What does Mobile Learning look like? Mobile learning is basically just learning gone mobile. As the years progress, we seem to be getting less paper and pencil homework and more homework on a computer. Children todays are learning more now on electronic devices than from a book. Mobile learning is when you learn anything from any type of electronic device or use of a website.
What is a podcast? A podcast is just a small audio file for people to open up and listen to. Podcast is a method that uses little money and it makes it easier on the teacher and students by eliminating the hours of long lectures.
What are the advantages or disadvantages to podcasting? The advantages to podcasting are that they are cheap, less distracting for children, helps prevent a teacher from lectures for hours, and some researchers have found that kids retain more information by hearing something and not by reading. The disadvantages to podcast are children could not really be listening to them, which makes them not learn the information taught. Podcast may be a way to prevent long lectures, but that is a part of being a teacher. Why have a podcast, when a teacher is sitting right there that could give the lecture themselves and answer any questions? Another disadvantage to podcast are visualization. A lot of kids retain information better through visual learning and not by listening.
What are the current results of educators who have used podcasting? The current results of educators that have used podcasting are very positive. Using podcast give children a chance to learn at their own pace, which gives them a chance to retain the information better. This also eliminates the problem of a lot of homework each night. Teachers send the podcast home with kids and they listen to it that night. The next day they come in and do homework. This creates more interaction time with students.
How would you begin podcasting? To begin podcasting, I would first figure out how it works. Once I have that all figured out, I will then check to see if it is even possible for all the children in my classroom to be able to watch the podcast each night. Not everyone has a computer, so this would really be my biggest problem. To make sure my kids are actually watching the podcast every night I send one home with them, I will have a time set to review the whole podcast. This way I can help out any student who did not understand any part of the lesson that was on the podcast.
