Ipods and playstations are accepted into the academic world
University experiments with virtual classroom
SIMONA SIAD EXCALIBUR (YORK UNIVERSITY)
TORONTO (CUP) — Some students at York University will now be able to view their lectures via their IPod, but the new technology has critics wondering if this will affect the quality of their university experience.
York students can now register for a trial course that delivers its lectures exclusively via video screen or MP3 devices.
Diane Zorn is the second professor in Canada to have video podcasts — updateable and downloadable media files — of her lectures available for students.
“One of my No. 1 concerns with designing online learning environments has been trying to create online course life that will allow students to customize their learning environments,” said Zorn, a lecturer in York’s faculty of liberal and professional studies.
Zorn admits that her colleagues have responded both positively and negatively to the project, but stresses that professors who are against the new technology need to take the time to open their minds to a new way of teaching, or, as Zorn calls it, “coaching.”
“I include coaching instructional videos, welcome messages — you have to think of yourself as more of a coach. That’s a different role. Professors aren’t use to that,” said Zorn. “It’s different than traditional teaching, where you’re standing in a lecture hall.”
The course, which is delivered online, has students subscribe to Zorn’s RSS feed. They can then have their lecture handouts, in the form of printable documents (pdf files), delivered directly to their ITunes or other RSS feed-reading software.
Zorn was originally taping her lectures to a site called Mediasite, by Sonic Foundry. When she first got the idea, she approached York’s Commuting and Network services with the goal of converting those media lectures into MP3 and MP4 video-podcast formats. They decided to use her course as a pilot project to test it out. The rest, as they say, is "vcast" history.
She said this new technology will democratize education and give access to students who might never have considered attending university.
“I think it’s going to also increase student demand. Students are going to start to want to be able to customize their learning environment more,” said Zorn.
York’s senior multimedia designer, Kelly Parke, designed and helped create the site with Zorn. Both have been nominated for the Council of Ontario Universities’ Teaching with Technology Award.
Laurie Foley, a second-year English major who is currently enrolled in Zorn’s class, is excited about the technology. Foley, like many students, juggles school while maintaining a job to pay her tuition fees.
“I work three days a week, and I go to school full-time, so I crammed all my classes into two days a week. It’s helpful to have an online class like this that I don’t have to come all the way to campus for,” she said.
Foley listens to the class twice a week while she rides the train to work. Although she can’t view the lectures (she owns an IPod Shuffle, which can’t play videos), she says she still has an advantage most students don’t have: the ability to stop, press rewind and listen again when she gets confused.
“If you’re in a large class, the professor isn’t going to repeat everything he said just for you,” she points out.
York is not the first university to begin to see the benefits of virtual teaching. Carleton University in Ottawa was one of the first to begin allowing students to download class lectures so they could listen to them on their MP3 players. Bob Burk, a chemistry professor, began filming his lectures and posting them online. To date, more then 1,500 people, not including his 450 students, regularly view his course.
Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia have also been using similar programs in regard to digital audio recording, and Simon Fraser hosts digital recordings for over 400 courses per year.
However, not everyone is ready to jump on the virtual bandwagon. Carleton has struggled with the idea that students may feel the need to buy IPods to keep up, even though podcast content can be viewed on a home computer with free software.
At UBC, there is concern that the site is “closed” because the Music Store (where podcast files can be downloaded) is only accessible to users of ITunes.
Zorn says that IPods aren’t the only way to access her course. It’s also available for the Sony Playstation. Students can then watch it on their PCs or Macs, or they can listen to it via their MP3 player.
“IPods are still priced out of range but are coming down in price every day. It’s just a matter of time before most students have one,” said Zorn.
Some students feel that the whole process of learning is something that no digital environment can recreate.
“The learning environment, the whole point of it, is to respond,” said Michelle Habib, a third-year biology student. “It’s not just about being dictated to, that’s not the point of higher education. The point is to respond to whatever you’re learning.”
Habib says the new podcasting venture, as a supplement to teaching, is productive. However, if it is the only source of teaching for students, she foresees it becoming a problem.
When you come to university, “you’re basically paying someone to talk to you and interact with you. You need to discuss [topics] and collect knowledge,” she said.
Since this is only a pilot project, there is no word yet on whether York students can expect to see more vcast classes in the future. According to Zorn, however, the online future looks bright.
“I’m not trying to replicate the inclass experience. I’m trying to use the available technologies to go beyond the conventional classroom. This is not just an ordinary classroom, it’s so much more than that.”
