Article 2 - Disagreement

I have to admit that I am sitting on the fence when it comes to this article. I do agree with it for the main reason that it is an easy way to educate the masses and can help educate those with special needs. Once a podcast is put online virtually anyone can listen to via just the click of a button. This makes it (similarly to online teaching as with China University in a previous blog) very easy, therefore, to educate the masses. All the educator needs to do is record the lesson or questions then post it online. The fact that many can listen to it over and over again is obviously positive thing. I know that I wold be very grateful of that now as sometimes it does take me a bit of time to understand things thoroughly and therefore the introduction of something which could reliterate the important points over again, until they are fully understood, would be a definate plus. Also I know friends of mine who are dyslexic and therefore find the normal way of learning (teacher standing in front of the desk and dictating) very difficult. One of my friends finds that just reading off paper that isnt white (cream for example), the words stand off the page and therefore are much easier to read. Another friend also finds difficulty writing and therefore is able to dictate to a computer, which then reads it back to her. This technology is making learning much easier for people who need that extra bit of help. Therefore I can see how podcasting can help with people who have special things and are not able to reatain information as efficiently. They can therefore listen to the podcasts whenever they need to.

Although these points are valid I have to admit that I do see a problem with this podcasting learning technique. Podcasts are pretty simple to construct these days. For example, i regularly listen to them on the Radio One website where, aswell as playing music, they chat about their views on different subjects. This is where I then have a problem with the learning podcasts. Yes the podcasts set by the teachers are going to be reliable but as with any internet site, many people may produce podcasts with completely unreliable data. Therefore if students listen to these they are then confused as to what information is correct. I have to admit that this would be very difficult to keep under control with anythin i.e there are so many internet websites which contradict each other so which one is right. Although, if the students are told which particular podcasts to listen to then this problem may be overiden. Therefore I probably do mostly agree with this article.