UNL prof puts the 'p' in podcasting
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By MATTHEW HANSEN / Lincoln Journal Star
It’s called podcasting, class, and it may mean you never, ever have to take notes again. Psychology Professor Calvin Garbin is one of the first instructors at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to take the college student’s latest favorite gadget, the iPod, and harness its power as an educational tool.
After he wrapped up his Wednesday Intro to Psychology lecture — a lecture in which he spoke for 50 minutes about such things as “causal research hypothesis” — Garbin returned to his office on the second floor of Burnett Hall and began the process of making the 20th-century lecture available with 21st-century technology.
He had recorded the class using a wireless microphone hooked to his shirt. That sound morphed into an audio file on Garbin’s computer after being captured by a receiver in his office.
Now all the long-time psychology professor needed to do was cut the audio into short chunks and place it on his Web site.
A student confused about the definition of causal research hypothesis could then choose the proper audio sound byte, load it onto his or her Ipod and hear Garbin’s explanation all over again on the commute home.
“For 30 years I’ve said if I could just touch my forehead to theirs and pass on the information ...” Garbin said. “This technology, to me, is an approximation of that.”
Garbin’s freshman-level psych class is a testament to technology, with podcasting being the latest addition.
The professor uses Powerpoint for all lectures. Students follow along in class after printing off these same lectures, which the professor has made available on the Internet.
All 85 (yes, class, 85) of the course’s homework assignments are taken online. They allow the student to get feedback after he or she answers each question. They force the student to answer so many questions correctly before moving to the next assignment.
And Garbin already was loading audio from his lectures onto the Internet. But this semester, students don’t have to sit at a computer to listen. They can now take the audio wherever an iPod can go, which is pretty much anywhere.
And, to think: Just eight years ago, Garbin was using an overhead projector, not the Internet, a technological leap forward that has mirrored similar advances by students, he says.
“Eight years ago we were still teaching kids how to use Microsoft Word.
“Now, in upper-level courses, we’re teaching kids to design interactive Web pages.
“And these are psychology majors, not computer science kids.”
Making the technology leap hasn’t always been easy, Garbin said.
He and David DeWester, the computer specialist from the College of Arts and Sciences, have spent countless hours designing the homework assignments and ironing out the kinks in software.
Every new piece of technology seems to cost more, have more parts and requires more time to learn, Garbin said.
But, he said, the university, particularly David Hansen, chairman of the Psychology Department has been supportive of all attempts to integrate Web-based teaching and podcasting into the classroom.
That doesn’t mean you’ll see podcasting used in every UNL class any time soon, although Garbin has heard a chemistry lecturer, Bill McLaughlin, and some others are starting to podcast as well.
“It’s a wonderful idea, but it’s not practical for everybody,” he says.
The payoff of podcasting is that it allows students who are auditory learners to hear the lecture material again and again in the days before a test.
They also can study while doing things like driving a car or jogging.
Garbin hasn’t noticed lower class attendance in the years he has posted lectures on the Internet, or in the weeks since he started podcasting.
And, he said, the technology actually allows him to teach about 30 percent more material a semester.
“I’m not worried about attendance. I think I put on a pretty good show.
“Much as it pains me to say it, I’m probably not neccessary to learn all this stuff.”
Garbin is months away from making good ol’ fashioned note taking even more obsolete.
He hopes to have video of his lectures on the Internet by the end of this semester.
“I want that bad.”
Reach Matthew Hansen at 473-7245 or mhansen@journalstar.com.
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