In the wee hours of the morning, I was responding to an email from the ULM public affairs director on the issue of using Podcasts in the classroom. In my email, I hit on the what and why of using podcasts in the classroom as supplementary materials. I thought that I'd share the information from this email and maybe get some discussion going on using new media in the classroom.

Right now I'm using podcasts from a series of media outlets that specializein information technology. Students in my Management Information Systemsclass (BMBA509) are required to listen to these technology "news casts" eachweek. The specific podcasts are; This Week in Tech, Inside the Net, andBuzz Outloud. The last 30 minutes or so of class each week is devoted to discussing the topics from the podcasts and their impact on business and society.

The idea to do this came to me after the debacle with Sony music installing spyware on music CDs as a form of digital rights management (DRM). I couldn't help but think, "Some group of MBA's from the biggest business schools in the world thought up or were presented that idea, and thought itwas great". Sony was hit with a number of lawsuits over this incident, and now must submit their DRM schemes to outside review. The assignment is intended to get our MBA students to understand technology better, and begin to develop a feel for it's impact.

Podcasts have two big advantages in terms of providing additional material for students. First, they are very targeted on specific interests. Producing a podcast is much cheaper than producing conventional media like tapes or television, so there are lots of them and they have excellent content. I can basically, specify a very targeted podcast show to support specific topics in class. The second advantage is that podcasts allow students to time shift their consumption of the content. The podcasts are recorded into an electronic file, that is downloaded and can be listened to or viewed at any time. This gives the student the capability of programming their own "channel", so to speak, that serves their specific needs. This creates in essence, an educational radio or TV network customized to an individual's specific interests and needs.

Other podcasts that I personally subscribe to include Oracle's TechBlast, Security Now, Security Bits, and several speical topic programs on TabletPCs, Programming, Blogging, and Web2.0. Someday soon, I hope to start producing my own content for class and special interests. Narrated slide shows and Camtasia videos are to things that come to mind for creating helpful content for our students.

So, these are my thoughts, what do you think. Any ideas?