AZ Republic, "ASU uses podcasts, blogs to inform"

ASU uses podcasts, blogs to inform
Eugene Scott
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 3, 2006 12:00 AM
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Arizona State University President Michael Crow is blogging. Other administrators are using podcasts. Professors even offer lectures on iTunes.

It's all part of the increasing use of technology in higher education to reach students by catering to the devices they know best.

"We have so many new technologies that we can almost re-create the kind of experiences that you have face to face," said Susan Herring, editor of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. "Sometimes I wonder if we really need to meet face to face."

Online communication, at times, can be more effective, she says.

Crow makes weekly messages available on iPods. The podcasts often feature other administrators and eventually will be interactive allowing a question and answer session between administrators and students.

Some students plan to give it a try. Said Eric Tunnel, a senior history major: "I think I might check it out once or twice, but it's nothing I'm too concerned with. But I think it's a good idea to try to reach out to students."

Others, like senior biochemistry major Katrina Nelson, said they'd stick to using their iPods for listening to Nickelback.

Crow also started a blog called "The President's Post" in December, and school leaders said the approach is a way to reach as many students as possible on the ever-growing campus.

But he is also hosting office hours this semester for students, and not just student leaders. That's a key, experts say. They advise university officials to use technology in addition to, not in place of, traditional communication.

In fact, Doug Lynch, vice dean at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, said online communication is most effective if used as a supplement.

"The good institutions aren't putting all of their eggs in one basket," said Lynch, who said he has instructed more than 100,000 students online through special programs. "The pluses and minuses are quite similar to the plusses and minuses in face-to-face learning."

"If you engage the students they tend to learn," he said. "If you just kind of Webcast and there's no interaction, it's sort of probable that it won't be effective."

The quality and type of students matters, too, Lynch said. "More precocious students tend to do better."

Studies have shown that students generally enjoy attempts by professors and administrators to increase dialogue, technologically or otherwise, said Joseph Walther, communications professor at Cornell University.

"More information is usually better," he said. "People really appreciate the extra attention and extra information because it makes them feel more involved and more connected, even if it's in Internet form."

The key, experts say, is how and when to combine the old approaches with the new.

Of course, technology can't solve everything, Walther notes.

While use of the blogs can increase communication between a university's students and president, "there's nothing about the Internet that guarantees that the university president won't be boring, but that's not the Internet's fault," he said.