I never cease to be amazed at how creative the university campus environment can be. Taking technologies and finding serendipidous uses.
A story on the AP wires speaks about the way a number of faculty at Georgia College & State University are using podcasting as a way to distribute course material. A history class has made better use of lecture time by having films downloaded to the small screen that otherwise would need to be seen in class.
A psychology professor has found an iPod supplement to office hours and tutorials: he podcasts the week’s most asked questions. Other ideas could turn iPods into portable yearbooks and replace campus brochures with podcasts.
At Duke University, incoming freshmen handed iPod devices as welcoming gifts; foreign language students use iPods to immerse themselves in coursework.
There are trends here worth considering, beyond the move to upgrade the quality of correspondence courses. As websites start generating podcasts, storage requirements will increase, there will be room for a content mediation business to emerge – kind of an eBay for podcasts.
Telecom and technology executives and product development folks need to go back to university – just to spend time watching what is happening on campus.