Podcasts... Tricky Learning for Non-Auditory Learners!

I'm going to be honest. I'm not a big fan of podcasts. I would much rather read unbiased information from reliable paper sources than listen to people speak. My learning style definitely conflicts with this type of information. I am a visual learner. I like to read, and when I cannot read, I like to physically take notes because unless I am in an actual conversation with the person/people speaking I will remember very little. At the end of many of the podcasts, I nearly forgot what I was listening for anyway.

The problem I ran into with the podcasts I listened to is they were either very organized and had their notes together or they spoke out of turn and the blogs became more about their personal stories than the informational topic(s) that the podcast was titled after. As a visual learner, I would have difficulty taking notes when the hosts of the podcast would speak out of turn.

In general, podcasts are just not helpful for students like me. Even videocasts won't be much improvement because unless you are an auditory learner, you won't get nearly as much out of it. The one pro to having a videocast to listen to as opposed to a podcast is that you can see the people that are speaking instead of just hearing a barrage of random voices interjecting here and there in the conversation.

I could see some students benefitting from the use of podcasting in the classroom. For auditory learners, they could easily listen to information and perhaps the podcasts could reinforce what is being taught in the classroom. For visual and kinesthetic learners, maybe they could work better with demonstrating their knowledge on a subject through podcasting themselves. I know I learned more about "Facebook as an Educational Tool" through not only researching the topic but also practice-discussing it ahead of time with Stephanie Ellis (one of my group members) and discussing it again in front of the mic.