Psychology professor’s podcast on animal behavior hits charts

The recording industry has long thrived on being in the Billboard Top 100.

And now, being in the iTunes Top 100 carries the same cachet for podcasts - audio and video programming available from iTunes and other providers.

Last month, a podcast on animal behavior produced by a UConn psychology professor cracked the iTunes Top 100 higher education podcasts.

David Miller is no stranger to using technology to enhance his teaching. He's been using multimedia in his classrooms for years.

When he started using an iPod Nano in fall 2005, he found he had another tool at his disposal.

Miller, associate head of the psychology department, discovered podcasts while checking out the iTunes online music store.

He soon found that a number of colleges and universities are using iTunes as a means for providing course material and information to students.

"I started [doing podcasts] about a quarter of the way into the fall '05 semester," says Miller.

"I was driving to campus one day. I had to do a review session, and I thought 'hey, if I recorded this, then everyone who's not there will be able to benefit from it too. So I did, and it snowballed from there."

Miller now produces three podcasts: Animal Behavior, a weekly discussion with honors graduate students in his class on animal behavior; iCube, for his introductory psychology class; and most recently, a series of "pre-casts" - a term he coined - also meant for the introductory psychology class, but with enhancements.

For the pre-casts, Miller makes modifications to PowerPoint slides he has already prepared for his classes, and includes them as a visual component for the podcast.