Podcasting - A Promise for Lifelong Learning?

Everybody is currently talking about podcasting, weblogs, wikis or other applications of what is known as Web 2.0. However, hardly any experiences and application scenarios have been documented on this so far. Graz University of Technology started to offer podcasts in the area of continuing education in 2006. This article describes the kind of strengths and weaknesses that have arisen during this and the influence this will have on future continuing education offers. Besides technical details, the article calls particular attention to the didactic conception. A concrete practical example followed by an evaluation rounds off this article. The topic of podcasting is supplemented by a description of TU Graz’ Life Long Learning Initiative. The first experiences with podcasting were made as a part of this initiative. The results show that podcasts definitely enrich the learning process and can be regarded as a useful addition to traditional teaching in the presence of students.