First Class Podcast

Scott McDonald and I are co-teaching a course in Penn State's College of Education this Spring. We're teaching Curriculum & Instruction 597, Disruptive Technologies for Teaching and Learning. One of the things we've decided to do is produce a course podcast as much as possible. Today we sat down and recorded the first podcast of the semester -- well before the semester begins. This is really just a course introduction and a little view into what is going to go on. The included podcast is the first cut -- complete with strange music breaks. I hope this version makes the cut ... feedback is welcome.

Ci_597_01

Comments

[Bart]

I had big plans for using podcasts this semester, but I dropped the ball. It was working well for the first module. The thought was every Friday I'd post a QA thread on the course blog. After collecting all the questions Monday morning, I'd produce a quick podcast to address the questions. It opened up more time in class to focus on new content and discussions, but I just didn't take the time necessary to continue the pattern after week 5 and beyond.

[Cole Camplese]

Seems like the only problem I see with all of it -- time is too short. I am hoping Scott and I can keep the podcasting up during the semester -- I especially like the idea of doing a quick question and answer session to recapture some class time. We are using Pligg at the center of the course site (a digg.com clone), so I am wondering if we couldn't do a Digg Nation style podcast every week pulling the highlights off the site and discussing them.

Also, Podcast Producer will make the whole process much easier in the coming months.

[Karl]

Cole,
What a great idea. I hope you can work with it, making time for Podcasts is always difficult and it always takes more time than you think.

Also, I know of a great book for your text...GGG for Learning. (unbias endorsement...of course:)

[Scott]

The other advantage Cole and I have is that we can have a more chat-like QA. We can play off each other and it is more like a conversation. Hopefully that will keep us, and the class, more interested in reading.

[Cole Camplese]

Karl ... we're committed to this one. Who knows ... I did podcasting for my class a year ago and I did it much less than I hoped, but the students rated it very highly. I wonder how much lecture podcasting we'll do ... it'll be interesting. I am hopeful that we can earmark the last 30 minutes of each class for a roundtable style discussion with the students. If we pull that off I'll be extremely happy! Thanks for the comment!

[Cole Camplese]

So Scott, are we committed to ending "class" at least 30 minutes early and break out the mics for a real conversation? I think it would be a very interesting way to get a handful of our students really engaged in something. Thinking hard enough about the week's topic to have a potentially very public discussion via the podcast ... I like the concept quite a bit.

[Scott]

Yep. I think it sounds good as well. I also think it will be interesting to see what sort of wider audience we draw, especially if we can get folks from the K-12 schools giving us a sense of how our notions will translate. Hopefully podcasting is not something that IT is blocking on networks in schools.

[Lee Speers]

Scott
Great podcast, I wont be in your class, but I hope I can be one of those that are stretching the walls of your class at least a bit. Looking forward to the class.

[Dave Solon]

Scott and Cole -

I enjoyed the first one and have subscribed via iTunes so I won't miss an episode! This sounds like a really interesting class, and like Lee, I cannot attend 'physically' but instead, I will attend as 'virtually' as I am able.

Looking forward to it!

[Becci]

It appears as if I am the first student to comment on the course's first podcast. This experience is definitely "inaugural" as you put it for me. I have never been introduced to a course before using any other medium than face to face contact. At first it was difficult to acclimate myself to such virtual contact, however, as time progressed, I was interested and engaged in the program despite the "strange" music breaks, which really weren't so strange. I think it will be important to see the diversity of experience with technology that each of us brings to the course. For me, I am quite the fish out of water at the moment. However, I hope that as the course progresses, I will not only have found my way back to the water, but I will also be swimming with an ever-increasing school of technologically savvy fish in our vast virtual ocean.