Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Advantages of Podcast Use


The use of podcast technology is affordable, portable, popular, accessible, and efficient.  The student has the ability to repeat a pre-recorded broadcast to supplement a course lecture.  This feature adds to knowledge retention and may enable the learner to demonstrate increased proficiency in a topic (Johnston, Goldsmith, Hepworth, & Lacasse, 2010).  Many students request to record lectures during actual class time so they have the ability to listen to lecture content at other times.  Proactive instructors that record their lectures using podcasts ensure that the recording is “audible, complete, and available to all students” (Greenfield, 2011, p. 113). 


Billings & Halstead (2009) state that podcast subject matter is unable to be copied or transferred to other devices, which is a significant advantage to the content developer.  Podcasts are simple to create.  The developer needs an MP3 digital recorder and a microphone to upload content to a computer.  The podcast creator is encouraged to limit the length of the recording and partition the content into segments or topics and then post the broadcast onto a password- protected site (Greenfield, 2011).  Structuring podcasts in this way permits the listener to access specific lecture topics of interest.

Students report other benefits of podcast technology including: the ability to pay attention and listen to a classroom lecture and not worry about taking detailed notes, not missing instructor explanations on topics, and a decreased need for peer tutors (Greenfield, 2011).

In addition, technology that is able to fit in the palm of one’s hand and functions to develop knowledge of more complex technologies, prepares the nursing student to meet the challenges of the health care environment.

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