Local Educator Sees A Boundless Future In Podcasts

By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net

After leaving Mount Marty College a few years ago, a local man has develop a passion for educational podcasts.

For many students and educators, new technology often shapes the way they learn and teach. Podcasting is a fairly new technology that allows educators to reach their students in ways that, in years prior, would seem impossible.

A podcast is a digital audio recording, that may contain images, and can be used by instructors to deliver content to students in an easy-to-use format.

One local man even left his job at Mount Marty to produce his own educational podcasts for everyone to use.

Mark Winegar, who taught at MMC for 12 years, has produced more than 400 podcasts that are all available for free on YouTube. Most of the podcasts are on computer science, which is his main area of expertise, but others are on distance learning and other topics.

He allows other educators to use his podcasts for their classroom materials and they can embed the video on to the course website, or simply send the students a link to the video to supplement their work inside the classroom.

Winegar first came to South Dakota several decades ago when he worked for the Zenith engineering group software department, even though he did not enjoy his time there.

“Computer programming and engineering became a commodity,” he said. “They were just trying to ship their product out the door, so the joy of engineering and computers was out of it for me.”

During his time at MMC, Winegar began to take a passion in using technology to enhance his lessons in the classroom and further connect with students’ needs.

“Teaching with the internet had always been an interest of mine,” he said. “During my time at Mount Marty, I began to see podcasting in action and I would include podcasts and YouTube videos into the course materials.”

Winegar added that podcasts allow professors to cover even more of the information in class that they ever could have before.

“With podcasting, professors can assume students have watched the videos and that everyone is up to speed on the given course topic,” he said.

He added that many companies, in addition to institutions, also use podcasts to connect to their employees.

Winegar cited an example of car companies using podcasts to get their sales teams up to speed on new models.

“The sales team, for example, can access the podcast at any time, so there is no need for a meeting,” he said. “They can access the podcast on their desktop computer, tablet, laptop and smartphone.”

Winegar noted that podcasts can be very powerful, just by giving people access to information.

“There are very few K-12 teachers that are using podcasts,” he said. “Imagine if all those teachers made just a few podcasts, everything would be available for the public to consume and become more knowledgeable on.”

Winegar encourages other educators and experts to get the information out to the public domain, as podcasts are fairly simple to create.

“Even though it takes me about three hours to produce one podcast, they are easy to produce, and you only really need a computer with a microphone to produce them,” he said.

Jamie Foster, who works in the department of Microbiology and Cell Science at the University of Florida, has done a great deal of research on the impact of podcasting in the classroom.

“A big advantage of podcasting is that it is an asynchronous learning tool,” she said in an email interview with the Press and Dakotan. “Students can listen to the material as many times as they need to and whenever they want to.”

She noted that this past year 100 percent of her students listened to the podcasts. In addition, more than 70 percent of her students either agreed or strongly agreed that podcasts have helped contribute to their learning experience.

“Another major impact of podcasting is that it has the potential to free up class time, so that the instructor can devote more time to hands-on projects,” Foster added.

Both Winegar and Foster noted that podcasting has helped facilitate a process called “flipping the classroom.”

“Flipping your classroom is basically throwing away lecture on some days and telling students that they are responsible for learning the material,” Winegar said. “Professors will provide the materials, which could include podcasts and readings.”

Foster has found that one of the major shifts between 2008, when she began her podcasting research, and today is that students are more aware of podcasting now. In 2008, nearly 60 percent of her students had never listened to a podcast before, compared to less than 10 percent today. In addition, none of her 2008 students had taken a class that used podcasts, a number that today stands at more than 40 percent.

“Occasionally we still get a few students who aren’t comfortable with the technology,” she said. “However, most students really enjoy the podcasting and are actively using it to learn the course material.”

Another big advantage of podcasting, as Foster said, is for professors that might live far away from where they teach.

“I live 165 miles away from the main campus, so for me I use podcasts to convey some of the material to my students each week,” she said. “Since I can’t be on campus each day, it has enabled me to generate a hybrid class of in-person learning, as well as the podcasts for distance learning.”

Foster noted that since she began using the podcasts, fewer students have come to ask questions in her office hours because they can simply re-listen to the material from the lectures.

However, there are some big concerns that people might have for using podcasts in the classroom.

“People might have concerns that podcasting can just simply replace all teacher-student personal interactions, and I do not agree with that philosophy,” Foster said. “I, and most of my students, agree that podcasting is a learning tool to supplement the traditional in-person classes.”

“Podcasts are just like a book in the library, except the library is in our pockets or on our computer,” Winegar said.

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal