As part of a new technology initiative designed to expand opportunities in the classroom, Duke and Public Radio International announced a partnership to provide students and professors with audio clips from certain radio shows.
The collaboration with PRI—a non-profit company that produces content that is distributed to more than 760 public radio stations nationwide—will go through a trial period fall semester. It will allow participating professors to provide their students with audio content from three PRI shows—”This American Life,” “PRI’s This World” and “PRI’s Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson”—free of charge.
Professors can use the broadcasts in a number of ways, including to keep students up to date on current events and provide them with historical perspectives on different issues. Organizers stress, however, that each professor will find his or her own way to incorporate the material.
Julia Mears, Trinity ‘85 and director of brand strategy and sponsor alliances at PRI, said she approached Duke primarily because of her alumna affiliation. She said she also thought Duke was “more forward-thinking with regards to using technology in the classroom than other schools.”
Mears stressed that the program is also a test for PRI. In its quest to find new audiences through technology, PRI wants to know whether and how best its content can be translated into an educational environment.
“We expect behavior is different between the typical listener and a college student,” she said.
PRI is also interested in developing a business model for their service with the information from the trial period at Duke. Campbell suggested some possible business models that could be considered, including offering the service through some type of licensing structure or charging individual memberships.
Although a list of professors utilizing the technology is currently unavailable, Amy Campbell, assistant director for the Center for Instructional Technology, said around 10 to 12 have expressed interest in the program. In addition, the initiative will not be restricted to classes that utilize iPods.
“I’ll be interested to see the outcome,” Campbell said. “I’m not sure if it will make a huge splash or not... but this has the potential to provide a new way to access material.”
The agreement is part of the Duke Digital initiative, which started earlier this year and is aimed at promoting educational use of technology in the classroom.
The digital initiative, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Provost, is headed up jointly by Duke University Libraries’ CIT and the Office of Information Technology. It will incorporate digital video and images, and utilize tablet PCs and handheld computers.
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