TRC Podcast Team: Top row, Gaila Garber & Al Bartlett; bottom row, Matt Martin, Joe Gajda, & Frank Collins
TRC Team Pilots Podcasting
iPods and other audio players have grown to be so popular that they sometimes appear to be ubiquitous among WSU's student population. These devices may open doors to exciting new opportunities to support teaching and learning at WSU. According to TRC Podcast Team Leader Matthew Martin, "Podcasting is a simple and convenient technology that takes advantage of the increasing use of audio players and iPods by students. Once a student subscribes, content is delivered automatically via the Internet or by intranets whenever new material is posted. This allows students immediate access to material posted by their instructors at virtually any location." Podcast material can be used by students who use iPods and other MP3 players as well as those who work on Macs and PCs; users can also burn material to CDs to listen to on portable players.
Podcasting would enable an instructor to distribute, for example, recordings of their own lectures, presentations from other experts in different geographical locations, background material to prepare students for an upcoming course session, or review exercises and other materials to help students prepare for exams. Audio content might also be used in language classes to aid students with pronunciation and conversational skills, to guide students through a step-by-step procedure, and to present recorded simulations and roleplays.
TRC partners University Television, Media Services, and the Digital Libraries Initiative are collaborating to investigate how podcasting will best serve the WSU community. The Podcast Team includes Matthew Martin and Joseph Gajda of the Digital Libraries Initiative, Alan Bartlett and Gaila Garber of Media Services, and Frank Collins of University Television. In January 2006, the team began creating the infrastructure to implement podcasting at WSU. They have built a podcasting server, and are working on an experimental basis to determine the optimum workflow to capture audio, compress it to the correct format, and make individual podcasts easily searchable. Different delivery methods for audio downloads are being tested, including Blackboard and Apple's iTunes interface.
A pilot project has been implemented to podcasts audio lectures. Faculty interested in participating in this pilot program may contact Matthew Martin at ay2316@wayne.edu.