EFFECTIVE USES OF PODCASTING IN THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY

1. EFFECTIVE USES OF PODCASTING IN THE TEACHING OF PSYCHOLOGY Michael A. Britt, Ph.D. Michael.Britt@thepsychfiles.com www.thepsychfiles.com http://www.thepsychfiles.com/nectop.htm

2. Outline • The hardware and software involved in podcasting: • iPods • Blogs • audio and video editing software • Media resources on the internet • RSS • Suggestions on using this technology for the teaching of psychology • Recommended Blogs and Podcasts

3. Podcasting: The Technology • iPods - how different from the old technology (i.e., cassette recorders)? • Similar: portable, play and record • Different: larger storage capacity, better recording quality, video capable, audio can be easily edited (ever try editing tape-based recordings?) • Portable Media Devices: more powerful, more versatile • Key tools: • iTunes and RSS - automatic downloading of new content • Recordings can be easily transferred to computer for editing, combining, analysis, synthesis….evaluation?

4. Blogging: The Technology • Blogging: • Examples: www.wordpress.com and www.blogger.com • An easy way to quickly put information on the web (diary, thoughts, facts, audio, video, etc.) in an organized, easily accessible way • Enables others to read/listen/view your content and comment on it. • Powerful, useful media-enabled websites can be quickly created without any knowledge of HTML or programming • Automatic RSS creation • Video walkthough: http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/08/09/how-to-blog-and-podcast/

5. Podcasting & Blogging: The Technology • Blogging, Audio and Video Editing tools and skills are needed, but: • Kids are growing up using Media creation and manipulation tools (ex: iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Audacity, etc.) the same way we use Microsoft Word. • Facebook and Myspace contain blogs • These skills allow students to easily construct and deconstruct text, audio and video, thus enabling the creation of unique multimedia explorations and demonstrations of psychological concepts

6. Media resources on the Internet • Raw materials for multimedia projects: • An incredible amount of free quality educational content is available on the web: • iTunesU • www.TeacherTube.com • www.Merlot.org • www.Archive.org • www.ted.com • But is www.YouTube.com a better resource than any of the above? • Think of what students could create using the raw material available here (examples to follow)

7. RSS • “Really Simple Syndication” - the tool that allows the internet to come to you. • Example: the RSS file on www.apa.org: http://www.apa.org/rss/homepage.html • A small file that contains the contents of (and tracks any changes to) a web page. • You copy these file names to a “reader” (like www.google.com/reader) and your reader will tell you when and what is new on the website. You are “subscribed” to that website. You don’t have to visit so many websites anymore. • iTunes uses RSS files, but typically only downloads new audio files (can also download pdfs)

8. Using these Technologies to Teach Psychology • Class Website. Using www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com, you can quickly create a class website. An RSS file is automaically created for you. Give this filename to your class, and students can subscribe to the class website. Whenever you post something new (announcements, homework, new files, new audio from you, etc.), students are automatically notified. • Record lectures. This has advantages and disadvantages, but if you decidce to record your lectures, use a blog to quickly post the lectures. An archive of previous lectures is automatically created an searchable by date. You can create and assign category names to your lectures, making them searchable by topic as well. • Record Student Presentations. Record student presentations and put this audio on the blog. In addition to the advantages mentioned above regarding your lectures, students can be required to provide helpful comments/feedback/discussion on other students’ presentations. Aside from being helpful to the presenter, this provides another way for the instructor to measure meaningful class participation.

9. Using these Technologies to Teach Psychology(con’t) • Audio ”FAQ”. Record audio responses to the questions you get every year in class or in office hours. Use a blog and podcasting to allow computers to do what they do best: serve as patient tutors. Refer students to the blog before they come to office hours. • Record Guest Speakers. Guest speakers are hard enough to get. Record them and use the recordings for future classes. Create exercises/homework around the recorded lectures. • Record Term Paper Feedback. Students can use a private blog to write drafts of their paper. Instructors can record their feedback and/or post written comments/feedback on the drafts. Audio feedback is likely to be longer and capture tone of voice, other subtleties.

10. Using these Technologies to Teach Psychology (con’t) • Multimedia Projects. The web contains a wealth of raw material for students to use to create original media creations. • YouTube, Metacafe • www.everyzing.com - searches audio • Example from The Psych Files: “Learned Superstition” • inspired by “Forty Studies That Changed Psychology” • http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/04/18/episode-11-your-bowling-style/

11. Resources used for Episode 11

12. Using these Technologies to Teach Psychology (con’t) • Recording Interviews • The Psych Files Example Project: Interview with Roger Christenfeld of the Hudson River Psychiatric Center museum: http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/08/28/episode-27-from-insane-asylum-to-psychiatric-center-a-brief-history/ • Tools Needed: • XtremeMac MemoMic Microphone (~$30) • Griffin iTalk Pro - Microphone (~$25) • Belkin TuneTalk (~$55) • Optional: Skype for phone and long distance interviews (free)

13. Using these Technologies to Teach Psychology (con’t) • Peer Review: • Put students into groups • Have each student create a blog • Each student gives each other student in their group the name of the RSS file of their blog so group members can subscribe to each other’s blog • As a group member posts a draft of their paper (or section of their paper) to their blog, other students are required to use the comment feature to provide feedback to the student. • Instructor can also subscribe to the blogs to examine the extent and quality of each student’s participation in the review process. • Internship Journal: • Students on their psychology internship can be required to keep a blog containing what they learned/experienced/felt about the day or week • Journal entries become the raw materials for a final paper • Internship coordinator can subscribe to each student intern blog and see how students are doing throughout the semester.

14. Recommended Blogs and Podcasts • APA’s PsycPort: http://psycport.apa.org/ • RSS: http://www.apa.org/rss/homepage.html • The Psych Files:www.thepsychfiles.com • RSS: http://www.thepsychfiles.com/tpf_feed.xml • Texas Tech Psychology Department Podcast:http://www.depts.ttu.edu/psy/psy.php?page=podcast.html • This Week in the History of Psychology: http://www.yorku.ca/christo/podcasts/ • Scientific American’s 60 Second Psych:www.sciam.com/podcast/ • RSS: http://www.sciam.com/podcast/sciam_podcast_r.xml • Recommended Podcast Reader: www.apple.com/itunes • Recommended Blog reader: www.google.com/reader