StigmergicWeb

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

The Guru of the Obvious has declared:

Join me! Become a Lighips representative! I am a balls-out Nietzchean superman. As the Field Marshall of eLearning Supremacy I survey the battlefield that is higher education, and find it much to my liking. What are you Ed Tech Weblogger, ally or enemy?

I, for one, welcome our eLearning Supremacy overlord! ;^)

Despite technical difficulties, here is a conversation with Rick Schwier about podcasting and education. This was recorded in Rick’s office on his Olympus voice recorder. During the course of the conversation, I somehow manage to work WKRP in Cincinatti as well as a rant about the utility (or lack thereof) of teaching cursive writing in elementary schools. If you are concerned about education, interested in technology or both, you may find this interesting.

Here’s a (really quick) summary (or should I say a Really Small Summary - nah, too contentious. ;^) ):

• What’s the educational model for using podcasting?
• Comparing blogs and podcasts (including my pathetic begging for someone to send me an iPod shuffle)
• Content is king! (Rick and I rave zealously about CBC radio)
• Rick asks “Who is listening to podcasts?”
• Podcasts as theatre of the mind (mentioned several times)
• What does it take to put together a podcast? What are the needed skills?
• Using video/audio to reduce psychological distance between speaker and listener. I, being the raving Adam Curry fanboy, mention him glowingly several times.
• Where will today’s students take the medium? Producing audio essays (essentially small radio documentaries) as the product of their research.
• What are the necessary skills that schools should be teaching students? This includes my rant against cursive writing.
• Schools relationship with disruptive technologies. This is an idea that, I hope, Rick and I will pick up in the future.

Rick also blogs at Rick’s Cafe Canadien. Comments are always welcome (except for spammers - grrrr!)

Alec Couros is looking for k-12 educators who are involved in the use or advocacy for free and open source software in schools. I just finished his initial questionaire, and I’m excited to see what comes out of his research.

In his recent article/posting entitled How Technology Will Destroy Schools, David Wiley discusses the obselence of schools in an age of instant access to any information. Admittedly, we aren’t there yet, but I think that we are getting closer. In some parts of the world, for some people, and for the right kind of information, instant access to information is already a reality. I agree with David on his analysis of the nature of the conflict:

I think it has something to do with ingrained notions of what consitutes “academic subjects” and what constitutes “cheating.” In coming years this debate over the role of augmenting technologies will heat up significantly.

I am already starting to feel like much of what I am teaching is obsolete and really unnecessary for a student who has a decent speed internet connection and a web browser. I believe my students will be better served if they are able to distinguish the true knowledge from the crap online. Generally speaking, though, we don’t teach that in school, certainly not as a subject.

Reading this post put me in mind of some thoughts that were wandering around in my head a while ago. My basic question was, if there are more effective ways of teaching the content than classroom learning, what is the point of having schools? Are we teaching what students really need to learn, and if not what should we be teaching them? In my heart, I believe that schools are one of the most important public institutions around. My experience is that boards of education, school administration and even some teachers are woefully out of touch with the challenges faced by our students when they graduate. To look at it another way, we do a great job of educating students to prepare them for the world of the 1950s, but that doesn’t help them out very much today! I find myself saddened by the thought that school administration will not respond quickly enough to revitalize the schools and make them relevant and meaningful institutions once again.

D’Arcy Norman @ The Learning Commons - Thoughts on Stephen Downes’ ITI Keynote

Darcy Norman has some notes and thoughts about Stephen Downes ITI keynote. One idea that D’Arcy (and others) have picked up on is the way that the context for good education is on the edge of order and chaos - The hierarchical top-down ordained-from-above crap just won’t fly in practice. Finding that balance is the biggest challenge in teaching.

I’m sensing a bit of a movement away from the paradigm of large repositories of static learning objects towards an approach to online learning that embraces spontaneous activity of learners and learning communities. D’Arcy and Stephen both mention Brian Lamb and Alan Levine’s paradigm of Fast, Cheap and Out of Control as an effective way of organizing online learning in actual practice.

The Problem with Abundance :: Remember Peter de Jager? He was one of the prime prophets of Y2K apocalypse scenarios - I’m sure producers of gas powered generators are still living well thanks to him. He has aparently metamorphosed into a futurist (which is somewhat like being a religious prophet, but with better a better tailor and you get invited to much better conferences), and here is a piece from him discussing how abundance can be a problem in a culture that is designed around scarcity.

This is, to me, a fascinating idea. I have noticed in schools that our daily activities are based around scarcity of learning resources - teacher as the transmitter of knowledge, standardization of textbooks and exams - while we actually live in a world of abundant learning resources. There is a incongruity that I believe students are aware of, at least preconciously; perhaps this is why so many students view school as irrelevant.