Students across the campus can be spotted with those telltale white earphones nestled in their ears. But they aren’t necessarily all plugged into the new Jessica Simpson single anymore – they may actually be listening to a lecture.

It’s more common than you think. American studies professor Jo Paoletti is introducing weekly podcasts into an introductory course next semester that will include interviews, short lectures and broadcasts from association meetings.

Other professors have begun recording their lectures onto digital music files so they can be played on iPods and other portable music players in a process known as podcasting. Others are posting research materials online as MP3 files or using iPods in language labs, and professors say the trend is catching.

“It’s fantastic,” said Patrick Jackson, a professor at the American University School of International Service who gave a lecture on podcasting at the university earlier this semester. “You can listen again to what I’ve said and you can slow it down, hit rewind and listen to troublesome passages.”

Of course it’s convenient to listen to a lecture while running on your treadmill, but the advantages of podcasting go beyond simple portability, professors say. For one thing, it allows students to learn in new and different ways. For Jackson, who says he hates lecturing, podcasts can give students context on the reading without using class time, which is then spent on discussion and debate.

“It is a very useful and very interesting extension of interaction time beyond the physical limits of the classroom,” said professor Ridha Krizi, the program coordinator of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures.

Krizi lent 11 Arabic students iPods purchased with money from a federal grant. Instead of simply learning Arabic from a textbook, the students record themselves speaking as homework assignments. iPods, he said, are the language labs of the future.

Krizi said he has never podcast a lecture, but may in the future.

Universities across the nation are integrating iPods into classrooms. Duke University was one of the leaders of the movement, giving iPods and voice recorders to 1,600 incoming freshmen last year, Jackson said. Stanford University recently signed a deal with iTunes to make university lectures available for download.

There is no similar university-wide deal at the university at this point, but one is being discussed, said Phyllis Dickerson, director of communication at the Office of Information Technology. In the meantime, professors are free to experiment.

Podcasting also helps students with learning disabilities or who learned English as their second language, professors said. Because they can listen to the recordings repeatedly instead of having to learn everything at once during lecture, these students end up learning more.

Paoletti said podcasting helps students with dyslexia or text processing disabilities who learn better listening than reading. She even recalled teaching a blind student whose parents would read to him from his textbooks each night.

“Not everyone can read easily,” Paoletti said. “Podcasting would definitely help certain types of students.”

Paoletti said she never lectures. Instead, she lets students rely on a variety of multimedia resources to fuel their comments in discussion, including broadcasts from National Public Radio, speeches and popular songs. The new popularity of portable MP3 players, she said, just makes it easier for students to listen.

“I used to put it up more as an optional thing,” she said. “Now I can assume most people would be able to listen.”

Paoletti said she hopes podcasts will be able to make exceptional lectures public, allowing all students to have access to popular classes that fill up quickly.

“There are some people on this campus who are amazing lecturers,” she said. “The idea of making even some of their lectures available would be stupendous.”

It’s true not all students carry iPods – or any other portable MP3 player – but professors said they have heard few complaints. Students can simply listen to audio files on personal computers or borrow MP3 players from friends, professors said.

“It’s a very good way to use university resources,” Paoletti said. “The whole system makes a whole lot of sense.”

Contact reporter Megha Rajagopalan at rajagopalandbk@gmail.com