StigmergicWeb

The preponderance of educational technology blogs and podcasts made it inevitable that some of the participants would get together to start discussing some of the burning issues in the field of ed tech. Dean, Rick, Alec and I are still doing the EdTech Posse (although we are on a bit of a hiatus while my life is taken over by wedding preparations - and its not even my wedding. But I digress). Now Tim Wilson, Tim Lauer, Will Richardson and Steve Burt are getting into the groove with the Educational Technologists Coast to Coast Podcast. I haven’t had time to listen to the first podcast yet, but it is freshly downloaded. Once the aforementioned wedding is over, I shall return to my regular technology obsessed geek lifestyle and give it a good listen.

Stephen pointed out a good analysis of the Podcast Theory Gap by Susan Smith Nash. She points out the implication of many theories in learning with regard to podcasts as part of online courses. But one point at the beginning of the article puzzles me:

Although instructional designers do not often like to mention this, the fact is, it is the rare learner who will sit at a computer and willingly watch a 20 or 30-minute presentation. However, the same learners are happy to listen to an audio file (podcast or book on tape).

I can only speak to my experience, but I would willingly watch a well designed 20 or 30 minute presentation. Lawrence Lessig’s presentation on Free Culture from OSCON 2002 is one of the most coherent arguments for rational limitations on intellectual property. There is also an audio only (MP3) version of the presentation, but the full multimedia (slides and audio) experience is not to be missed.

But I am also quick to admit that I am not most learners. Indeed, I didn’t think of watching and listening to Lessig’s presentation as learning, at least not in a formal sense. It was just something that I found interesting and more worthy of my time than an episode of Seinfeld. I think that Susan is meaning learners in a formal, course-based context. Would they be willing listeners to the an audio track that was narrating some powerpoint presentation? It doesn’t sound any more onerous than attending a lecture, so I assume that they would. In fact, in an online course a podcast might be the only time a student would actually hear the instructor’s voice, and the effect of this might be to reduce the affective distance between the students and the instructor. The value of the podcast might not be strictly in the content it contains, but in the sense of connection the listener has for the speaker.

A quick google search for online courses that use podcasts yielded no results, which is not surprising considering that podcasting is barely a year old yet (the first entry for podcast in wikipedia is dated from August 4, 2005). I’m sure that there will be at least a few teachers and instructors integrating podcasts into their online courses this coming year, and then we’ll have some actual student experiences to compare to theory.

iTunes 4.9 is now available for download. The new version includes support for podcasts so that you can retrieve and play podcasts in a single application. I’d give a further review, but its downloading right now. More info soon!

UPDATE - if you are running iTunes on Windows, you may be a bit shocked if you check the process memory in the task manager while iTunes 4.9 is running. I know I was because the new iTunes had double the memory requirement of iTunes 4.8. Can you say bloatware? I’m no better off running iTunes 4.9, than I was running iTunes 4.8 and iPodder, which is apparently the basis for iTunes podcatching software. What I usually did, and will probably continue to do, is run iPodder and Quintessential as my media player - Quintessential has a much lower memory requirement than iTunes (any version), and it plays ogg vorbis files.

Dave Winer has been hearing rumours that iTunes version 4.9, including podcast support, is due out tomorrow. This will start making a lot more people aware of podcasting!

The EdTech Posse Podcast #2 is now available for your listening pleasure. [EdTech Posse Podcast #2, or subscribe to the EdTech Posse RSS Feed]

My solo podcast is on indefinite hiatus while I redirect my energies towards the Posse.

After much positive feedback about the first EdTech Posse podcast (uh - OK, it was a couple of comments on the websites, and a couple of e-mails, but they response was really positive), I am proud to announce the EdTech Posse website, and the EdTech Posse RSS feed (suitable for adding to your favourite aggregator, or to your podcatching software of choice). If you want to continue to listen to the EdTech Posse podcast, that would be the best place to go, although I’m sure that I’ll keep publicizing it here. And if you stop by the (Drupal powered) site, you can register as a member and comment on any of our shows. We’re hoping to generate some good discussions with our podcast, and welcome your participation.

I’ve been e-mailing and talking to some other ed-tech folks lately about putting together a new podcast that is more of a round-table discussion format. I wanted to change things around a little partly to bring in some new ideas for me, and partly because I’ve gotten tired of listening to myself. So the StigmergicWeb podcast is on hold for a while, maybe indefinitely, while I redirect my podcast energies towards the EdTech Posse Podcast.

The EdTech Posse will feature a rotating group of educational technologists who work in K-12, post-secondary and research areas. So far, the posse consists of Rob Wall (me), Alec Couros, Dean Shareski and Rick Schwier (who is starting his tenure with the posse by being on vacation). We’ll be exploring many areas within educational technology, ranging from theoretical to practical, and from Kindergarten to Post-graduate. Last night Alec, Dean and I had a great conversation about some of these things, and I hope you’ll enjoy it too in the first EdTech Posse Podcast (link below).

I’m working on setting up a separate site for the EdTech Posse to work. We’re also interested in growing the ranks of the EdTech Posse so that we can all take a break occasionally, hopefully avoiding some podcaster burnout. Stay subscribed to this blog for further announcements. And while you are waiting, have a listen to the EdTech Posse Podcast #1

I just saw this on Rick’s Café Canadien - Podcasting with Mr. Sprankle (which he saw via Stephen). Now that’s cool. I think podcasting is a good medium for teachers, but my sense is that it hits warp drive when you give students a chance to put together a podcast, and Mr. Sprankle’s class proves it!

I wonder if Steve Jobs still thinks podcasting is just “Wayne’s World for radio“?

I’ve wondered for a while about what kind of models might be developed for the ways that podcasting can be used as tools for learning. There are a few examples that have started to reach my attention. I’d like to share a couple of these with you, and if you know of any other good examples leave a comment.

I just listened to Whosaid.org - an evolving literary podcast game. The basic premise is that passages from great works of literature. (I know - this gets into the whole can of worms about who decides what the great works of literature are, but we’ll just skip over that debate for now). Listeners can have a chance to leave guesses on the site, as well as get hints. The great feature to me is a discussion board - after listening to the passage and guessing at it, listeners have a chance to participate further by discussing the book. What a great hook for getting people talking about literature.

Also in a literary vein, Gardner Campbell has a summer podcast series called A Donne a Day. Each day he will be reading a poem by English poet John Donne. There’s no quiz, but he wants to share the great poetry of Donne with any listeners, as well as create an archive of Donne poetry for his students to listen to in the fall. I had a great English instructor at university who changed my view of poetry when he made me realize that poetry was meant to be listened to, not read off a page. I think Gardner is of similiar beliefs. His series starts off with The Good Morrow.

There must be other great examples of podcasts as learning tools. Maybe you are involved in creating one. Leave a comment to let me know.

One of my favourite shows when I signed up for my new cable package was The Screen Savers. Finally, a show that had intelligent reasonable discussions about computers and technology that went deeper than “Windoze sucks“, “No, Mac sucks“. Sadly, after TechTV was purchased and assimilated by G4, the show took a turn for the worse. Patrick Norton and Leo Laporte were gone, Leo finding sanctuary in Canada (and we’re happy to have ya here, Leo!). Even though Kevin Rose and Sarah Lane were still there, the show quickly degenerated into trivialities. I couldn’t stand it any longer, and changed my cable package so I wouldn’t have to watch the slow deterioration of a once decent TV show.

Thanks to podcasting, however, I can now hear the whole Screen Saver gang once again. No longer called the Screen Savers, mainly because they would be quickly sued, they have been reborn as this WEEK in TECH, a new podcast featuring former ScreenSavers Leo, Patrick, Kevin and Robert Heron. John Dvorak has also been (sort of) on the last episode (#3), and other guests may show up.

And I noticed Leo is using Drupal to manage the This WEEK in TECH site. Ubercool!