Podcasts, Vodcasts, and ProfCast

Dr. Paul Cesarini, Assistant Professor
Bowling Green State University

Introduction / What is ProfCast? / How Does ProfCast Work? / Conclusion / References

Introduction

When Steve Jobs announced the iPod photo, my first thoughts were not of the then-new capabilities of this device associated with synching and displaying family pictures and related fare. Rather, this geeky assistant professor immediately thought what a potentially dynamic classroom tool this device would make for faculty. If the iPod can now synch with iPhoto, display the images on-screen, and then mirror those images on a television or projector (by way of an add-on composite video cable), surely there's no reason the same couldn't be done for PowerPoint or Keynote presentations, saved as gifs and then imported into iPhoto? I imagined the convenience of presenting at a conference, not with eight pounds worth of laptop, cables, power bricks, and related baggage lugged cross country, but instead with one device smaller than a deck of cards and one cable, tucked in my left breast pocket. This capability eventually trickled down to the standard model iPod, followed by a drop in price and the discontinuation of the iPod photo, along with numerous other features.

Converting such presentations or related course content would be relatively simple, I thought, and could even be automated with the development of some quick Apple scripts or Apple's new Automator tool that ships with Mac OS X 10.4. To make this task even less complex, inexpensive, efficient tools such as ZappTek's iPresent It were developed, supporting drag-and-drop conversion of presentations.

Certainly, using an iPod as an all-in-one presentation tool, complete with the iPod itself serving as a wired remote, opens new possibilities for teaching and learning and allows for increased media flexibility in the classroom. Yet, there did not seem to be a way of capitalizing on this functionality for distance learning. That is, not until January 9, 2006. On this day, Ann Arbor-based Humble Daisy, Inc. released ProfCast 1.0. Shortly after, my workflow became significantly more efficient and my content delivery options became significantly more dynamic.

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What is ProfCast?

Simply put, ProfCast is a fairly small application designed to record audio narration onto existing presentations, then generate and deploy this content as enhanced podcasts (or "coursecasts") for students to access. All this functionality existed before, but typically involved the use of several different applications to get the same end result. In this sense, ProfCast is both unique, and welcome.

David Chmura, ProfCast project lead and cofounder of Humble Daisy, Inc., had been looking for a such a product for some time. "The idea for ProfCast really crystalized for me about two and a half years ago," Chmura stated, "before the term podcasting was coined. I have been involved with education for a long time, and find myself constantly looking for new ways to facilitate learning. When I was a masters student, one of the areas I did some work with (both studying, and supporting as a technician) was distance collaboration tools. These distance tools represented a wonderful use of the available technology, and provided a way to communicate over great distances. When they were applied to education however, they had several problems" (D. Chmura, personal communication, Jan. 12, 2006).

Chmura cited some primary concerns over many tools designed for distance learning collaboration. One dealt with distance in a literal sense: how do you get faculty and students together for synchronous activity when there are frequently different time zones to consider? More importantly, should synchronous activity be mandated, given typically self-paced nature of distance education and the preponderance of nontraditional students such programs tend to attract? This is not to suggest that synchronous activity is irrelevant in distance education, but Chmura felt that a tool focusing on dynamic, asynchronous communication might prove useful.

Chmura also focused on developing a product that relied on open standards, and would create platform-neutral content, in order to maintain relatively low minimum system requirements with little learning curve to access this content. "Issues of bandwidth, compatibility and user knowledge are all significant in this arena", Chmura said. "Often times the participants would require the equivalent of a class to be able to configure their system to participate in the online class" (D. Chmura, personal communication, Feb. 23, 2006).

These accessibility issues led him to focus exclusively on a product that could easily generate PowerPoint or Keynote-based enhanced podcasts, which would be based off the same, standardized Really Simple Syndication (RSS) & extensible markup language (XML) tags audio podcasts have used. Such content would require no specific, proprietary media player to access, though they could of course still be accessed in one if needed. Additionally, such content was not tied to specific types of hardware or digital audio players. Students could access enhanced podcasts on their laptops, their iPods, or any other brand of digital audio player capable of displaying such content. Even if students did not own a computer, they could access content made available in this format from any campus computer lab properly configured to do so, assuming they also brought some headphones.

Another concern Chmura had dealt with creation issues. That is, even if the end result would be content accessible by any student with a broadband connection and podcast aggregator, if initially developing such content proved to be too high a technological leap for many faculty, they would not use it. Chmura cited the "ego-dimishing effect" instructional technologies have on many faculty, junior or senior, and how frustrating it had been for him as a student to "watch smart people struggle with technology (that should be easier) and then start teaching after a difficult experience with it." Given this, such a product would need to integrate as seamlessly as possible with the existing teaching processes used by faculty, and would also have to be intuitive and reliable.

Given these constraints, Chmura wanted to develop a tool that had a low learning curve for faculty and a potentially high impact on student learning--essentially one that would get out of the way when a faculty member is actually teaching, yet still ultimately add value to the course. He also wanted to make certain content produced with this product would feature reasonably high quality audio and video, full slide representation (assuming the original point size of the slides was large enough), animations and transitions, and possibly even "talking head" footage of the respective faculty member. [Note: Some of these features, namely the ability to slide builds and capture video, did not make the final cut of ProfCast 1.0. However, Chmura intends to release these and other features in future versions.]

Initially, Chmura did not intend to built an application since his company primarily deals in web development. However, that soon changed. Chmura "kept hoping that someone would build a tool that would meet the specifications that I had laid out. Finally, in October, I realized that no one else was going to do it. So, I approached a developer that I knew who was familiar with Macintosh programming and we decided to try it." Both Chmura and the developer have backgrounds in human computer interaction, usability, and design. These skills, as well as some creative Cocoa programming, led to the simple drag-and-drop interface ProfCast sports, including the a built-in FTP client, support for different versions of PowerPoint and Keynote, and robust archival tools (D. Chmura, personal communication, Feb. 23, 2006).

Chmura says he plans to add additional functionality including SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) in subsequent releases of ProfCast. He also plans on ProfCast eventually having “hooks” directly into Garageband, iWeb, and the rest of Apple’s iLife 06 suite. Citing time and expense concerns, he noted that a Windows version of ProfCast is being considered, but is not currently under development.

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How Does ProfCast Work?

Over a week-long period of testing using a 1.67ghz PowerBook G4, Mac OS X 10.4.4, and PowerPoint 2004, there are really three words that sum up how ProfCast works: very well, indeed. I have primarily used ProfCast to record presentations in my office, essentially presenting to myself, rather than doing so live in class. This is largely personal preference on my part, though I admit part of my reason for doing so involves my lack of a wireless microphone. The one face-to-face class I teach is of the large, lecture hall sort, consisting of about 120 students. If I can't have complete freedom of movement to walk around the room while talking and asking questions, I tend to feel stifled, trapped behind the lectern.

Presenting to myself, with the goal of creating dynamic podcasts for a new, web-based course I am currently teaching, has proved almost pain-free thanks to ProfCast. BGSU is developing an institutional infrastructure to support faculty podcasting. For the moment, faculty can create all the podcasts they want but have nowhere to upload them, or at least nowhere official. As a result, until the university starts issuing faculty server space for such course content, I have had to scrounge for space where I can find it. This has proven difficult. Yet, my difficulties in this regard have really nothing to do with ProfCast itself or how it performs. Rather, they are indicative of larger issues within my university as it grapples to address the potentially huge benefits associated with the delivery technology used in ProfCast.

Actually using ProfCast is quite simple, courtesy of the extraordinarily minimalist interface:
  1. Launch ProfCast and drag & drop a presentation into the main window. 
  2. Click the record button. 
  3. Proceed with the presentation as you normally would. 
After you are finished, ProfCast walks you through the necessary steps needed to develop it as a true video-enabled podcast. Assuming you have server space somewhere, you then upload it, give your students the url, and then hope they subscribe to it (or perhaps require they do so). There are also options for directly publishing to a .Mac account or a locally mounted file server or hard drive.

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Conclusion

While ProfCast has few issues, there are some potential downsides to podcasting itself in higher education. Since all podcasts, regardless of whether or not they are strictly audio-based, enhanced, or video-based, are essentially one-way streams of content, there is very little interactivity involved beyond merely having the option of playing, pausing, forwarding, or rewinding. Podcasts are essentially lectures: a person or persons talking at another person or persons. On one hand it could be argued that podcasts are an innovative way to make lectures more accessible, perhaps even more personal, given the "push" technology associated with the subscription model that defines all podcasts. Students would have the flexibility of listening to as much or as little content as they want, based on their needs, schedules, preferences, etc. They could access downloaded podcasts on whatever portable device they have that is capable of storing and retrieving this information, and can do so in a moving vehicle, in an elevator, and in other areas inaccessible by other forms of communication (radios and cell phones, for example).

Yet, despite the accessibility advantages, and despite the different forms of media that can be embedded into enhanced podcasts or video podcasts, the end result is still just a lecture, a time-honored but frequently disparaged method of teaching. As educators, why should we express any interest in leaning our pedagogical skills more toward lecturing when many of us have been trying to avoid lecturing? Is this ultimately just a step backwards, toward the realm of "skill & drill" computer-assisted instruction (Cesarini, 2004, p.5) we have long attempted to shake?

Of course, there are also issues associated with faculty training, adequate institutional IT support, standardized criteria for production value and branding (possibly reached by consensus at the department or program level), intellectual property and ownership, and a host of similar roadblocks related to rolling-out a supported podcasting infrastructure on any campus.

Additionally, a strong argument could be made that this sort of media and related "microlearning" (blogging, 'Skyping' or similar VOIP, podcasting, etc.) cannibalizes attendance in face-to-face classes, perhaps allowing students a bit more freedom than necessary to learn at their own pace, which all-too-often is the night before an exam (Oliver, 2005). We could basically be further enabling their already pervasive tendency to stay within a media-saturated comfort zone when we should perhaps instead be trying to help them occasionally break free from it (Reed, 2005). An equal concern might be what parents would think of their sons and daughters using university sanctioned technologies to essentially avoid face-to-face classroom participation. Parents might wonder what they are actually paying for, where those tuition dollars are going, and what the overall quality of learning would be in lieu of more traditional classrooms environments (Silverstein, 2006).

While all these concerns might have some legitimacy, I believe there are ways to balance the need to develop dynamic content delivery mechanisms with the equally important need to engage our students in person. Audio, enhanced, or video podcasts for a given course could be set up as a means to deliver supplementary material, for example. Or, such podcasts could be made available only within a predetermined timeframe associated with a class (say, no sooner than 48 hours prior to an exam). For classes that rely more on papers or projects, podcasts really should not impact attendance since there is little need for a "cram and jam" session of memorizing as much as possible in anticipation of a test. 

For entirely web-based classes, podcasted content can only be a positive. It allows another means for faculty to connect with their students, beyond the usual troika of chat rooms, discussion boards, and email. It allows faculty to push content directly at their students. Each time these student synch their iPods or launch their favorite media player on their laptops, fresh course content potentially awaits them.

Of course, the positives and negatives associated with podcasting really have little to do with ProfCast itself. This tool, and it is a tool no different than any other instructional technology, offers the world of podcasting to both technologically-savvy and technologically-challenged faculty, and all those in between.  

References

Cesarini, Paul. "Computers, Technology, and Literacies". Journal of Literacy & Technology (4,1: 2004/2005). Retrieved February 28, 2006 from http://www.literacyandtechnology.org/PDF/Cesarini.pdf

Oliver, Beverely. "Mobile Blogging, 'Skyping', and Podcasting: Targeting undergraduates' communication skills in transnational contexts". Center for Educational Advancement. Retrieved February 25, 2006 from http://www.microlearning.org/micropapers/MLproc_2005_oliver.pdf

Reed, Brock. "Lecture on the Go". Chronicle of Higher Education. October 28, 2005. Retrieved March 3, 2006 from http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i10/10a03901.htm

Silverstein, Stuart. "The iPod Took My Seat". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 3, 2006 from http://www.latimes.com/business/careers/work/la-me-noshow17jan17,1,1838810.story?coll=la-headlines-business-careers

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