Stanford Embraces Podcasting

According to this article in today’s WebProNews, Stanford University is embracing podcasting. Visit the site “Stanford on iTunes” (http://itunes.stanford.edu) and link to (apparently) iTunes only feeds for:

1. Heard on Campus
2. Global Issues: Stanford Initiatives
3. Music
4. Faculty Lectures
5. Sports
6. Books and Authors

Amy Bellinger is not willing to say educators have a professional obligation to embrace podasting. My question to her and others is, why not? Podcasting offers a powerful way to share content directly with students and other educational constituents. For organizations like Stanford or the Texas Tech University College of Education (whose podcast feed has been active since late September 2005), podcasting is yet another means for digital storytelling and content redistribution. Your organization is doing great things, and you want others to know about it. Podcasting is another tool in the communication toolbox for getting a message out to constituents. And it allows a message to be communicated in qualitatively more powerful ways that text. And it is basically free to do. It does require some time, but the skills and tools are readily available.

By advocating that educators embrace podcasting, I am not suggesting that every teacher in every class should be podcasting. Teachers certainly don’t need to use technology to teach well and effectively. But podcasting can be used in a variety of ways. Recording faculty lectures may be the most obvious and one of the most publicized uses of podcasting now, but it is probably the least creative. Sanford senior Kevin Systrom is correct to suggest that people think of podcasting as “democratizing of the media.” I contend that this process carries inherent benefits at many levels. Like other disruptive technologies, educators should embrace podcasting to constructively improve the educational experience and process for students. Podcasting also offers a way for educators to bring new content into the classroom, share it with students, and another “authentic knowledge product” form that students can be asked to create to demonstrate their mastery of prescribed knowledge and skills. Student-created podcasts like Room208 and Mills Murfee Podcast are among some of the most innovative uses of podcasting that I know about currently.

Nice job, Stanford. Remember, though, podcasting is really broadcasting. And you shouldn’t have to use iTunes to podcatch content. (Even though I do dearly love Macs and Apple Computer.) So publish those RSS feed URLs too, OK?! I just might want to use iPodder rather than iTunes, and if I do, I should have that choice!