Podcasts- hero or villain?

Hendron, J. (2008). RSS for educators: Blogs, newsfeeds, podcasts and
       wikis in the classroom. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

Last year, podcasting was introduced in my school, and was promoted as the technology of the future. At our faculty meetings we were entertained with glorified accounts of the many uses of a podcast, and we were told frequently that podcasting would make our lives easier. Specifically, we were told that podcasts would shorten faculty meetings, cause less training sessions to take place, and replace almost all face-to-face interactions. Leaving that meeting, many of the teachers were thrilled, and few people had concerns about the new technology. However, now after a year of using podcasts, concerns have been raised, as with most technologies. Even though the podcast has incredible potential, one has to wonder if it really is the solution to so many problems, especially issues related to time management.

Podcasts are video recordings that can be accessed online. They can be used in schools for faculty meetings, principal updates, or sharing of information among teachers (Hendron, 2008). Podcasts use a technology referred to as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) that allows people to easily record and access the video clips. Using podcasts reminds me of watching a YouTube video, although the ones we view at school are usually longer (20-30 minutes) and are designed to be educational for the teachers. Podcasts are an easy way to tape training sessions or sample lessons that you want the faculty to view, and allows teachers to access the clips on their own time. I remember at our meeting the big promotion was that "instead of attending a faculty meeting, you can watch a podcast while eating ice cream before bed, in the comfort of your own home." Podcasts are a great way to encourage communication and to share visual clips among staff, but I question their "time-saving" capacity.

Having used podcasts for a year, I have noticed that instead of saving time, they have added more time and work to the teacher's plates. When they were first introduced, we were told that faculty meetings would be cancelled so that we could watch the podcasts, yet out of two years only one meeting has been cancelled and approximately 10 podcasts required. This issue is not directly related to the podcast itself, but rather it's implementation. Yet, in order for a podcast to truly be a useful technology, it should somehow enrich or lessen the work load, rather than being used as an excuse to assign more work. Podcasts can also be a hassle when issues with the technology arise. For example, at the beginning of the year we were required to view four podcasts and complete a post-test for each. However, the system locked certain teachers out, and they got in trouble for not completing the requirements. The result was teacher frustration, miscommunication, and many phone calls to the technnology office. Another issue is that the files tend to be very large, and many teachers were not able to "view them from the comfort of their own home" because they couldn't get the podcasts loaded onto their computers (Hendron, 2008). Finally, podcasts were difficult to use in situations where teachers had to refer back to them, because the teachers had to search through the files to locate the exact material; whereas, print is easier to scan through (Hendron, 2008). Podcasts are an excellent form of technology, but as with any technology, there are glitches and concerns that need to be taken into account.