Psychologists have discovered that students who download a podcast lecture score substantially higher grades than those who attend class and receive printouts of the lecture. Degree’s in iPod-ology all round then!

New Scientist reports that a study carried out on a group of students proved that while students who downloaded the podcast and received course notes scored higher than those who attended the class and recieve the same notes, those students who only downloaded the lecture podcast and wrote their own notes scored yet higher again!

So will podcasts replace lecturers? No of course not. The lecturers will still exist to write the courses and a pod cast can’t answer questions if you get stumped. Still, this does point the finger to a broader spectrum of use with this no doubt causing waves amongst the Open University programme. It could also be of interest to colleges in the future who can reduce fees but increase class numbers, based on distance learning and the notion that the education is something that the students must actively seek. This doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be students that will take advantage of the system, but the system itself will change to encourage (and in some cases force) students to attend classes. Of course, neither cana podcast examine my practical work nor grade my continuous assesments. We’ll always need lecturers for that.

I wonder are iPods allowed in exams…?!

EDIT: Having visited the iTunes University website, I’ve discovered the following:

• most of the content is free and already available
• many Universities, including Open University already have podcasts on it
• a very broad range of subjects and topics are available for you to browse or search depending on your requirements
• did I mention it’s free?

The implications of this are already boundless. Going to France for a week in the summer? Why not brush up on your french on your way to work in the morning. When you’ve done that, why not study french wines so you know what you are getting? And when you’re done with that, why not find out about the geography of the different areas of France to find out where the best wines originate. It’s a whole education curve, that you can tailor to yourself.