Looking Beyond the Virtual Law Class: Podcasting the Vibe

Podcasting technology has been around for more than a decade and in higher education, recordings styled as “podcasts” and “vodcasts” are now a mainstream form of “content”. Frequently, however, audio or audiovisual resources are offered to students as a proxy lecture, more in response to management edicts than as a result of deliberate, pedagogically sound curriculum design. By contrast, instead of a rather static and didactic medium of “delivery”, the subscription podcast offers potential for intimate engagement between teacher and learner. Importantly also in terms of the academic’s impact and community engagement, the podcast can serve a broader audience. This paper analyses the podcast as a medium to assess its utility both as a learning tool for law students, and as a tool for community engagement in legal issues. It first provides a background to podcasting, followed by case studies of effective legal podcasts to illustrate the medium’s diverse applications. It concludes with a rationale for using podcasts as both a learning and teaching tool, and as an entry point for engaging diverse audiences.