Teaching Smart with Podcasts

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of digital technology, e.g. podcasts, to stimulate the learning environment in engineering education by advancing student learning from a focus on fixed disciplinary content and habitual examples towards higher procedural and conceptual knowledge forms. The paper examines how a pedagogically aligned use of podcasts can support deeper and more integrative learning in engineering education. The findings stress the mediating role of planned pedagogic alignment between content knowledge and use of technology and expose the pivotal role of student-teacher interaction in re-centring the curriculum on problem-oriented, functional knowledge construction rather than reproductive learning of declarative knowledge. It shows how minor alterations in teaching design caused by the integration of digital tools, in this case the use of podcasts, can enhance student learning. However, in order to extend beyond reproductive learning, podcasts have to be part of an engaging pedagogic design, such as problem-oriented learning, that can provide a privileged space to stimulate inquiry and advance alternative perspectives on problem solving. Informal access to teacher/ expert facilitation in small study groups can provide a less intimidating support to help navigate the troublesome realms of disciplinary initiation and prepare for future challenges.