David Nickles is always looking for new ways to make learning interesting for his students, and this fall he has done it by taking advantage of the popularity of iPods and podcast technology.

Once a week, his 600 computer science students at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa download electronic audio files — or podcasts — of lectures to supplement the three hours of lab and classroom lectures they already receive each week.

After downloading weekly lectures to their iPods, students "basically put me in their pocket and take me with them," enabling them to learn anywhere at anytime, Nickles said.

Already popular among amateur broadcasters, podcasts are being explored by a growing number of university faculty nationwide such as Nickles looking to use a technology that appeals to tech-savvy students who grew up downloading music. Students can skip the traditional lecture-hall format for the portable "coursecast" and essentially receive the same material.

Students enrolled in Nickles' course at UH-Manoa say podcasts help them review the material, while at the same time allowing them to make use of the latest trendy technology.

This is the first time Kim Maroney, one of Nickles' ICS 100 students, is taking a course using this method. She wants to take more like it.

"I can access it from any PC anywhere and listen to it over and over again until I understand," Maroney said.

Once a week, Nickles records a lecture about computer tools and technology. Students download the lecture via the free computer program iTunes and then load it onto their iPod or other MP3 player. Students can then listen to the lecture at home, between classes, at the beach or wherever they want.

At the beginning of the semester, students in Nickles' class purchased iPods at the Manoa bookstore at a discounted student rate. But according to Nickles, most students already owned one.

The weekly coursecast, coupled with online quizzes, allows Nickles to monitor student comprehension of the lecture topics. He also holds online chats and review sessions.

"Students are very appreciative for the technology. They really like that they can listen to it again," Nickles said.

And college courses are not the only place where podcasting is popping up.

At Jamestown Elementary School in Arlington, Va., Camilla Gagliolo and her fifth-graders have been making podcast recordings of their poems and book reports, according to a report in The Washington Post.

But not everyone supports the method.

More traditional academics fear that by listening to lectures on the run, students will miss out on learning that can happen only when students and instructors come together, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Naomi Baron, an American University linguistics professor, told the Tribune that podcasting lectures make it too easy for students to cut class or mentally check out. It also condones the idea that a student can learn just as well by listening to a lecture on a couch as in a classroom.

"I want to believe that what I'm doing in class is not canned and has something to do with the people who are there," said Baron, an expert in language and computer technology.

The Tribune reported that Meredith Tenison, a Duke University senior in an introductory computer science course, has missed only one class but still downloads and listens to the lectures before writing weekly papers and putting together presentations required for the course.

Tenison's mother, who is paying for her daughter's education, also said she doesn't see a podcast as a substitute for class.

"I would be rather upset with that," Elizabeth Tenison told the Tribune. "Part of going to a university is hearing alternate points of view ... and that would be lost in large part if students didn't attend. They would hear it, but they wouldn't be participating."

Nickles said the method is possibly misunderstood by some parents and other critics who view podcasts as a replacement for classroom time and interaction with a professor.

"It's not meant to replace the live lectures," Nickles said. "Podcasts add a different dimension to the material."

Once a week, Nickles holds an optional review session — essentially a live lecture in a hall — and also requires students to attend a lab twice a week, he said. More than half of Nickles' students attend his live lecture, he said.

Nickles admitted that if a student really wanted to, he or she could get by on podcasts alone.

Maroney said she prefers the coursecasting method to the live lecture method and said she comprehends more by literally having the material always at her fingertips.

"In fact, I feel like I am getting more than my money's worth," Maroney said.

Nickles said he sees a difference in his students this semester after he started using podcasts, mainly that they better understand the subject.

"The questions that are coming at me this semester are more intelligent," he said.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.