I’m enchanted with audio. With how other can use this blind and intimate medium to stimulate my imagination, how certain podcasts offer my stressed and sleepless mind a respite from anxieties, how producers can “effortlessly” load new thoughts and ideas into the ether. I’ve listened to radio for most of my life. Audio has played a large part in my formative years. Whether it be a smile coming out of a loudspeaker, a repeated and familiar inflection, or pictures that are created in my mind’s eye when sound is woven so effortlessly into a story to support a narrative.
I’ve been amazed at the ability of a DJ, expert, narrator, newsreader, podcaster to establish a rapport with me, the listener. And I’ve often wished that I could effortlessly communicate in an aural form, that I had both the voice for radio, the wit to interview and respond with effortless insight and the production skills to package the immediacy of moments and bring them to someone’s notice.
I also think that radio production and podcasting have techniques and approaches that can teach higher education about the design of asynchronous learning that is personal and present, but not necessarily live, in real time. Could an exploration of an audio mindset address this reflex desire for live and synchronous among students and staff?
OH YES YES YES I am evangelical about the value of audio for teaching and learning. I used to teach a fully online class in the pre-pandemic world where I always used podcasts for lecture-type content, and it was great! Students reported really enjoying it. But the pivot in March 2020 depended so heavily on video, and in many ways I think it was a missed opportunity (for all kinds of obvious reasons that I don’t really begrudge).
I leaned into podcasts a lot during the pivot to online teaching in March 2020. I often paired them with PPT or a visual handout, and with a synchronous meet up to discuss. I loved it. I’m still doing it in a lot of my classes even though we are “back to normal” now. It’s actually why I’m here now. So I agree about audio being a good medium for some aspects of post-secondary teaching.