Comments on: G’DAY WORLD #226 – Benjamin Wilkoff on Education 2.0

By: Michael Specht

Michael Specht — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:59:22 +0000

For some using the internet to make you smarter is an oxymoron

Completely agree with your statements. However I think schools that are integrating technology into the learning program, such as blogs, wiki’s etc are more likely to be the ones to encourage learning through the Internet. For example, Ben’s class is being encouraged to go to the Internet to further research topics discussed in class and they can complete the research while in class using the PCs in the classroom.

By: Cameron Reilly

Cameron Reilly — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 00:27:59 +0000

Michael – yeah some schools are better than others, I agree. But using blogs to get kids to capture there thoughts isn’t really what I’m talking about either. I’m more talking about helping kids tap into this amazing amount of knowledge that is available at their fingertips. Using the internet to make you smarter.

By: Michael Specht

Michael Specht — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:31:13 +0000

Cam a comment around use of technology in schools. Not all schools are slack. I read today that my son’s school is starting to use blogs for the grade 3 kids to document their thoughts and learnings on the construction going on at the school at the moment. This is on top of the WLAN across the campus, PCs and projectors in the classrooms.

By: Cameron Reilly

Cameron Reilly — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:42:37 +0000

Tom – you seen this being done anywhere? If so, point me to it and I’ll try to steal the code.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:15:12 +0000

REQUEST: Chaptering on the website based flash players, with forward and backward skip buttons.

By: mike seyfang

mike seyfang — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 07:15:39 +0000

Cam, thought I’d join the 1% and leave my comments here.
Firstly on the show – BRILLIANT!!!
Putting conversations out there is exactly how it works and this one connected with me – *BINGO*.

In terms of guiding Benjamin toward a new show, remind him that PASSION is the key ingredient. He should base his show on that which lights his burners.

I will help Ben out if he starts new show (since he will likely be talking about stuff I have been doing in anger for two years now).

Nice to see TPN hold a steady course thru the storms of life – your (re)articulation of the business plan still holds water old chum.

Fang

By: scientaestubique

scientaestubique — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 02:04:41 +0000

As podcasting and rss evolve, I think we’ll see a lot more improvements in usability to make some of these features more friendly. I hate fast forwarding through 59 minutes of a podcast because I missed the last 10-15 seconds of the file.

By: Ian from Brissy

Ian from Brissy — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:32:03 +0000

Just getting thu the podcast now. About chaptering it’s one of the little things I like about the way Scott from Mac News from Maui makes his podcasts (yes he is the one that does use chaptering) and I use it to look at the images as well as to return to some interesting subject that I may want to reference to, especially if I want to comment on it when I get back to my mac. I can understand your point of view of not wanting to scroll thu all chapters but I think to have extra graphic info in particular throughout the information stream would inhance it. I can imagine working in my workshop to stop for a moment to glance at an image that you reference to, say on the Napoleon Podcast, or an image of a geodesic dome to explain it easier additional to the long description necessary.

By: scientaestubique

scientaestubique — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:28:05 +0000

I think more educators just need to see how popular some of these media items are, such as this one:

http://www.scouta.com/faves/8cueXkE5ZKZ/

Most of the viewers who love this had never previously heard of cultural anthropology, let alone read an anthropology blog.

Viewed over two million times and a YouTube favourite to more than 20,000, few educators would ever dream of reaching so many students with one presentation.

http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/02/07/web

I wish this service had been around years ago, I’ve seen many inspiring teachers who would have made contributions like this, but didn’t have the tools.

By: Miriam Parkinson

Miriam Parkinson — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 03:47:30 +0000

Yup another great piece by DA on atheism is “Is there an artificial god” from a speech he gave at Digital Biota 2.
http://www.biota.org/people/douglasadams/

By: Cameron Reilly

Cameron Reilly — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 03:36:47 +0000

Great interview! It’s actually David Silverman, the interviewer, who is coming on my show, so I’ll ask him about meeting DA! Dawkins quotes from DA a lot in God Delusion as well. Apparently they were quite close and it was Dawkins who turned Adams into an atheist in the first place.

By: Miriam Parkinson

Miriam Parkinson — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 03:32:43 +0000

Have you read the interview that the American Atheists did of Douglas Adams about his atheism?? Its absolutely fascinating and DA is a genius with words.
http://www.americanatheist.org/win98-99/T2/silverman.html

By: Cameron Reilly

Cameron Reilly — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 01:29:30 +0000

Thanks Ralf! It’s probably worth doing, it just adds more work and I’d only do it if there was a demand for it.

By: Ralf

Ralf — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 00:03:10 +0000

You are talking about chaptered shows on this podcast. Why don’t you offer 2 versions of the same podcast? One to be played in one go in your car and the other one in the enhanced version with chapters?
Just a thought.

By: Ralf

Ralf — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:27:03 +0000

I love the idea of Education 2.0 and so on, but I still think that the majority of people that can teach, lecture etc. will be scared of the idea of podcasting. What I mean by that is that many people make money on every lecture they do and now you’re telling them that somebody that has retired will be recording his knowledge on an mp3 and distributing it to the public basically for free. I think you will find a great deal of resistance here. Their argument will be that in few years there will be no need for teachers, just examiners because all your knowledge will be acquired thorough podcasting. I think that’s a great thing for few minutes of advertising during every show.
Love your show!
The spell-checker reports the word ‘podcasting’ as an error. I think you should look into that ;]

By: Herne

Herne — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:19:34 +0000

That shoulda read “Herne” above… It’s pretty bad when you can’t even spell your own screen name! I’ll chalk it up to Cam having now “preview” button on this thing! Yeah…pass the buck! The Great American Passtime!

By: Hernre

Hernre — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:17:21 +0000

Heya Cam, I’m proud to be part of the 1%!

Sounds like an interesting idea for a new show. Even though I don’t have any kids (thank gawd), I would like to see more educators inspire today’s youth to do more learning outside of the classroom. They’ll play a video game for hours and they’ll search the web to find answers about how to cheat that video game, but how do you get them to search the web to find out more about other things they’re asking questions about? Like “why is the sky blue?” and such… Kids need more active learning in their lives–I’m constantly meeting people who can’t or won’t look outside their narrow fields of understanding to learn something new. “How do you work this printer?” they’ll ask…well, did you try experimenting with it? Did you read the instructions? Did you go on Google and look for articles from someone else who bought the same printer and found an easier way to use it? Usually the answers are “No.”

People need to go out and learn more!