While focusing on financial aspects of implementing new technology  in higher education, this CNNMoney article contains some interesting statistics regarding the relevance of podcasting and "web 2.0" in higher education. In particular, it illustrates the increasing demand for access to "a next-generation learning environment" from incoming students (something I have personally predicted over the past several years).

 

On his Web 2.0 Teaching blog, Alan A. Lew points out a new mashup tool from Slideshare: Slidecasting. A Slidecast synchronizes an uploaded PowerPoint presentation with an MP3 audio file (that must live somewhere else on the web). Slidecasts do not incorporate video of the presenter—compare with Zentation, a web-based mashup that does include presenter video—but Slideshare's embeddable results look very slick.

Sites like SlideShare and Zoho Show are making it easy to post and share PowerPoint presentations via the Web. YouTube and Google Video, meanwhile, offer venues for video sharing. Now Zentation

As a companion piece to a hands-on campus technology expo, a group of us at Wesleyan recently put together a round-up of various Web 2.0 technologies including overviews, practical academic applications, references to live examples, and a few tips on how to get started. You will find our "Web 2.Xpo" blog at http://web20.blogs.wesleyan.edu/. Even if you are already acquainted with most of the content, and even if some of it is tailored to the Wesleyan environment, it might prove useful as a place to direct the uninitiated. And you can leave comments.

The results from this somewhat biased study are promising in that it appears that students who utilize educational podcasts feel that they are helpful.

 But are recordings of lectures really podcasts?