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University of Northern Iowa Professor Podcasts His Lectures

Posted on: Monday, 30 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Emily Christensen, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

Jan. 30--CEDAR FALLS -- Taking notes during a college lecture can be a dogging task.

Professors often talk fast to make sure all relevant points are covered.

Other students ask questions that can lead to long and winding discussions. And a missed lecture could mean certain doom come midterm time.

For years some students have carried mini recorders to class in hopes of catching all the pertinent information, but new technology is making that practice obsolete -- if the professor chooses to utilize it.

Last semester Leigh Zeitz, a University of Northern Iowa associate professor in educational technology, offered his students podcast recordings of classroom lectures and discussions through his Web site.

Podcasting is a method of publishing files to the Internet. The files are then available for downloading, usually through a no-cost subscription

"It's like TiVo for your ears," Zeitz said.

Zeitz is one of only a few, if not the only, UNI professor offering curriculum via podcasts, however the practice is catching on at university campuses across the country. He started the online option last semester with the help of a Carver Interdisciplinary Fellowship to accommodate two students taking his class through the distance education program.

Sandy O'Brien, a UNI graduate student from North Liberty, said the podcasts allowed her to benefit from classroom discussion even though she was unable to attend.

"I was supposed to take the course as independent study, but when he taped the classes and I Iistened in it was like being part of a class I wouldn't have otherwise been a part of," she said. "It was a great help to get to listen to the class discussion every week."

And the best part was she could do it on the drive to and from work or while watching her son's football practice on a Sunday morning. The recorded lectures also proved helpful come test time when O'Brien could go back and listen to all the classroom discussions again.

Not all professors are offering their support to the new technology.

Critics say offering the material online may keep some students from attending class.

Zeitz wholeheartedly disagrees.

"If you are worried about whether students are coming to class, that is a classroom management problem," he said. "If you feel attendance is that important, then you should give points for being there each day. If you are concerned about whether giving students information away from the class will keep them from coming to class something is wrong."

Many professors are using similar technology to offer streaming audio and video files to supplement their in-class instruction.

This fall Jeffrey Funderburk, a UNI music professor, began offering online quizzes using audio files of music selections studied in class.

The randomized tests give students multiple opportunities to take a quiz in preparation for the real thing.

"Before this technology became available you really couldn't do anything like this unless you could study with a friend," Funderburk said. "And then you had to trust that friend knew the right answers, too."

But even if Funderburk's students wanted to take their quizzes on the go, copyright laws prohibit the professor from offering them in a downloadable format. Instead, many students are taking the CDs they get with the purchase of their class book and putting them on their mp3 players.

Marilyn Drury, the university's director for ITS educational technology, said this type of technology has been on campus for about seven years, but more professors are jumping on board as the technology becomes easier to use. The university is not yet set up to internally offer professors the technology to do what Zeitz is with his course.

Zeitz' students actually subscribe to his podcast so anytime they update their iPod or mp3 player they are alerted that a new podcast is available. Drury said it is only a matter of time before the university begins to offer the same subscription service to professors and students.

"We are already taking a look at it. That is the direction technology is taking and we need to be on top of it," she said.

While this kind of technology could widen the so-called "Digital Divide" many believe MP3 players are becoming so commonplace -- Apple shipped more than 6.4 million iPods during the fourth quarter alone -- access won't be an issue, especially among the college-aged set.

"You can pick up a decent mp3 player for 80 bucks. On college campuses though there is always access in computer labs or even in their rooms," Zeitz said. "What is important is when this information is posted it is posted in a way that it can be accessed through podcasting or just downloading it onto a computer. If you are going to college, you have access to computers."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

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Source: Waterloo Courier

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