Abstract:

The use of podcasting is an emerging practice in education and in the last years is offering the possibility to review, change and enrich teaching and learning processes.
Nowadays, podcasting has gained popularity for some reasons such as: availability of free software and tools to create them, easy access to free repositories offering high quality specialized recordings for different fields of knowledge, wide variety of them in different areas of knowledge, high efficiency in information exchange through syndication, increase in the ownership and use of multimedia players and recorders, etc.

For educational purposes, a podcast could be a course audio file, mini lessons with both, audio and video, case studies containing experts´ interviews, multimedia presentations designed and created by students or teachers, etc. Podcasting allows the incorporation of recordings as multimedia teaching resources and as an emerging practice, its potential pedagogical benefits are not well established, catching the interest of some educational researches
We can find some studies where key educational advantages are reported, focusing on the impact of audio podcasts on students’ learning. Researchers are exploring advantages associated with their use. Some experiences have shown an increase of students´ scores in blended models where podcasts are used along with traditional lessons. Other examples have shown how podcasts are evaluated by students as an alternative to attendance, which could be a very interesting point for designing e-learning lessons.

The possibilities of podcasts when they are produced and integrated using the proper learning strategies and sequences are vast, but their use, like other technology-based resources, also has some disadvantages and risks. One of the main criticisms is related to the possibility of promoting teacher centered processes where students play passive roles. To look for a more autonomous and student-centered learning process, podcasting should not be used as a mere way to provide a repetition or a summary of a lecture previously given. In this sense, we would like to focus on podcasts as more than informational objects, addressing the learning object paradigm.

In this paper, we describe an instructional approach carried out with pre service primary teachers in a science education course, where students become designers and consumers of their own multimedia resources, as well as critical evaluators of these materials. The experience gives them the opportunity to acquire ICT skills and generic competences related to collaborative work and autonomous learning. Audio podcasts are generated entirely by the students following a guide based on “best practices” and on the multimedia learning theory. Students have to choose a key science content from the primary school curriculum to work on, using some of the resources offered in a science museum, as an inspiration for developing their podcasts. They also have to establish the associated learning goals, as one of the core parts of podcasts. The materials are published and shared in the course using our institutional virtual learning environment. Students receive feedback from teachers at several key stages and are also involved in peer-review of the shared podcasts, following a predefined rubric.

Keywords:

Podcasts, outdoors activities, student-centered strategies, science education.