[LINK] Podcasts at centre of UWS student petition

[Michael Meloni]

Seeing as the topic of podcasts in learning often comes up here, I 
thought this would be of interest:

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Uni students say no to podcasts
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24323671-15306,00.html

Bernard Lane | September 10, 2008

A STUDENT petition at the University of Western Sydney is demanding cuts 
in fees to match cuts in face-to-face teaching time as the university 
extends the virtual classroom.
Podcasting is a technology that's supposed to download a good news 
story: Cyber uni plugs into gen Y!

But Tammy Lawlor, 21, a first-year arts student, is not impressed with 
the new podcast era at the University of Western Sydney.

"The isolated learning experience is not satisfying for me," Ms Lawlor 
said. Nor for many other UWS students, judging by the signatures on her 
petition.

Ms Lawlor said that students learned only in the first week of semester 
that six of the 13 lectures in one key unit, Texts and Traditions, would 
come as podcasts. In other units there is a rotating timetable of 
face-to-face lectures and podcasts.

Responding to Lawlor's campaign, one student emailed: "As a third-year 
student I've seen my time in class and lectures diminish. I'm just 
catching the beginning of podcast lectures and I'll be glad not to pay 
for it any longer, as I'll be graduating this year."

Arts dean Wayne McKenna said he believed Texts and Traditions was the 
only unit in which podcasts replaced face-to-face lecturers.

"(But) I suspect it could well be the shape of things to come," 
Professor McKenna said.

He said there had been a sector-wide embrace of technology to cater to 
student demand, and studies by the university's researchers showed 
today's students often had "quite burdensome work obligations".

He said it was a myth that podcasting saved universities money; lectures 
still had to be prepared and delivered, albeit to a machine, and the 
technology brought costs.

Ms Lawlor said she welcomed podcasts as a complement to, but not as a 
substitute for, traditional scholarly interaction.

"I think a podcast is an inadequate replacement," she said.

"A lecture is better for the atmosphere involved. I can go and ask the 
lecturers questions afterwards.

"The university is not properly equipped for distance education and 
that's what they're trying to do."

Professor McKenna had the impression that Ms Lawlor's complaint was an 
isolated one, but he was open to hearing more.

"It's obviously a debate that we need to have," he said.

-- 
Michael Meloni
http://www.somebodythinkofthechildren.com
http://www.netalarmed.com