Spring Break
The Daily OrangeClasses to go digital with new podcast service
By Kyle Austin
Posted: 2/27/07, 10:17 PM EST Section: News
This task is time consuming and expensive, but Pusch said he hopes to alleviate those problems by putting that same information on the Internet in podcast form for teachers to download. This will save time and money, and can be done primarily with existing technology, he said.
Marlene Blumin, a SU professor, teaches a Project Advance course called College Learning Strategies 105, which includes small group discussions. This semester, she will begin to record some of those discussions and turn them into podcasts so both college and high school students can have more options to receive the information.
"I want students to be able to have the information in whatever vehicle is convenient and effective for them to have it," she said.
Blumin was also one of the first professors to use the Blackboard Learning System, a Web site where teachers can post announcements, grades and hold class discussions through forums. She said she is driven to new technologies by a desire to have material more accessible.
"I guess I'm always looking for something new and different," she said.
While podcasts are beginning to emerge at Syracuse, other universities across the country have been using them for more than a year and are already beginning to see results. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, podcasts were first offered in September 2005 and have since expanded to nearly every department on campus.
Jan Cheetham, project manager of Academic Technology at Wisconsin-Madison, said professors and students have given mostly positive feedback about podcasts and have found them easy to use.
"I think we're seeing more people who might have been a little cautious about trying something new have attempted podcasting and found it to be pretty doable," he said.
Wisconsin-Madison professors have used podcasts to distribute a wide range of materials, including mock radio programs in German and celebrity interviews in Spanish. One professor made more than 200 bird calls into podcasts so his students could memorize them from their computers or mp3 players.
Marlene Blumin, a SU professor, teaches a Project Advance course called College Learning Strategies 105, which includes small group discussions. This semester, she will begin to record some of those discussions and turn them into podcasts so both college and high school students can have more options to receive the information.
"I want students to be able to have the information in whatever vehicle is convenient and effective for them to have it," she said.
Blumin was also one of the first professors to use the Blackboard Learning System, a Web site where teachers can post announcements, grades and hold class discussions through forums. She said she is driven to new technologies by a desire to have material more accessible.
"I guess I'm always looking for something new and different," she said.
While podcasts are beginning to emerge at Syracuse, other universities across the country have been using them for more than a year and are already beginning to see results. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, podcasts were first offered in September 2005 and have since expanded to nearly every department on campus.
Jan Cheetham, project manager of Academic Technology at Wisconsin-Madison, said professors and students have given mostly positive feedback about podcasts and have found them easy to use.
"I think we're seeing more people who might have been a little cautious about trying something new have attempted podcasting and found it to be pretty doable," he said.
Wisconsin-Madison professors have used podcasts to distribute a wide range of materials, including mock radio programs in German and celebrity interviews in Spanish. One professor made more than 200 bird calls into podcasts so his students could memorize them from their computers or mp3 players.
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