Seminar- Merits of Educational Podcasts

Podcasts are digital media files (most often audio, but they can be video as well), which are produced in a series. The user can subscribe a series of files, or podcast, by using a piece of software called a podcatcher. The podcast is a play on the word broadcast combined with the word iPod (one of the most popular portable MP3 players).

Podcasting attracts people who want the ability to choose their own content (much like using the Internet), instead of the TV and radio model of broadcast where you tune in and select from one of the programs playing. While interview shows may be one of the most popular formats out there currently, there are many different kinds of podcasts available:  

• ·         Interviews      
• ·         Conversational
• ·         Educational
• ·         Solo-casts
• ·         Non-fiction storytelling
• ·          Fiction storytelling (sometimes called podcast theatre)
• ·         Comedy Casts—Shock Jocks, Skits, Standup...etc
• ·         Couple Casts
• ·         Gaming
• ·         Godcasts: Religious and Spiritual Podcasts
• ·         Music
• ·         News
• ·         Politics
• ·         Radio Dramas
• ·         Q-Podders
• ·         Sci-Fi
• ·         Sex
• ·         Sports
• ·         Tech Podcasts
• ·         The Written Word
• ·         Others Genres

EDUCATIONAL PODCASTS

New technology always has a heavy impact on education, and Podcasting is no different. Many learning institutions are cutting back on textbooks and investing in technology enhanced learning. Podcasting, as one of the latest mediums to emerge into the mainstream, is one of the forefront technologies in this change.

Podcasting offers the opportunity for lecturers to easily broadcast engaging audio content, which students can then listen to at any time and wherever they are. A student only need to subscribe to a podcast feed and suddenly push educational content to them, rather than wait for them to come. Podcasts can easily be used in schools, universities or colleges to engage students, and improve the teaching and learning process.

Many learning institutions which have incorporated podcasting in their education system, have reported really positive results. This can be attributed to the ease of creating and consuming podcasts as well as the various ways in which education podcasts enhance the students’ learning experience. Some of the famous podcasts are Examining Ethics, TED Talks audio, College Info Geek, NPR’s Planet Money, The Naked Scientists, Stuff You Missed in History Class, Left, Right & Center, Hardcore History, TWiT (This Week in Tech), This American Life…etc

MERITS OF EDUCATIONAL PODCASTS

Podcasts are used for many educational purposes and there are several advocates of podcasting who believe that it can offer unique educational benefits to learners. The main advantage of podcasting is the simplicity that it offers to learners. Listeners are no longer constrained by time and space with regard to their learning. Podcasts give superior support to auditory learners who comprise 30% of all learners. Expensive equipment or sophisticated know-how is not needed to create a podcast. Podcasts are created by students for projects or by instructors for instructional purposes. Some of the merits of educational podcasts are:

 

1. Flexible availability – 24 hours a day

One of the greatest advantages of education podcasts is the portability and convenience they offer. Podcasts can be downloaded to a mobile device, allowing the student to access the learning resources anytime, anywhere, with very little effort. There are podcast subscription apps available for nearly every smart phone, and these make the process even easier. In fact, iPhones come with an excellent podcast app installed by default. Once the student has subscribed to a show (which you can make available really easily), they don’t have to initiate the download: it’s sent automatically to their app whenever a new episode is available. This makes podcasts very convenient and also paves the way for truly flexible learning.

2. Students listen for longer than they’ll watch or read

One of the great powers of podcasting is the attention it attracts. It’s tricky to encourage students to spend 30 minutes reading an article or watching a recorded lecture. That’s because text and video require the student’s full attention – they need to sit patiently, doing just one thing. Podcasting, on the other hand, can be done in otherwise wasted time, or alongside a routine activity. While text and video struggle to attract 2 or 3 minutes of viewing, podcasts routinely run an hour or more. One of the most popular shows in the world is a history podcast that can run for 3 hours!

3. Student created content

One of the most interesting and valuable uses of Podcasting in Education is the concept of student created content. Students can create their own podcasts, perhaps including questions, discussions, presentations or projects. These can then be made available to their classmates. This allows students to take control of an aspect of their education and, therefore, encourages engagement in the material. They can question, they can contribute and they can teach each other.

4. Lecture review

One of the simplest uses of Podcasting is to record lectures. This makes them easily accessible for students and creates invaluable study aids. Students can use the podcast for reference purposes or when preparing themselves for upcoming examinations. Any student who had challenges in understanding a topic in the classroom can listen to this podcast. They can study the content and understand the topic at their own pace. This capacity to review, again and again, is particularly valuable to students from an international background or with learning difficulties.

5. Make up for missed classes

When a student misses a class, by offering a podcast, he/she can download recordings of the lectures. Moreover, a lecturer who is unable to attend his or her classes for a week or two can create a podcast of the lecture instead. This can be made available to the students and thus makes up for any unattended lectures.

6. Consistency of student experience

Lecture recordings can help a teacher or professor to ensure that they always cover any given topic in the best way possible. This comes in handy when the lecturer in question teaches multiple sessions of the same class. It helps the teacher to ensure that every student gets the same experience, the same information, and that the syllabus is covered uniformly.

7. Benefits for mental and visual impairments

Perhaps one of the greatest pedagogic characteristics offered by educational podcasting is the chance to learn through listening. To many of the current student generation, learning through listening is enjoyable and less tedious than reading. Educational podcasts are appealing and may encourage students who don’t like reading. Many students may struggle with reading through mental impairments, such as Dyslexia, and podcasts can be a big aid in this. Podcasts are equally useful in cases where a visual impairment makes traditional learning methods arduous.

 PODCASTS FOR STUDENTS

There are many uses of podcasting in the classroom. They can be used to convey instructional information from the teacher or trainer, motivational stories, and auditory case studies. Podcasts can also be used by the learners as artifacts and evidence of learning; for example, a student might prepare a brief podcast as a summary of a concept in lieu of writing an essay. Podcasts can also be used as a means of self-reflection on the learning processes or products. Podcasts can help keep students on the same page, including those that are absent. Absent students can use podcasts to see class lectures, daily activities, homework assignments, handouts, and more.  Students can create their own podcast to share their learning experiences with each other and also with other students from other schools.

Many students choose to use podcasts as a supplement to lecture materials. Before classes, students use podcasts to gain an overall understanding of the upcoming lecture, which makes them feel more confident and much more prepared for the class. The use of podcasts better prepares students for classes and promotes discussions. Students use podcasts as part of their review for exams because it provides different methods of reinforcement of course material. This includes (1) visual reinforcement of material, (2) testing of their knowledge base, and (3) adding variety to the review experience. In addition, students who missed the lecture because of sickness or other reasons can use podcasts to catch up their notes. Students learn better when they have a teacher present the materials, rather than going over other people's notes. Finally, students with disabilities and students who do not speak English as their first language use podcasts because they can listen to the material repeatedly. These students all find podcasts more useful than the traditional handouts because in a conventional classroom setting, it is impossible for students to pause and resume the class.

There are five key benefits regarding the use of video podcasts for students.

1. Students can control the pace of their own studies

2. Increase in motivation

3. Improvement in study habits

4. Positive impact on testing skills

5. Does not reduce class attendance

PODCASTS FOR TEACHERS

Podcasting can be a tool for teachers or administrators to communicate with parents and the wider community about curriculum plans and content, student assignments and other information. Podcasting is a significant resource which teachers can use to teach and learn a language. It is an alternative method of learning which can help to improve your listening skills. Most of producers of podcasts are educators who use this technology to communicate with their students outside the traditional class. Podcasting is also a tool which allows teachers to share their ideas and suggestions in order to improve their method of teaching.

CONCLUSION

The role of podcasts in future learning is to augment learning. They can have numerous benefits for both teachers and students, not the least of which is developing improving listening and comprehension skills. It can be an effective tool, but it has its limitations in terms of comprehensive learning. Yet when used properly, podcasts can make be a powerful and positive addition to the classrooms and courses!

 

Assignment- Web Services 3

BLOG

A blog (a truncation of the expression "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries ("posts"). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent post appears first, at the top of the web page. Until 2009, blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often covered a single subject or topic. In the 2010s, "multi-author blogs" (MABs) have developed, with posts written by large numbers of authors and sometimes professionally edited. MABs from newspapers, other media outlets, universities, think tanks, advocacy groups, and similar institutions account for an increasing quantity of blog traffic. The rise of Twitter and other "microblogging" systems helps integrate MABs and single-author blogs into the news media. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

The emergence and growth of blogs in the late 1990s coincided with the advent of web publishing tools that facilitated the posting of content by non-technical users who did not have much experience with HTML or computer programming. Previously, a knowledge of such technologies as HTML and File Transfer Protocol had been required to publish content on the Web, and as such, early Web users tended to be hackers and computer enthusiasts. In the 2010s, the majority are interactive Web 2.0 websites, allowing visitors to leave online comments, and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites. In that sense, blogging can be seen as a form of social networking service. Indeed, bloggers do not only produce content to post on their blogs, but also often build social relations with their readers and other bloggers.However, there are high-readership blogs which do not allow comments.

Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject or topic, ranging from politics to sports. Others function as more personal online diaries, and others function more as online brand advertising of a particular individual or company. A typical blog combines text, digital images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave publicly viewable comments, and interact with other commenters, is an important contribution to the popularity of many blogs. However, blog owners or authors often moderate and filter online comments to remove hate speech or other offensive content. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blogs), photographs (photoblogs), videos (video blogs or "vlogs"), music (MP3 blogs), and audio (podcasts). In education, blogs can be used as instructional resources. These blogs are referred to as edublogs. Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.

ADVANTAGES

1-SEO – Having good content online is a must in order to be found online. Create good quality content that people are interested in sharing and Google is bound to take notice.

2-Increases new business – A constant stream of visits to your blog will also increase the potential to attract interest from prospects.

3-Great for feedback – It allows and encourages constant engagement with readers. Whether they agree or disagree, you will know it immediately by their comments.

4-Gain influence – If your material is good, you will attract repeat visitors and will gain their trust and respect.

5-Learn more about your followers – One of the things businesses spend a lot of money on is in learning what their consumers want from them or what they like/dislike about their products. Blogging is an easy and effective way to obtain this information.

6-Establish yourself as an expert in your field – This won’t happen overnight but over time, as you post more blogs and share your genuine knowledge with the community, your readers will begin to see you as an expert.

7-Help others – A good blog can educate, inspire and help readers in ways the blogger may never know.

DISADVANTAGES

1-Poor content – Poorly written content can reflect badly on your brand. Put some thought into what you blog about and ensure your work has been edited and reviewed.

2-Inconsistent posts – If you decide to blog, make sure you do it consistently. Imagine how it would look to people visiting your site and your blog is over a year old. An old blog is worse than no blog!!

3-It takes time – Yes, you need to give some thought and plan out what you are going to blog about. The good news though is that the more you do it, the easier it will become. 

4-Risk having no one see your content – Although good quality content is key, you need to drive traffic to your site so people know there is a blog to read. If you’re active on social media you may share it there but again, you’re limited by how many followers you have. There is a new concept in online marketing that involves working with other businesses so that everyone leverages all of their social media connections in order to reach a broader audience.

Assignment- Web Services 2

CHAT

Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet that offers a real-time transmission of text messages from sender to receiver. Chat messages are generally short in order to enable other participants to respond quickly. Thereby, a feeling similar to a spoken conversation is created, which distinguishes chatting from other text-based online communication forms such as Internet forums and email. Online chat may address point-to-point communications as well as multicastcommunications from one sender to many receivers and voice and video chat, or may be a feature of a web conferencing service.

Online chat in a less stringent definition may be primarily any direct text-based or video-based (webcams), one-on-one chat or one-to-many group chat (formally also known as synchronous conferencing), using tools such as instant messengers, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), talkers and possibly MUDs. The expression online chatcomes from the word chat which means "informal conversation". Online chat includes web-based applications that allow communication – often directly addressed, but anonymous between users in a multi-user environment. Web conferencing is a more specific online service, that is often sold as a service, hosted on a web server controlled by the vendor.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Flexibility: accessible 24×7, any place as long as you have an internet connection	Text-based: Predominantly relies on inputting text which can be challenging for those who don’t like to write or have poor keyboard skills, but with the advance of broadband connectivity and voice and video conference technology – this will be less of an issue.
Levelling: reserved people who usually don’t speak up can say as much as they like while “loud” people are just another voice and can’t interrupt	No physical cues: without facial expressions and gestures or the ability to retract immediately there’s a big risk of misunderstanding
Documented: unlike verbal conversation, online discussion is lasting and can be revisited	Information overload: a large volume of messages can be overwhelming and hard to follow, even stress-inducing
Encourages reflection: participants don’t have to contribute until they’ve thought about the issue and feel ready	Threads: logical sequence of discussion is often broken by users not sticking to the topic (thread)
Relevance: provides a place for real life examples and experience to be exchanged	Time lag: even if you log on daily, 24 hours can seem like a long time if you’re waiting for a reply; and then the discussion could have moved on and left you behind
Choice: a quick question or comment, or a long reflective account are equally possible	Inefficient: it takes longer than verbal conversation and so it’s hard to reply to all the points in a message, easily leaving questions unanswered
Community: over time can develop into a supportive, stimulating community which participants come to regard as the high point of their course	Isolation: some learners prefer to learn on their own and don’t participate in the discussions
Limitless: you can never predict where the discussion will go; the unexpected often results in increased incidental learning	Directionless: participants used to having a teacher or instructor telling them what to do can find it a leaderless environment (and that’s where tutors come in

Assignment-Web Services 1

e-mail

Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Invented by Ray Tomlinson, email first entered limited use in the 1960s and by the mid-1970s had taken the form now recognized as email. Email operates across computer networks, which today is primarily the Internet. Some early email systems required the author and the recipient to both be online at the same time, in common with instant messaging. Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need to connect only briefly, typically to a mail server or a webmail interface, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages.

Originally an ASCII text-only communications medium, Internet email was extended by Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) to carry text in other character sets and multimedia content attachments. International email, with internationalized email addresses using UTF-8, has been standardized, but as of 2017 it has not been widely adopted.

The history of modern Internet email services reaches back to the early ARPANET, with standards for encoding email messages published as early as 1973. An email message sent in the early 1970s looks very similar to a basic email sent today. Email had an important role in creating the Internet,and the conversion from ARPANET to the Internet in the early 1980s produced the core of the current services.

Advantages of emails

• Emails are easy to use. You can organize your daily correspondence, send and receive electronic messages and save them on computers.
• Emails are fast. They are delivered at once around the world. No other form of written communication is as fast as an email.
• The language used in emails is simple and informal.
• When you reply to an email you can attach the original message so that when you answer the recipient knows what you are talking about. This is important if you get hundreds of emails a day.
• It is possible to send automated emails with a certain text. In such a way it is possible to tell the sender that you are on vacation. These emails are called auto responders.
• Emails do not use paper. They are environment friendly and save a lot of trees from being cut down.
• Emails can also have pictures in them. You can send birthday cards or newsletters as emails.
• Products can be advertised with emails. Companies can reach a lot of people and inform them in a short time.

Disadvantages of emails

• Emails may carry viruses. These are small programs that harm your computer system. They can read out your email address book and send themselves to a number of people around the world.
• Many people send unwanted emails to others. These are called spam mails. It takes a lot of time to filter out the unwanted emails from those that are really important.
• Emails cannot really be used for official business documents. They may be lost and you cannot sign them.
• Your mailbox may get flooded with emails after a certain time so you have to empty it from time to time.

Assignment

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as both the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613.His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. Then, until about 1608, he wrote mainly tragedies, among them Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy in his lifetime. However, in 1623, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, John Heminges and Henry Condell, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as his. The volume was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which the poet presciently hails the playwright in a now-famous quote as "not of an age, but for all time".

Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, Shakespeare's works have been continually adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts the world over.