8AM. The biggest lecture hall on campus. Strong coffee and lots of it. The soft, monotonous voice of the profe or--or worse, the teaching a istant--droning on and on and... C'mon. Face it. No human being is going to a orb information at 8AM in the morning, e ecially in the midst of severe sleep and caffeine deficiency.
Enter the iPod. Today's Wisco in State Journal has an interesting article about how podcasts su lement and reinforce material presented in lectures. Last year, the University of Wisco in's IT department made a big push to encourage i tructors to get involved with their "Engage Podcasting" pilot program. They offered small grants and technical su ort to staff willing to put their cla materials into podcast form.
From all reports, it's been a big succe . More than half of University of Wisco in at Madison students own digital players like iPods. The rest can download and listen to lectures on their personal computers. Students can re-listen (or, I'm sure to be more honest, listen for the first time) to lectures while riding bu es, on airplanes or while jogging on treadmills.
The cutest quote of the piece? One profe or says his students like "being able to stop me and rewind me."
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