Abstract:

The use of podcasts, digital audio files that are delivered through the Internet, became very popular due to the availability of Web 2.0. tools and the ease of production, editing and delivery of the episodes. These can be further downloaded to computers or mobile devices, which use has increased enormously in the last decade, and this portability creates exciting opportunities for education. This way, teaching and learning can be mobile and portable and education can be personalized and provided at any time and any place. This is particularly appealing for working students or for students with special needs or challenges but also suitable to any student who wishes to be in control of the learning process itself.
In the last years, podcasting has been explored for various purposes in several universities, with the goals of improving teaching/ learning processes and simultaneously engage students through innovation and motivation. According to some studies conducted worldwide, this technology has a great potential in the pedagogical arena for all the actors involved, yet there is the need to evaluate and consolidate the claimed results at the pedagogical level.
Under the scope and following a project related to the integration of podcasts in higher education, several studies were conducted between 2007/ 2008 and 2009/ 2010 at University of Minho, in Portugal, regarding the use of different types of podcasts in teaching/ learning of Genetics. The main conclusions of the research developed and some of the questions raised by the same studies will be presented in this work, namely the relevance of podcasting technology in teaching/ learning of Genetics, ii) the role of this innovation in engaging students, iii) the motivation achieved with this new pedagogical strategy, iv) the fact that students, considered digital natives, do not use mobile devices for learning and v) the implications for teachers of using podcasts with pedagogical approaches. In any case, evidence was collected towards students’ acceptance and receptiveness to podcasting in Genetics learning.

Keywords:

Podcasting, higher education, genetics.