 
December , 2004
The Online Classroom Is About to Become a Noisier Place — Wired (and wireless) for sound: audioblogging, podcasting and education
By Brian Lamb, Office of Learning Technology
. let the listener speak as well as hear, .bring him into a relationship instead of isolating him. On this principle the radio should step out of the supply business and organize its listeners as suppliers.
— Bertolt Brecht, "The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication", 1932.
Put on your headphones and crank up the volume.
In just a few months, terms like "audioblogging" and "podcasting" have gone from complete obscurity to achieving full-on buzzword status. While personal digital audio is still in the early stages, feverish activity demonstrates that online learning is now be wired for sound.
Teachers, instructional designers and students have access to the sonic dimension, not just as consumers but as producers.
Online audio itself is nothing new, of course.
But until recently producing quality sound files required specialized technicians using expensive and complex software. Once a sound file was produced, a specialized streaming server was often needed to deliver it to listeners. Like other forms of media-rich educational content, using audio to deliver content was also risky since it demanded excessive bandwidth and/or computer capability from the user -- rendering it inappropriate for learners trapped on dial-up connections or older machines.
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“...audio can now be accessed by the user anytime, anywhere. ” |
The new popularity of online sound recording and transmission is in some respects a natural response to technological change: bandwidth, server and storage space have all become much cheaper, and the stunning success of Apple's iPod (and a host of other portable and mobile devices capable of storing, playing and now recording sound files) means that audio can now be accessed by the user anytime, anywhere.
Even more important has been the emergence of new tools that allow an individual to create and share sound files quickly and inexpensively, without specialized expertise.
A growing number of cheap (or free) applications allow both PC and Mac users to make everything from simple microphone recordings to full-on, multi-tracked masterworks.
The open-source, cross-platform program Audacity allows anyone to record and play sounds; cut, copy and paste clips; mix tracks and apply effects. And paid services such as Audioblogging.com promise to introduce the medium to newcomers in much the same way that services such as Blogger.com did with personal publishing. "Voice over IP" applications like Skype open up the possibility of multiple voices interacting live, with the conversations easily recorded, edited and played back.
Podcasting
A recent mutation of the personal audio revolution is "podcasting."
The term (think "broadcasting and "iPod") has existed less than a year. By leveraging the power of RSS audio can be downloaded automatically to an iPod or a computer.
Though the medium is still its infancy, early podcast stars such as Adam Curry -- previously best known as one of the original VeeJay's on MTV - has inspired a new generation to take to their own private airwaves with their own shows.
D'Arcy Norman of the University of Calgary describes the convergence: "The various bits that make up podcasting have been around forever (digital audio, internet distribution, RSS syndication), but the combination of the three makes for a system that approximates a personalized radio station."
And this isn't just a medium for the MTV set, the possibilities for its use have educators buzzing.
Steve Sloan identifies a number of potential educational uses for podcasting on his weblog These include distance education, self-paced learning, language instruction, aiding students with learning and/or other disabilities, and facilitating guest speakers. These are all potentially useful but they only reflect preliminary attempts. More innovative approaches are bound to emerge as more educators begin to sound off.
iPods for All and Podcasting Not Just for 'Webheads'
The future might be glimpsed at Duke University , which has just embarked on a program that provides all first-year students with iPods, to support a diverse range of academic and student-life projects ranging from writing to economics.
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“Let's hope that these innovative applications emerge quickly, because it would be a shame if all the technology does is force students to endure poorly recorded one-way lectures.” |
Let's hope that these innovative applications emerge quickly, because it would be a shame if all the technology does is force students to endure poorly recorded one-way lectures. Or worse, podcasting could simply remain, in Jeremy Hiebert's words a medium for a bunch of webheads "exorcising their childhood fantasies to be radio DJs because they can."
As Hiebert notes, audio has its limitations, and in many instances simple text is a preferable medium: "I have no patience to listen to someone blather through twelve things in 20 minutes that don't interest me to get to the few sentences that are compelling."
It remains to be seen how long it will take for the tools to become simple enough to allow for the wide adoption we are presently seeing with weblogs and with digital photography. But it's coming in loud and clear that ordinary educators have a new medium to transmit knowledge and to foster communication.
The online classroom is about to become a much noisier space.
More Information
Podcasting (Wikipedia): http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Podcasting
IPodder.org: http://www.ipodder.org/
Stephen Downes: Edupodcast Aggregator http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/xml/search.cgi?query_string=+podcast
IloveRadio.org - Tod Maffin (CBC's self-proclaimed radio nerd) runs an excellent weblog full of news, tutorials, and yes, podcasts: http://radio.blogware.com/blog
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