QUESTIONING THE STUDENT PREPARATION, USE OF AND DESIRE FOR GEOSCIENCE PODCASTS

Mobile technology, such as MP3 players, has allowed students to become mobile learners and be engaged in audio geoscience content outside of the classroom. But the use of audio in geoscience instruction is not a new concept. In 1970, the Council on Education in the Geological Sciences authored an entire report on audio-tutorial instruction. Manuscripts dating back to 1972 document where students utilizing tape recordings of an earth science tutorial program received better grades and had a more positive attitude towards the subject.

In recent years the use of audio files, specifically podcasts, has become more visible and accessible to students in higher education. Despite a lack of pedagogical research on the benefits of podcasting, several universities have adopted the technology of using audio for instruction outside of class and sharing of information. Although institutions and instructors have embraced the technology, have the students?

The entering freshmen class has been surveyed for the past two summers at Penn State Delaware County. In 2006, 42% of the responding students reported owning an iPod. The 2007 results show that 44% of the students own an iPod. Students report downloading and listening to podcasts from their favorite radio stations to their church groups, demonstrating a familiarity with the utilization of portable audio technology.

We recorded audio from classroom lectures and review sessions in two different introductory-level geoscience courses in two different semesters. Student accesses of the audio files were tracked. The students were surveyed about their knowledge on how to utilize the audio files and if they believed the audio to be of some use to the learning of geoscience content. Although percentages were not high in terms of student accesses to individual lectures in Fall 2005, over 60% of the students in Spring 2007 reported going back and listening to recordings of class lectures each week and 91% reported listening to review sessions before quizzes.

Although not a measure of student learning, general education non-science students are listening to audio files and taking advantage of the audio resources to supplement their geoscience learning.