Digital Media: How It’s Impacting Student Learning And Engagement (Podcast)

Market data presented by Gitnex suggests that 59% of students use social media to discuss education topics. As traditional classrooms and learning resources give way to online education, Martyn Snibson, in a short podcast, examines the dynamic effect digital media has on student learning and engagement.

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The aim of creating this podcast was to base the subject on the discussion surrounding digital media to facilitate learning. The Coronavirus Pandemic resorted many students worldwide to online learning using digital media and relevant online technologies. Additionally, it was a good time to analyse both sides of the argument regarding students’ ability to learn and engage in this digital sphere.

To break down this topic, the focus was on digital media’s educational impacts on students’ cognitive abilities, identity, and school surveillance. The topic analysis was achieved by delving into the works of academic scholars using the academic desktop application ‘Mendeley’ to conduct research. This included readings such as S. Gálik’s (2020:101) Journal Article discussing digital media and philosophy relating to students’ cognitive abilities.

The works of K. Davis, A. Ambrose, M. Orand’s (2017:41) Journal Article were also used to evaluate digital media and its’ enhancement on giving a student a means of identity when used for education. To support this argument Martyn Snibson used his personal experiences of how he was introduced to digital media and learnt to it during his time in school.

“The podcasting process was an enjoyable way to express creative abilities, which I believe helped me to learn and feel absorbed in my studies whilst doing an activity that I enjoy”, said Martyn Snibson. “Using Creative Commons attributed music and sound effects sourced from websites like FreeMusicArchive, Looperman, and Freesound, allowed my podcast to have an energetic mood and tone from the introduction to the outro. It was a challenge to source the correct-sounding music as I was searching with the intention of finding a lo-fi, electronic, chill type of sound. This was essential as I wanted to establish the Podcast’s mood and be aware of the Creative Commons licensing requirements”.

Adobe Audition was used to record and conduct the podcast’s post-production phases. An MXL700 condenser microphone helped capture crisp sound signals that could be easily edited through Audition’s spectral frequency display feature. This feature helped identify and remove sounds like ‘clicks’ and other unwanted sounds that may hinder the listener’s podcast experience.

The strategy implemented in the podcast’s production phase was to create a sense of variation in Martyn’s performance. At first, additional voice talent was considered to help ask questions and add various comments throughout the podcast. However, this eventuated in Martyn to make the creative decision to use his own voice to play an additional character.

Using audio effects such as compression, equalizers, and pitch shifters, the audio was edited to be noticeable enough that an audience could identify when a secondary character was speaking. This challenge imposed critical thinking skills for Martyn when he spoke longer sentences as his voice then often shifted to my casual speaking voice.

Eventually, the decision was imposed to break up longer lines into small chunks and edit them together. Secondly, another challenge was background noise. This was partly due to Martyn’s computer creating a loud sound that could be picked up due to the polar pattern of how the condenser microphone picked up sound. To rectify this issue, Martyn used Audition’s noise print and reduction tool to remove some of those sounds in the lower decibel range.

In Martyn’s experience of producing this podcast, it was an enjoyable way to be both engaged in learning about the digital world and a means to be creative in this podcast could be presented.

Learn more about Podcasting in 2024

It's that time of the year! It #Podcast making time of course! #ALM101 pic.twitter.com/Oa5bLe3OSv

— Martyn Snibson (@Martyn_Snibson) May 21, 2021

This blog post and podcast was produced for a university assignment for Deakin University. This blog post was produced in 2021 and was modified on 18 March 2024.

References:

Gálik, S (2020), ‘Philosophical Reflection of the Influence of Digital Media on Current Education’, Media Education (Mediaobrazovanie), 60(1),100–106. doi:10.13187/me.2020.1.100

Harrel, D (2019), ‘Colleges are turning students’ phones into surveillance machines, tracking the locations of hundreds of thousands’, Washington Post, accessed 19 May 2021

Carr N (2011), ‘The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains’, W. W. Norton & Company, New York

Davis, K, Ambrose, A & Orand, M (2017), ‘Identity and Agency in School and Afterschool Settings: Investigating Digital Media’s Supporting Role’, Digital Culture and Education, vol. 9(1), 31–47, accessed 20 May 2021

Lindner, J (2023), ‘Social Media And Education Statistics [Fresh Research]‘, Gitnux, accessed 18 March 2024.

Music:

‘Fairy Flossin’ by Mona Wonderlick (CC BY 3.0)

Monawonderlickfairy – flossin

‘Winner Bell Game Show’ by oldedgar (CC0 BY 1.0)

oldedgar – winner-bell-game-show

‘Lunar Walk’ by Monkey Phases (CC BY 4.0)

Monkeywarhol – lunar-walk-ep