podcasting affords iPods and other mobile audio players a double life: a usefulness for both entertainment and education. Podcasts are created by students for projects or by instructors for instructional purposes.^[6]

Curriculum Applications of Podcasts:

• To develop reading, speaking, writing, and listening skills
• To acquire information
• To develop technology skills and applications
• To learn interactive ways to communicate knowledge to real audiences
• To develop positive academic self-concept
• To develop sense of audience and purpose when reading, writing, and speaking
• To develop a student ownership of language
• To encourage active participation and learner-centered focus
• To develop multicultural awareness ^[7]

Podcasts for Students

There are many uses for podcasting for the classroom. They can be used to convey instructional information from the teacher or trainer, motivational stories, and auditory case studies. Podcasts can also be used by the learners as artifacts and evidence of learning; for example, a student might prepare a brief podcast as a summary of a concept in lieu of writing an essay. Podcasts can also be used as a means of self-reflection on the learning processes or products.^[8] Podcasts can help keep students on the same page, including those that are absent! Absent students can use your podcasts to see class lectures, daily activities, homework assignments, handouts, and more.^[9] A review of literature that reports the use of audio podcasts in K-12 and higher education found that individuals (1) use existing podcasts and/or (2) create their own podcasts.^[10] Students can create their own podcast to share their learning experiences with each other and also with other students from other schools.^[11]

Consuming Podcasts

Apple Incorporated introduced iTunes U, a nationwide expansion of a service that puts course lectures and other educational materials online and on-the-go via Apple's iTunes software. In 2006 there were over 400 podcasts from K-12 classes listed on iTunes and over 900 education-related podcasts listed on Yahoo.^[12] Students reported that replaying podcasts facilitated the comprehension of complex concepts and increased understanding for non-native language learners.^[13]

Creating Podcasts

The use of social technologies (blogs, wikis, RSS) allow students to shift from simply consuming media to creating it on their own.^[14] Pundits argue that student-produced podcasting can promote several powerful ideas that students can use over a lifetime. These include a hands-on and reflective approach to copyright and fair use in creating digital media. That is, they can create original content as they ethically and effectively collect and remix the work of others. Thus, it is argued, podcasting becomes a tool for students to think about the balance between individual rights and community benefits. In addition, some argue that podcasts help students learn 21st century literacy skills. Students, for example, can use digital audio recording and editing software to create audio dramas, news shows or audio tours.^[15] Within Social Studies contexts, for example, podcasting offers a means for encouraging students to question their world, to explore their intuitions about relationships between history, people and to think about things in relation to larger contexts, rather than simply focus on dates and facts.^[16] Educators who use podcasting with students argue that it offers learners and teachers flexibility and learner control, opportunities for learner motivation, clarity of instruction, novelty of engagement, widening of 'locations' in which learning is situated – an expansion of the temporal and spatial, engagement with and collaboration around dialogue, and opportunities for learners to get involved in construction of learning for others.^[17]

Podcasts for Teachers

Podcasting can be a tool for teachers or administrators to communicate with parents and the wider community about curriculum plans and content, student assignments and other information.^[18]

Classroom Use

Instructors appear to use podcasts in several ways within academic settings. For example, podcasts are used to duplicate the classroom lecture. The student attends the lecture and uses the podcast as a backup for reviewing complex topics. Podcasts are also used to share additional information with students in the form of audio recordings that aid student learning and provide support in relation to core learning materials. This includes assignment tips, hints, and pre/post-assignment feedback, along with additional audio to supplement subject content.^[19] Language, Science and Social Studies teachers in K-12 settings use podcasts of news coverage, historically significant speeches, cultural events and official happenings as rich trappings for the teaching-learning process.^[20] Students in a French or Political Science class can listen, for example, to a podcast of former French President Jacques Chirac's actual voice as he departs his presidential position. They could also listen to French citizens as they discuss Chirac's position.^[21]

Professional Development

Podcasting provides professional development that can be accessed when it is needed. A resource directory of archived podcasts can be created and educators can select topics they need at the given time to fit the need of the moment and be able to access professional learning. In 2007 and beyond, professional development has been delivered in an on-demand and mobile format, greatly facilitated by the portability of podcasts.^[22] Podcasts appear to offer teachers convenient professional development opportunities and can give them the freedom to select what, when and where they learn.^[23]

A variety of professional resources are available for teachers:

• Techpod: Podcast for Teachers - offers interviews with educators, authors, and ed techies; curriculum ideas; news resources; technology tips; and research that educators can use in the classroom.
• Wikispaces: Podcasting in Education: http://podcasting-in-education.wikispaces.com
• Teaching with Podcasts - Read Write Think: http://readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/teaching-with-podcasts-30109.htm
• K-12- Podcasts Downloads on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/genre/podcasts-education-k-12/id1415?mt=12
• Web Tools 4u2use: http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/Audio+%26+Podcasting
• Podstock: The Education Podcast Network: http://mtweb.mtsu.edu/podcast/

Educational Concerns

The following are concerns that need to be considered when using podcasts:

• Quality - Discussions of quality sometimes relate to the technical quality (sound quality, organization of content), just as one might discuss proper development of an essay or a novel but in the context of technology and sound.
• Authenticity - Authenticity comes into play when thinking about who is making the podcast and why.
• Freedom of Speech - The question of individual freedom of speech is especially relevant when the podcast is a personal statement of position, such as might be found in political podcasts, personal journal podcasts, and organizational podcasts to support a specific point of view.
• Technical Support - Podcasts require considerable hard drive space for storage of files and bandwidth for playing them back. Training is required to teach teachers how to podcast and integrate the technology into the classroom. Creating podcasts can be technically challenging for the average student and additional support is needed in the classroom.
• Copyright - One must have permission to use certain content before it is mixed in personal material.
• Censorship - Podcasting is not regulated, and the content can be unsuitable for students.
• Privacy - Teacher and student privacy concerns must be addressed.^[24]

Podcasts in higher education

• Mobile Learning: Podcasting can be categorised as an m-learning strategy for teaching and learning. In 2004 Musselburgh Grammar School pioneered podcast lessons with foreign language audio revision and homework.^[25] In the second half of 2005, a Communication Studies course at the University of Western Australia used student-created podcasts as the main assessment item.^[26] In 2005 Students in the Write was created for second grade students at Morse Elementary School in Tarrytown, NY. By providing students with an authentic audience, teachers noticed significantly increased motivation to write. Students were also found to improve fluency and listening skills. On 21 February 2006 Lance Anderson, Dr. Chris Smith (the Naked Scientist), Nigel Paice and Debbie McGowan took part in the first podcast forum at Cambridge University. The event was hosted by the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies.^[27][28]
• Mobile Knowledge Transfer: Podcasting is also used by corporations to disseminate information faster and more easily. It can be seen as a further development of Rapid E-Learning as the content can be created fast and without much effort. Learners can learn in idle times which saves time and money for them and the organizations. Audio podcasts can be used during other activities like driving a car, or traveling by train/bus. A group often targeted is the salesforce, as they are highly mobile. There podcasting can be used for sales enablement (see case study) with the goal of having the sales employee aware and knowledgeable on the companies products, processes, initiatives etc. An often-used format is expert interviews with statements of experienced role models to bring across also informal/tacit knowledge.
• Language Learning: Podcasts can be used to both inside and outside the language learning classroom. Teachers can record and publish their daily lessons for students to download to their MP3 players for endless practice. There are also predesigned websites where native speakers publish stories and language learners can respond via a comment function. This combines the use of podcast with blogs.
• Mathematical Learning: Audio-podcasts can also be used in mathematics education. With the recording of mathematical audio-podcasts, oral communication and representation are focussed on. Audio-podcasts have been used in primary school ^[29] as well as in teacher education.^[30] The process of producing the mentioned audio-podcasts in mathematics education facilitates reflection processes.
• Journalism Education: School podcasts can be created to expose students to journalism and new-media concepts. Regularly released "news" podcasts can be released by a school group.^[31]
• Academic Journal Digests: The Society of Critical Care Medicine has a podcast used to update clinicians with summaries of important articles, as well as interviews.^[32]
• Supply Chain Management Education: In October, 2007, Dr Stephan Brady presented his paper on "Podcasting in Supply Chain Education" at the CSCMP Educators Conference. In this paper he outlined how podcasting can be used in and outside of the classroom for enhancing supply chain courses through blended, or hybrid learning.
• Professional Development: Professional development podcasts exist for educators. Some podcasts may be general in nature or may be slightly more specific and focus on the use of interactive white boards in the classroom.
• Religion: Godcasting has been used by many religious groups.^[33] Many churches produce podcasts of talks and sermons. Disciples with Microphones provides podcasts relating to the Catholic Church.^[34]
• Tutorials: A tutorial on almost any subject can be created as either an audio podcast or video vodcast. Through screencasting, many video podcasts demonstrate how to use software and operating systems.
• Anxiety: Podcasts have been used to solve problems with college students’ anxiety by allowing professors’ lectures to be accessed after class so the students would not have to worry about missing any of the material if absent or tardy. According to Anthony Chan & Mark J.W. Lee, “The advent of consumer-level digital multimedia hardware and software have prompted the more techno-logically inclined instructors and educational designers to construct CD-ROM based re-sources to engage and excite students using the richness and flexibility of text, graphics, sound, video, animation and interactive content, as well as the combination of these elements”.^[35]

Entertainment

• Comedy. Comedians such as Ricky Gervais, Stephen Fry, Adam Carolla and Marc Maron have created some of the most popular podgrams.
• Television commentary. Battlestar Galactica writer and executive producer Ronald D. Moore creates commentary podcasts for each new episode of Battlestar Galactica.^[36] Other television shows such as Doctor Who have since followed suit.
• Radio series. Some radio programmes such as The Now Show and The News Quiz allow entire episodes to be downloaded as podcasts.
• As a platform for fan DVD-style commentary tracks (Audio commentary). Enables fans to add their own comments and thoughts to any of their favourite films.
• Sports. In 2005, unofficial podcasts for major sports teams launched, providing fans both in and outside of the teams' direct broadcast areas with on-demand commentary. The Cubscast founders also formed the first city-specific sports podcast network, hosting one podcast for each major Chicago team.^[37]
• Reintroducing Classical Children's Literature. Podcasts such as Albert Lea Public Library's Classics On-the-Go program bring classical (noncopyrighted) children's literature back to life for everyone to share.
• Fiction. Podcasts like Escape Pod are used to distribute short stories in audiobook format. Other podcasts distribute stories in the format of radio drama.^[38]

News

• Newspapers. Newspapers use podcasts to broadcast audio content from print interviews and drive traffic to their websites. The San Francisco Chronicle is believed to be the first major daily newspaper to start podcasting using an external website,^[39] in Feb 2005. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post was the first to use its own website and the first in Asia, having launched on April 19, 2005^[40] The adoption of podcast for news distribution has been more widely used these days, given that major news media such as The New York Times and CNN have adopted them as part of their services.
• Communication from space. On 7 August 20 ng.^[41]
• Conference and meeting alerts. Podcasts can be packaged to alert attendees to agendas, hosted roundtables and daily feedback.

Marketing

• Podcasting as a Business Content Marketing Strategy. Podcasts create brand fanatics, people who are deeply invested in who podcasters are as people and as business professionals. This is essence of long-form content marketing. Every minute that a customer or prospect listens to a podcaster speak with authority the podcaster is establishing themselves as a thought-leader. Conceptually the more time an audience spends with the podcasters content the more authority the podcaster will acquire.^[42]

Music

• Replacement for live music audio streams. Whereas streaming a performance live over the Internet requires careful coordination of person and machine, podcasting offers the ability to do slight time-shifting of performances and greatly reduces the complexity of the effort. The quality of the program is often higher as post-production adjustments can be made prior to release. For example, programs can provide a live stream of their program, but most listeners don't hear it until weeks later on NPR. Podcasted versions of the programs split the difference, usually coming out a few days after the live program, but well before the traditional broadcast.

Politics

• Politics: In the U.S., both major political parties have various podcasts, as do numerous politicians. One popular podcast is the White House RSS feed that provides the public with President Weekly Addresses, White House Speeches, White House Press Briefings and White House features.^[43]

Publicity and marketing

• As a promotional vehicle for an upcoming event, such as Pixar's Cars Video Podcast, which advertised the release of Disney/Pixar's Cars animated feature film with a series of behind-the-scenes clips.^[44] ; podcasting have been successful with reaching out to people who are out on the road through podcasts and that this more than an either/or kind of idea or decision, yet a coexisting strategy combining many different online marketing strategies like blogs e-books, and good websites”. This shows that even podcasts do get hit with legal constraints, but can find ways around it due their lack of affiliation with the FCC.^[45] They essentially bypass the entire industry^[46]

Health

• Health and wellness education are widely accessible to the public through podcasts. Many developed countries such as Australia have utilised podcasts to publish new findings in the medical field.^[47] The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has been one of the active participants in informing the public of new drugs and processes to improve medical awareness.

Special interests

• Farm Podcasting makes information available about farming. The term was coined to identify a program that is produced exclusively as a podcast on the subject of agriculture. There are now multiple companies who specialize in farm podcasting, producing regular programming on agriculture targeted to farmers and the general public.

Non-traditional and alternative content

• A way for people and organizations to avoid regulatory bodies, such as the British Ofcom or American Federal Communications Commission (FCC), that would not allow a program to be broadcast in traditional media.

See also

• Mobilecast
• Narrowcasting
• Peercasting

References

External links

• PODFY - Cloud Podcast Player - Podfy is a cloud player that synchronizes your playlists and played items across all devices (phones, tables or PCs) (PODFY - Cloud Podcast Player on Google Play).
• "PodCamp Community UnConferences". Retrieved April 4, 2012. 
• Podcasting in museums A resource from CHIN (Canadian Heritage Information Network)
• Tolliver, Lisa (July 28, 2007). "The Power of Podcasting". Podcamp City Online.