Here's a nice report on trends in T+L using new generations of web tools:
They've called it Emerging Technologies for Learning.
Hello?! The tech has long since emerged. The users and managers now need to emerge after it.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
TLN : Podcasting
Just back from the TLN talk/discussion on Podcasting at UCL. About time too! There has been some traffic on the insanely great Mac list about this recently. You know, the usual worries: what mic and recorder to use, where to put the file, with what compression, and how to wrap it all up in a xml file. And does my bum look big in this. As usual, have been meaning to develop something podcastish for ages, but haven't got to it yet. I did the round trip thing a couple of years ago, and the 23-second "hello world" is still there on a server someplace.
So, after a fairly routine (though very slick) couple of presentations for the noobs about what a podcast is, or was last year, and what a feed is, we got to the discussion business. I was almost expecting about half a dozen UCL people to reveal their wonderful podcast seminars series, and for the web services boys and girls to say "Here we are with another big webserver that's got the nuts to host it all, and here's a nice form-n-script that you can use to upload and cook your XML for you, and here's a mic (that we've found works well) for you to borrow till you get your own, and oh by the way we've sorted things with iTunes podcast directory so your busy students can't forget where you put it."
I said almost. Back in the world again, my fat mouth got its usual run.
Questions, questions:
Why are people obsessed with "putting lectures on the web". It's like 1999 all over again, only with bad audio instead of over-long web pages. What's so fantastic about a lecture that it has to be badly reproduced in an unsuitable medium?
Why is everybody afraid of polluting the Brand? A big part of our brand should be "does stuff".
Why does the harmful meme "what is the best way of doing this" have such a hold? There is no best way.
Matt's way:
Get on with it. Let flowers bloom, and prune and arrange later.
Experience. Listen to Chinesepod, watch youtube, and work out how bite-sized media work.
Keep it short. Don't for heaven's sake consider putting 40 minute lectures through someone's headphones. Keep boring meta stuff out, such as where the departmental coffee machine is. Ums and ahhs are tolerable in RL, nice even, but are leaden milliseconds when recorded. Love the Wayne's World model, also the BBC model. We are not the BBC, however.
Use face time (lectures) for the exchange of human emotions about the topics. Put the reference works into print, web, video or audio as appropriate. The lecturer's job is a DJ's, to showcase other people's tunes, pointing out the interesting bits, filling the gaps, and keeping them dancing.
The audience don't mind if the records are a bit scratchy, but they must not be bored. Don't confuse pace and style (which are mandatory) with production gloss (which isn't).
People laughing about a point is a great way to teach. Get down the pub with Audacity and a pair of mikes, and talk about the subject, preferably one that's been described elsewhere. "You've read the notes on the theory of price elasticity, now Peter from Freakonomics is going to tell me about Barca's moves in the transfer market. Now Peter, 20 million is a lot for a defender, what are the forces here, are the TV networks dominating the demand side of the equation? ..." Remember, 10 minutes max. Your punter is a busy person.
Now, about copyright and the creative commons in audio content ... Sorry time's up.
So, after a fairly routine (though very slick) couple of presentations for the noobs about what a podcast is, or was last year, and what a feed is, we got to the discussion business. I was almost expecting about half a dozen UCL people to reveal their wonderful podcast seminars series, and for the web services boys and girls to say "Here we are with another big webserver that's got the nuts to host it all, and here's a nice form-n-script that you can use to upload and cook your XML for you, and here's a mic (that we've found works well) for you to borrow till you get your own, and oh by the way we've sorted things with iTunes podcast directory so your busy students can't forget where you put it."
I said almost. Back in the world again, my fat mouth got its usual run.
Questions, questions:
Why are people obsessed with "putting lectures on the web". It's like 1999 all over again, only with bad audio instead of over-long web pages. What's so fantastic about a lecture that it has to be badly reproduced in an unsuitable medium?
Why is everybody afraid of polluting the Brand? A big part of our brand should be "does stuff".
Why does the harmful meme "what is the best way of doing this" have such a hold? There is no best way.
Matt's way:
Get on with it. Let flowers bloom, and prune and arrange later.
Experience. Listen to Chinesepod, watch youtube, and work out how bite-sized media work.
Keep it short. Don't for heaven's sake consider putting 40 minute lectures through someone's headphones. Keep boring meta stuff out, such as where the departmental coffee machine is. Ums and ahhs are tolerable in RL, nice even, but are leaden milliseconds when recorded. Love the Wayne's World model, also the BBC model. We are not the BBC, however.
Use face time (lectures) for the exchange of human emotions about the topics. Put the reference works into print, web, video or audio as appropriate. The lecturer's job is a DJ's, to showcase other people's tunes, pointing out the interesting bits, filling the gaps, and keeping them dancing.
The audience don't mind if the records are a bit scratchy, but they must not be bored. Don't confuse pace and style (which are mandatory) with production gloss (which isn't).
People laughing about a point is a great way to teach. Get down the pub with Audacity and a pair of mikes, and talk about the subject, preferably one that's been described elsewhere. "You've read the notes on the theory of price elasticity, now Peter from Freakonomics is going to tell me about Barca's moves in the transfer market. Now Peter, 20 million is a lot for a defender, what are the forces here, are the TV networks dominating the demand side of the equation? ..." Remember, 10 minutes max. Your punter is a busy person.
Now, about copyright and the creative commons in audio content ... Sorry time's up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)