Week 10 Case Study

    To prepare students for podcasting, I think that teachers have to place limits and rules on what is and is not alright.  There should be some sort of rule as to whether students can replace an in class lecture with a podcast, and if they can, how often it is acceptable.  At the same time, teachers should warn students that there is a possibility of inappropriate information being recorded and shared with students, even if it is not wanted.  They should also be checking to see what student's computer access is like.  There are definitely detriments to this type of technology.  It keeps teachers and students from having a good system of communication and interaction because there is not need to talk if everything that needs to be heard can be repeated on a podcast.  But the benefits are important too.  Students have the ability to go back and study information several times over so that they do not miss an important piece of information, it is a great tool for studying.
    I don't know what a student's obligation to the class would be if teachers use podcasts.  I feel like there is a very blurry line with a podcast because students might try to avoid doing what they need.  But at the same time, I think that students should be obligated to listen to a podcast like they would a face-to-face lecture, where they would take notes and have questions.  I think podcasts should supplement lectures because then the obligations that students have would be met by some form of personal communication.
    I think that there should be some options for class attendance, but only in certain college classes.  If there are classes that require interaction, then class attendance should be mandatory on those days, but maybe students could miss up to a certain number of classes a semester by listening to podcasts.  That would still give the students the same amount of time and information learning something, but they would have a little bit of freedom in when they miss a class.  But I only see this being viable for certain classes in college, not in any other academic setting.

I didn't find anything in this case study confusing or misleading, but I would really like to learn more about how this kind of technology could be regulated in the future.  I feel like there are so many things that could go wrong with a podcast, even for college students, and I want to know if there is any way to regulate something like this because I know that most of the other technologies that we can use in a classroom are regulated.  I would also like to learn what high school teachers feel about podcasts and if they find them suitable for their students to use.