Reflections on reading - week 9

This week's articles had me thinking about the power of podcasting and YouTubing in the classroom. First the podcasting...

I thought Campbell brought up lots of interesting and good points in regards to podcasting. As he describes how "Jenny" loves to hear her prof's excitement in her podcasts, I am reminded that this format does add a personal touch that reading text from a screen doesn't have. It's funny, this is my 7th online course through UBC, and you (Joanne) are the first instructor (that I can remember) to ever include an introductory podcast. I remember listening to it and feeling a bit more confident that I could get through the work - whereas when I read the course outline and assignment criteria - I felt completely overwhelmed. The verbal explanation clarified a lot of things and just put my mind at ease - I didn't realize how much I would appreciate that until I heard/experienced it.

And I think that says it all for me - podcasting allows for that human touch that reading off a screen or piece of paper just doesn't provide.

Here are a few more points that stuck with me:

- "...we in higher educaton do them a disservice if we exclude their creative digital tools from their education" (Campbell 2005)

- "one cannot attempt to read a newspaper while driving a car. Even reading a newspaper while walking across campus is difficult, although some people try. By contrast, podcasts can be listened to very easily while driving, walking, or working out at the gym" (Campbell 2005) AND it can be listened to at a time the listener wants...an important aspect!

-I recognize the term Drupal - our school board is experimenting with it and offering it to a few schools as a pilot project (as a platform for creating school websites).

-"voice is literally inspired language, language full of breath, breath as language. Consider the phrase "thinking aloud"" (Campbell 2005)

-"effective listening is no less crucial a skill than effective speaking, and even if the learner cannot control the tempo of a speaker's delivery, with a podcast he or she can listen again and again" (Campbell 2005).


I thought Trier offered some interesting concepts to consider as well. The terminology always cracks me up - we really are adding new words to the dictionary, aren't we? There's so much to wrap my head around: hot and cold media, vodcasting, vidcasting, vlogging, cool hunting and gathering (my personal favorite of all the ones he described),time shifting, and culture jamming.

I thought the time shifting was particularly interesting because I started to consider the possibilities...my "what ifs"

What if...
- I created podcasts as a way to introduce new books to students - a booktalk, or review, or maybe just a simple introduction? - I could upload it to our library website and students could listen to them whenever they like.

-Students created their own podcasts as a way to recommend and review books?

The time shift concept is huge for me because there's not always time during classes for me to engage students the way I want, but podcasting would be an interactive solution - I see it as, I'm reaching out to the students outside of classtime, using a form of media that they enjoy, and allowing them the flexibility to access it anytime, anywhere...I think I'm starting to understand the appeal...