Abstract:

Podcasting has emerged as a popular means of communicating science in the past decade. Science podcasts can provide valuable knowledge and information for the scientific community, particularly for early-career researchers. This presentation describes the creation of the podcast “Pod’isto?” by a multidisciplinary team belonging to the Laboratory of Digital Content (LCD) of the Research Centre on Didactics and Technology in the Education of Trainers (CIDTFF), based at the University of Aveiro (Portugal).

With the growing importance of communicating scientific results to society in open access platforms, the podcast “Pod’Isto?” aims at presenting the work different researchers are developing on the use of digital technologies and resources to promote learning, innovative methodologies and pedagogical strategies. It intends to increase the number of actions the LCD/CIDTFF embraces to share the scientific knowledge it produces and to promote new ways of connecting to the wider scientific society. In addition, it intends to make science more attractive, namely for young people, as implementing scientific dissemination initiatives is critical to eradicate myths and fake news, as well as to nurture more informed and civically engaged citizens, able to make more assertive and well-grounded decisions.

“Pod'Isto?" is based on a Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology, adopting an iterative and collaborative approach to the production of scientific content. The structure of the podcast reflects cycles of design, implementation and refinement, incorporating feedback and adjusting to current topics of interest being dealt with by researchers.

Two seasons are planned to be aired during the academic year of 2023/2024. The first season consists of 8 episodes. Each episode starts with a question, elicited by “Can..? Is…? Are…?”, which is then answered in a 4-minute talk. Once edited, the episodes will be available on Spotify and Youtube, and simultaneously shared on the LCD/CIDTFF social media platforms, namely Facebook and Instagram. In the first season, the communicators are researchers and postgraduate students from the LCD, but the team responsible for the podcast hopes that future seasons will include researchers from other laboratories that comprise the CIDTFF and from other educational institutions.

The creation process took into account several recommendations:
i) preparing a template to be used as a script for all episodes;
ii) determining the length of each episode;
iii) determining the frequency of the podcast;
iv) recording the introductory and final jingle for all episodes;
v) ensuring the necessary physical facilities and technical equipment for recording.

The “Pod’isto?” wishes to be a scientific communication tool to the entire community (academic and non-academic), by disseminating the results of completed and ongoing research and encouraging other researchers to disseminate their research as well. Future work includes collecting perceptions about the podcast with a view to understand its contribution for science communication and further improvements.

Keywords:

Science communication, Design-Based Research, Podcast, development of educational technology resources.