Talk the talk: Learner‐generated podcasts as catalysts for knowledge creation

TLDR

Podcasting automatically downloads audio from selected feeds and can be transferred to portable players, and its rapid growth alongside Web 2.0 media‑authoring tools has made it a mainstream platform for user‑generated content. This study aimed to shift podcasting from a lecture‑delivery tool to a student‑driven medium, enabling learners to produce and share podcasts with their peers. The authors implemented a podcasting exercise that fostered collaborative knowledge building, as shown by focus‑group interviews and analysis of the students’ shared dialogue and reflection. Results indicate that collaboratively creating audio learning objects empowers students to articulate disciplinary concepts, enhancing both individual and collective learning while facilitating perspective‑taking and meaning negotiation essential to knowledge creation.

Abstract

Abstract Podcasting allows audio content from one or more user‐selected feeds or channels to be automatically downloaded to one's computer as it becomes available, then later transferred to a portable player for consumption at a convenient time and place. It is enjoying phenomenal growth in mainstream society, alongside other Web 2.0 technologies that enable Internet users to author and distribute rich media content quickly and easily. Instead of using the technology for the mere recording and dissemination of lectures and other instructor‐centred information, the project reported on in this article focused on enabling students to create their own podcasts for distribution to their peers. The article describes how engaging in the podcasting exercise promoted collaborative knowledge building among the student‐producers, as evidenced through focus‐group interviewing and an analysis of the products of their shared dialogue and reflection. The findings suggest that the collaborative development of audio learning objects enabling student conceptualisations of disciplinary content to be shared with peers is a powerful way of stimulating both individual and collective learning, as well as supporting social processes of perspective‐taking and negotiation of meaning that underpin knowledge creation.