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EdTech 101.5
ADVANTAGES
Very portable
Learners could access their audio files whenever and wherever they want as long as they have the device for opening or playing them. For instance, one could learn a foreign language while riding a subway or review lectures in audio format while working out.
Inexpensive
Audio files could be reproduced multiple times and could be played in various formats and devices. Plus,it could be shared by teachers and students easily. One could upload an audio file online and everybody in a class could download it, most of the time for free.
User friendly
Creating and using audio files takes only a little time for an individual to learn it. Once you have the recording devices (cellphone, headset, recorder) all you have to do is hit the REC button and speak. Press PLAY and you could listen already.
Practices listening skills
Listening is a skill that all of us should be practicing. We should improve our listening skill so we could undserstand other and the world better. Plus, listening is part of our survival.
Very helpful for the visually impaired
Visually impaired individuals can 'read' through audio media. Because of audio devices, they could access and enjoy famous literary works, as well as 'write and read' lecture notes through recordings.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF AUDIO MEDIA
DISADVANTAGES
Retention
Audio Media may not be as memorable especially for visual learners.
Impersonal
There are is no face to face interaction between teacher and student in recorded audio media. The teacher will have difficulty monitoring and keeping students' attention.
Difficulty with pacing
Learners may have difficulty with the pacing of audio media especially for recordings.
Difficulty in accessing specific topics
Live/recorded audio media are broadcasted/played in a fixed sequence which makes it difficult to locate specific parts/topics as compared to printed text materials.
Accidental erasure
Recorded audio files are prone to accidental erasure. Live talks/broadcasted information are not as materially permanent as written or recorded information which makes it susceptible to instant erasure unless processed by the brain into a more or less permanent memory.
REFERENCES:
no author indicated (2013). Advantages and Disadvantages Media. Wordpress. Retrieved from http://wp.me/p3mjFN-l7
no author indicated (no year). Using Audio in Multimedia. Advisory Group on Computer Graphics. Retrieved from http://www.agocg.ac.uk/brief/audio.htm
no author indicated (no date indicated). Supplemental Reading: Advantages and Limitations of Instructional Media. Mt. Hood community College. Retrieved from http://www.mhcc.edu/facultysupport/newfiles/fnd02_supplement_instructional_media.htm
no author indicated (no date indicated). Using Audio. Anglia learning & Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.inspire.anglia.ac.uk/index.php/using-audio/
"Audiobook." Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.