Periodic Fable

Mostly a press release from the University of Leicester. I’ve talked to Alan about this – he is a real learning technologies innovator, and also used a wiki in a virology course – students had to add a page to Wikipedia and if it survived intact for a week then it was deemed a pass!

Alan Cann, a microbiologist at the University of Leicester has recently received prestigious sponsorship for his online MicrobiologyBytes podcasts, which can be found online at http://microbiologybytes.wordpress.com

Featured recently in Science magazine’s NetWatch column, the Apple iTunes Store New and Notable Podcasts and WordPress.com’s Blog of the Day, the podcast has been downloaded by more than 3000 people a month from more than 50 countries and the numbers of downloads are growing rapidly.

After MicrobiologyBytes received a Public Understanding of Science grant from the Society for General Microbiology, Deputy Executive Secretary of SGM, Janet Hurst, said:

“The Award Panel was very enthusiastic about this activity…this is a great opportunity for SGM to be associated with the latest educational technology”.
Unlike other university podcasts, MicrobiologyBytes is not simply recycled lecture content in audio format. Its content is tailor-made to engage the largest possible audience by presenting current topics in microbiology in a form that everyone can understand. Over a period of time, the content of the podcasts covers the whole field of microbiology.

Recent topics include:

Is there a role for SV40 in human cancer?
Quorum sensing in bacteria
E.coli in spinach
How HIV causes AIDS
Plague: From the 14th to the 21st century and still going strong
Extreme drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB)
Creator of MicrobiologyBytes, Dr Alan Cann, of the University’s Department of Biology, commented:

“There’s a tremendous storehouse of knowledge locked up in universities. New technology, such as web 2.0 – the read-write internet – allows us to share this by blogging and podcasting.

“The aim of MicrogiologyBytes is to bring people the latest news from the forefront of biomedical research in a form that everyone can understand. Obviously, I hope that this will also attract more students to the University of Leicester, but I don’t expect that someone who listens to my podcasts in, say, Mexico, will turn up on the doorstop wanting to study for a degree. It’s all about the conversation we should have with the public.”

Podcasting is predominantly used by the 18-24 age group and many students already turn to the Internet as their first source of information. Student responses to MicrobiologyBytes included: “Useful and a good supplement to the lectures;” “I think they are a great idea… I still find my note-taking to be a bit dodgy at times;” “What a great learning tool;” “Useful for students suffering disabilities, such as dyslexia.”

Podcasting

Podcasting is the distribution of multimedia files over the Internet, which can be downloaded and viewed or listened to on a computer or a mobile device, such as an mp3 player or mobile phone. It is not necessary to have an iPod to listen to podcasts, any computer or mp3 player will do.

Unlike other file downloads, a key feature of podcasting is the ability to subscribe through RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. There is a wide range of software available to manage and listen to podcasts, most of which is free. Once software is installed, listeners subscribe to the podcast feed, which tells them when new podcasts are available and automatically downloads. Alternatively, it is possible to manually download the files to a computer by clicking on the episode links on the podcast homepage.

Podcasting has grown enormously in the last few years. During the next year it is expected to become a major source of information, with the current investment by the BBC and other broadcasters, and the features included in Microsoft Windows Vista, due to be released in January 2007 (eg, RSS support in Internet Explorer).