Now Hear This: Emerging Audio and New-Media Technologies
Contributed by Ronnie Pejril, Instructional Technologist & Coordinator of MITC

Podcasting: In 2005, the New Oxford Dictionary declared “podcast” as their Word of the Year. Derived from a combination of “broadcast” and “iPod,” the term can be a bit misleading; podcasts can be heard and/or seen through a huge variety of channels, including portable media players such as Apple’s iPod or Creative’s Zen, specialized software such as iTunes, or through websites such as www.podcastready.com.

A podcast is media (which can include audio and video) that you can subscribe to, and have delivered to your computer or media device, just like a newspaper coming to your door. Creating a podcast involves recording your media (with a tool such as audacity), and distributing it through a syndication “feed” (with a tool such as podifier).

Streaming: Unlike podcasts (or newspapers for that matter), streaming media is delivered on-demand, and can also include audio and video. YouTube is a popular example of streaming media.

A Web log, more commonly called a blog, is an online collection of entries or posts which are displayed according to when they were written, usually in reverse chronological order. This tool has become an increasingly popular way for students to reflect on their learning and share the knowledge they are gaining with their instructors, peers and the outside world. Here at DePauw, several faculty members have been using blogs in their classes to enhance student writing. Harry Brown, Kevin Howley and Scott Speigelberg all took a few moments recently to share their perspectives on using blogs in teaching:

How do you use blogs in your course?

[Harry Brown]: I use blogs in my American Writers (W) class (ENG 283). Students have their own blogs and are required to post short responses (500-1000 words) roughly once a week. Because I use blogging as way to develop critical reading and writing skills, I grade the entries on six criteria. The students are required to use conventional citation methods (MLA), which facilitates continuity between their blog writing and their formal writing.

[Kevin Howley]: The blog was used to facilitate in-class discussions and enhance class participation--especially for those students who are a bit quiet in the classroom. Specifically, students posted weekly responses to film screenings. These posts (500-750 words) encouraged students to make connections between our readings, in-class screenings, and discussions and the weekly films. Students posted their comments to the class blog. This way, students could not only read each others posts, they could also read the brief comments I made to individual posts.

[Scott Spiegelberg]: For three years I have used a class blog in my FYS.  The students post once a week, and make five comments on each other's posts each week.  I have a specific writing assignment for them for each week, from a musical autobiography to concert reviews to presentation scripts.

What were your teaching & learning objectives for using blogs?

[H.B.]: I use the blog mainly as a forum for regular writing practice. Like a journal, these short reading responses serve as a portfolio of ideas from which students draw in drafting their formal papers. Unlike journals, however, they're public, which makes students more conscious of their audience and allows them to read, respond to, and learn from each other's writing at any point in the writing process, not only during peer editing exercises and writing workshops.

[K.H.]: As noted above, the blog enlarged and expanded our class discussion.  Equally important, the weekly posts were designed to familiarize students with writing concise, analytical essays rather than "merely" reactions to the film (a la the traditional film review). 

[S.S.]: By writing in a public sphere, the students are cognizant of their audience.  They get feedback from me and each other, helping them to develop their writing styles.

How did you assess the student use of blogs? What sort of time commitment can faculty members expect to put into blogging?

[H.B.]: As I said, I treat this as an important, initial stage in their formal writing process, so I hold them accountable for their work by commenting on content and grading it according to certain criteria: timeliness, attention to reading, attention to class discussion, attention to an audience beyond our class, inclusion of relevant Web links, and style. Unfortunately, this means a major time commitment. I'm still trying to work out a more efficient system that will save me some time with reading and assessment, while maintaining an emphasis on the pedagogical goals I mention above.

[K.H.]: As this was a weekly, required assignment, these essays constituted a significant portion of each student's final grade.  I assessed posts on a scale from 1 (poor) - 5 (excellent).  Again, I made brief comments/suggestions to each student post.  This required a significant amount of time and effort.  That said, this paperless assignment was relatively easy to coordinate.

[S.S.]: They are assessed by comments on each post, and given credit for completing each post and comment.  It takes about two hours each week to read and comment on each post.

What did you find to be the greatest learning outcome in using blog?

[H.B.]: I really think the quality of student writing improves, and for those of us in the English department, that's the Holy Grail. Part of this is due to the regular practice they might get in more familiar exercises such as journal keeping or in-class writing, but part of it rests on the inherently public nature of blogging. Students seem more careful in their thinking and writing when they realize that their fellow students, students from different schools, even their friends and family, might read their work. The great cultural appeal of blogging is that it gives anyone with a computer a voice on the internet. I think students take themselves a little more seriously when they feel this exposure.

[K.H.]: The most important benefit, I believe, was that students were writing for one another--not just the instructor. What's more, my comments to individual student posts were made "public" to the rest of the class.  Oftentimes, these essays provided a "jumping off point" for subsequent class discussions. Students came to regard each other's analytical essays in a fashion quite unlike "traditional assignments."  In other words, students were writing for a broader audience than just the instructor.  They often wrote to (and in response to) each other's work.

[S.S.]: The students read each other's works, get practice in critiques, and have plenty of opportunities to revise their writing.

What was the greatest challenge?
 
[H.B.]: As I say above, it's just a lot of work for the instructor if you make the commitment to read and comment on student work. Even if you limit the blog assignments to 10-12 entries a semester (I have 13) and grade them according to general participation rather than content, student blogs in a class of 15-20 still generate a huge amount of text for one to read week-in and week-out. I guess there are ways to loosen things up, but in my class, a W-class, I feel an obligation to comment on all the writing I assign. There are always the random technical problems, too, but I never encountered anything that couldn't be resolved in a minute or two.

[K.H.]: There is no guarantee that students take the time to read each others posts, let alone my comments.  I had no way to ensure that students did indeed review each others work.  That said, class discussions indicate that this learning objective was met more often than not. Put another way, while email is a "push technology" that students receive as a matter of course, the blog is a "pull technology" that requires students to actively use the blog.  This tension is something worth considering as I/we continue to use electronic distribution and virtual instruction of this sort.

[S.S.]: Getting the students to raise their writing style beyond the informal conversational style they are used to with Facebook and LiveJournal.

Anything else you'd like to share? Any advice for those considering using blogs?

[H.B.]: Well, I think online writing is the "next big thing" in writing pedagogy, but I'm a bit of a technophile. To put it more moderately, I think the smart thing will be to integrate online writing tools like blogs and discussion boards with established writing pedagogy. This is something I've tried to do in ENG 283 by allowing the blog entries to serve as portfolios or invention drafts for formal papers, but this is obviously a complex and continuous trial-and-error process that will require the collaboration of faculty across the curriculum.

[K.H.]: The blog was subject to far too much spam throughout the semester.  Moreover, students have since told me that they continue to receive unwanted email that seems to originate with their blog posts.

[S.S.]: Consider the time requirements, both for the instructor and for the students.

Special thanks to Harry, Kevin and Scott for their contributions. DePauw will launch a new blogging system powered by WordPress (http://wordpress.org) in spring 2007 which will have increased functionality and better spam filtering and privacy options. If you are interested in incorporating blogs into your classes, please contact Alicia Louden (alouden@depauw.edu or x1093).

FITS and ATAC (the Faculty Academic Technology Advisory Committee) are collaborating to investigate possibilities for upgrading or changing the current course management system, Blackboard. DePauw started using Blackboard in spring 2002 . The number of faculty members who use it for courses has increased steadily over that time. During Spring 2006, for example, 148 faculty members used Blackboard in their courses in a variety of ways, about a third for just eReserves, but over 70% for multiple features:
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In a survey last spring, more than 100 instructors offered perspectives about how they use (or don’t use!) Blackboard, its effectiveness in their teaching, and how well it meets their needs. Predominantly, they described Blackboard as useful for organizing course materials, enabling students to submit their work and check their grades, providing eReserves, communicating with students via email and online, and helping students collaborate on group assignments. All-in-all, Blackboard has offered a good collection of fundamental utilities for managing course materials and scaffolding online student interaction outside the classroom.
If Blackboard is so great, why are we looking at alternatives?
Despite the utility that Blackboard provides, however, there are several features now commonly found in course management systems that the Blackboard version we have (called “Learning System Basic”) does not offer. For example:

• In Blackboard, you cannot cross-link files or areas across ‘courses.’
  If you wish to share a single file in multiple courses, you must upload the file individually to each course. Departments cannot share a common repository of resources in multiple courses.
• Blackboard  does not support ‘single sign-on.’
  This means that when IT has set up processes to enable you to enter one name and password to access multiple applications such as eServices, email, and Novell, you will still have a additional username and password to log into Blackboard.
• Blackboard does not integrate or share data with other university systems, like eServices.
  The class email list is Blackboard is not the same list as in eServices, and when a student drops or adds a course, you have to manually add him to the corresponding Blackboard course.
  Also, this means that the Blackboard grade book is not connected to the grade reporting form in eServices
• Blackboard does not provide a built-in Blog or Wiki.
• Blackboard is not easy to navigate and is not always user-friendly.
  Faculty members noted in the spring survey described the interface as 'clunky' and that it takes too many ‘clicks’ to set up new areas in their courses or for student to find materials.

Thus, we are researching options for upgrading our course management system to a version that will retain all the features that faculty members that need and will add additional features and flexibility.
Preliminary systems under research:

• Upgrade to “deluxe” version of Blackboard, which adds many of the features that the current version does not offer.

Advantage: Faculty members are already familiar with the tool
Disadvantage: Costly, redundant with existing administrative systems, does not solve the un-user-friendly navigation problem

• Switch to an open-source system. Systems that we are considering include Moodle (www.moodle.org) and Sakai (sakaiproject.org), both systems that several other liberal arts colleges have adopted.

Advantages: More flexible and less expensive; an increasing number of schools are moving in this direction
Disadvantages: The “cultural shift” in moving away from Blackboard will require us to learn how to use a new system
Timeline for the evaluation and course management system process:

• Fall 2006 – Research and build test servers – Dialogue with key stakeholders
• Winter Term 2007 – training for testers
• Spring 2007 – first pilot
• Summer 2007 – training for additional testers
• Fall 2007 – second pilot with larger test group if we think a second pilot is necessary
• Winter Term 2008 – training and building course sites
• Spring 2008 – roll out to campus

Throughout the process, we will be offering a variety of focus groups and hands-on opportunities for faculty members to review the systems and provide their feedback. During January, we will be setting up Moodle on campus to enable interested faculty members to experiment with it and compare it to Blackboard. If you are interested in looking at Moodle or even prototyping it in one of your courses, contact Lynda LaRoche (llaroche@depauw.edu).

If you have any questions or concerns about the course management system project, please feel free to contact Carol Smith (clsmith), Lynda LaRoche (llaroche), or a member of ATAC (Harry Brown, chair, hbrown).

Expertise: Digital audio, sound design and production; Microsoft Office; online media delivery.

Biography: I arrived at DePauw in August 2006, after recently teaching for the City Colleges of Chicago. Prior to that, I was music director at a small elementary school in northwest Indiana, where I was able to teach where my twin sons attended. I am a graduate of the University of Illinois and Princeton, where I am completing my PhD work. During my residency, I studied composition with Paul Lansky, Steve Mackey and Milton Babbitt.

While most of my creative musical work is for computer performance, I’ve also written works for wind ensemble, band, orchestra and sign-language choir. My creative aesthetic focuses largely on installation-pieces, rather than the concert-hall venue. My current creative project uses spatialization as a compositional element, in an eight speaker surround environment.

I am an avid proponent of technology’s uses in teaching, learning and making music. I have broad expertise in all three areas. This spring, in addition to my role of helping the university community maximize music technology’s potential, I will be teaching MUS110-Introduction to Music Technology.

I am a jazz keyboardist, and am happy to have hooked up with some excellent local musicians to perform with. I have twin boys who play double bass and percussion.

Fun Fact: : In 1989, I authored a children’s book about accepting and celebrating diversity.