Do Podcasts Justify the Lecture Method of Teaching?

Are we going to see an increase in the lecturing method on campuses across the continent? Despite my work in the Triple A Lecture Intervention Project, I truly thought lecturing would become instinct as the PlayStation generation hit post-secondary institutes.  I thought the only ones keeping lecturing alive as a viable teaching method were traditionalists who had no interest in applying alternative learning modes. 

 Then along comes a medium that attempts to mate dinosaurs and virtual pets. Is podcasting causing a revival in the lecture method?  But we barely got to see a glimpse of constructivism in the lecture hall and co-operative learning methods were just poking their heads in the door!  Now we’re back to information delivery.

Although this bodes well for the Triple A project in which I am involved, where we’re determined to improve the effectiveness of the lecture method, I’m still a little skeptical whether podcasts are the way lecturing should be going. Our project looks at lecturing from 5 learning domains: verbal, auditory, visual, cognitive, and physical.  Without much investigation, I’m thinking that a podcasted lecture only touches on three domains: auditory, cognitive and a weak physical domain perhaps.

Before students start relying on podcasted lectures for test reviews or follow-up on a missed classes, I think they should consider a few points:

• There’s no short cut – Unless a professor’s going to take time to edit their lectures, a two hour class will still take two hours to listen to as a podcast. (Perhaps in the future we will train ourselves to listen faster than normal speech speed, though)
• Learning from a podcast would be an easy task for an auditory learner but what about visual learners – will taking notes from the podcast be enough?
• What if the student has questions or is just not getting it – our Triple A product is trying to tweak lecturers into the learning needs of a variety of learners and making sure that their delivery suits as many different learners as possible.  There is not a lot of room for different learning modes in a podcast.

Our project is also suggesting that in a lecture there should be some sort of engagement activity every 20 minutes.  This will not go over well in a podcasted lecture – it will make for very poor sound or muffled dead air.  What makes the best podcasted lecture?  Not the ones with a lot of questions either – you can rarely hear audience questions on conference or lecture podcasts – the best podcasted lectures will be the ones that are strict information delivery by someone with a dynamic, interesting voice.  Does that someone have to be in a lecture hall?  I think not, in fact, for quality sound, a studio would be the best place.  I’m not sure I’m comfortable where this is heading…..

Don’t get me wrong… I actually like the OPTION of podcasted lectures (it's a great plus for auditory learners!) but I fear that, youth being youth, we will see an increase in coursecast learning – is this the best teaching our tax dollars and institutions can offer?  Studies please!!!

Podcasting Lectures…it’s just a craze, right? 

We're in the final part of phase 1 for the Triple A project...visit our wiki here:

http://triplealecture.pbwiki.com/FinalPhase1ProjectPlan (password: "lecture" without the quotes)