Activity 8.3 - Review of a podcast

My review and notes on an H808 colleague's podcast.

Original name replaced with Sue to protect privacy

1.1 Mb - 6:25 min

1) Sound Quality?
Desired qualities? Low enough sampling rate that it is fast to download, and does not demand more storage space on a computer then is necessary. Yet the sampling rate must be high enough so that it supports clear message delivery without drawing attention to itself. 16000 mono with a 32 bit sampling rate would seem a well suited choice for this. Unfortunately it is mildly undermined by the constant presence of a background hum which appears to compromise low pitch sounds. I also noticed that the recording balance in Audacity read minu 0.3 off the zero mark. I am not clear as to the relevance of this but from my experience such a change is an anomoly. Speculation on my part but the background hum may have been caused by the presence of a magnetic field coming from another piece of electronic equipment nearby or improper grounding of the recording device.

2) Broadcast quality? - well constructed / intelligible
Desired qualities? Podcasts succeed when they have the listener's "buy in" from beginning to end. Part of realizing this requires organization and structure similar to what most of us expect from radio programming. Part of this requires information to be succinct, and well sequenced so that its purpose is clear and focussed on the topic at hand. Sue shows careful attention to sequencing her podcast. She begins by providing fairly detailed background information on her educational context and how it contributes to her choice of the highly relevant elearning topic of - reflective writing - as the focus of her podcast. This topic is then explored in the remaining five minutes of the podcast through seven carefully chosen and sequenced question and answer sessions. Each question is presented by a colleague and then fielded by Sue using information gleened from the topic of reflective practice in Units 2 and 3 of H808.

While the introduction provided interesting background information on how she came to choose the topic of reflective writing for her podcast, the delayed introduction of her target topic may undermine listener engagement. A possible alternative here might be to make such background information available in optional text form as a preamble to the podcast or retain it but with a detailed printed time sequence script with a breakdown of subtopics in the podcast. The later strategy affords listeners the option to include or not include this selection in their listening.

3) Suitability? does it meet the needs of the intended audience
Desired qualities? A clear understanding of who the target audience for the podcast is. With Sue's podcast, the Intended audience appears to be key stage 2 to 5 educators in the UK who may be already aware of reflective writing but may not be so familiar with either the rationale for it or how to best realize it... though it is not entirely clear if by reference to "student" she is referring to teachers as students or teachers who are to facilitate reflective writing with their students. Questions are well selected and well sequenced to ensure a basic understanding of reflective writing and its importance.

4) Length? is it of an appropriate length for the subject / intended audience
6:25 minutes in 16000 Hz mono
Desired qualities? Of sufficient length to cover the main points of the topic and yet still short enough and to the point so that once the listener has bought into the importance of the topic, they choose to listen to the podcast in its entirety. Sue's podcast is short but rich in content. The seven carefully chosen and sequenced question and answer sessions serve as mini chapters for quick reference and future access. Such a structure (with the possible exception of the extended introduction), supported a high level of engagement from me.

5) Interest?
Desired qualities? Very subjective aspect of the review. Highly dependent on many variables - how relevant the topic is, how it is organized, how it is supported, how creatively it is presented, how enthusiastic the speaker is. My personal interest was in hearing how a colleague engaged with the task and how successful she was in producing what is likely her first podcast - something I can declare to being highly successful.

6) Academic quality? is it based on research / argument / opinion
Desired qualities? This is also problematic to clarify. A lot of this will be determined by the interests and needs of the target audience... of which I'm not at all familiar with. However, from my perspective Sue's podcast presents a distillation of academic articles on the subject of reflective writing in the easier to digest, question and answer format.

7) Suggestions for improvement?
Ideas that occured to me? More choice in how to listen to the podcast. For example, the current set up demands listening to the whole podcast. However, with an index of topics and subtopics and their timings, the listener can choose to commit the amount of time they wish to listening. This gives adult learners who are often time starved and task oriented .. a chance to quickly assertain the importance / relevance of one resource amongst many to warrant investing the time required to listen to all or part of a podcast. Another idea? Much of the podcast sounded scripted - something unavoidable certainly when doing it the first time - but this might be minimized more through the use of note cards thus making the podcast sound more authentic and convincing. Much of the power of a podcast to engage the listener comes through the emotive qualities of the speaker as well as the actual content. Another idea? Invite the opinion of the questioner to share differing perspectives on the same questions and by doing so, invite the opinion of listeners.

8) Suggestions for use - if it were part of an information source for practitioners, what brief notes would you put on the site to place the podcast in context
Ideas that occured to me?
I might include a brief abstract with time lines and with specific reference to sections of the podcast to target specific topics that may be of interest to target listeners. I might note the background of the speaker and interviewer and include a bibliography of important sources that were to help realize the podcast. Ideally I would also encourage the setup of an online discussion board to invite listeners to question, discuss or share points related to the presentation so that engagement with the presentation is not left to just passive listening.

Activity 8.4 - The influence of Audience

On the subject of appropriate communications, I feel that I have had a great deal of experience with this.

As part of work as a Art Museum Education Officer many years ago, my main challenge was to make a visit to the museum both engaging and educational for any and all visitors. Fundamental to realizing this meant introducing the concept of visual literacy (the language of art) and its application to interpreting all forms of art and ultimately, to the many different works of art on display in an art museum. I also needed to do this with a variety of audiences. The basic audiences were two - children and adults.

With both groups, I introduced the basic concepts and their emotive qualities. These are line, shape, colour and texture. I then collected a sampling of designed objects that were common to all to help illustrate these concepts. For line, it was the calligraphy used on a can of Coke and how it communicated movement and "life". For shape, it was a sports car (for boys) and a perfume bottle (for girls) and how their shape conveys a story - the car often communicates sleekness or speed, the perfume bottle communicates exoticness, exclusivity and luxury. For colour, it was detergent boxes compared with gourmet food packaging. Finally with texture, the biggest challenge, it was examining how food was presented (often juxtaposed with smooth surfaces to excentuate its texture and infer taste). As one might expect, the presentation concepts were the same for both groups however how they were presented to children was very different from that used with adults.

Curiously enough, the children usually had an easy time comprehending the emotive qualities of the basic elements of art (i.e. line, shape, colour and texture) and then feeling comfortable both applying them and sharing their findings with one another - the younger the children the better. However, for adults it was more difficult. It often meant communicating another message that went alongside this message. Typically, this involved discussing how our perceptions shape how we value and assign a worth to things - a cognitive rather than "emotive" approach. Over time I refined the presentation based upon a pattern of success that was realized through many dialogues with adults. Even amongst adults, I saw differences in how this was perceived. For example, with teachers who were familiar with arts education, this was easy. However, when speaking with school principals (headmasters) or school administrators or trustees (usually in that order) it became more difficult but not impossible.

What I have learned from this and attempt to apply to this day in my work as an education technologist, is the need to take the time to understand the values and perspective of the audience I am working with before making comment. I often test my assumptions about their needs by presenting them for review to make sure they are correct. Once done, this often invites a dialogue that reveals their needs, perspectives and values ... and hopefully their compatibility with my own.

The approach has served me well.

As a result, I am a lot more confident in how to proceed in the consultative role of an elearning practitioner. The advantage the Museum experience afforded me was to have essentially the message as a constant .. only the nature, needs and interests of the audiences changed. Today, in the world of education technology, while the audiences are still varied, the messages to convey appear to be just as varied.

Activity 8.3 - Podcast Review - Laurillard - What does a practitioner want from learning design?

Link to enhanced podcast
Duration 35:47 min

m4a file (requires Quicktime)
file size 20.9 Mb
What is the m4a file format? Answer

1 - Quality?

Technical quality is more than adequate. The use of an "enhanced podcast" with its sequenced and synchronized slides proves especially effective in helping to illustrate the interconnection of ideas presented by Laurillard.

2 - Broadcast quality? - well constructed / intelligible

The podcast's introduction clearly outlines the presentation's context, topic and sequence of subtopics. The presentation then moves on to deliver what it promises by providing a dense presentation of information in the same sequence as that it was introduced.

3 - Suitability? does it meet the needs of the intended audience

The target audience would be conference participants focussed on LAMS ... While, the topic of learning design is presented from the point of view of the practitioner or lecturer... it could be of interest to both this group and the elearning professionals - education technologists - who are tasked with working as consultants with this group.

4 - Length? is it of an appropriate length for the subject / intended audience

It is 35 minutes in length but with a significant amount of indepth information presented over this period of time. The presentation also offers a detailed listing of follow up resources that invite listeners to explore cush concepts in greater depth.

5 - Interest? does it engage you

Topic is highly relevant to my own needs and interests as a learning technologist looking for approaches to support instructors in realizing more effective instruction. A very rich "machine gun like" listing of points and ideas, created an almost avalanche like flow of information without any let up. Absent was the return to earlier points to reinforce them One advantage of podcast becomes immediately apparent when in response to the avalanche, I reach for the pause button to reflect on a lecture point, or even listen to it again to test / check my understanding. Yet the outline at the beginning prepares the listener well for the sequence of ideas that lie ahead of them.

6 - Academic quality? is it based on research / argument / opinion

Academic relevance is high. Topic of learning activity design is relevant to most any educator and especially useful to any one interested in looking for an approach that promotes alignment of various aspects of instructional design. The design suggests a well thought out review of this process. The basis for the review The model presented ensures learning design is pragmatic to the lecturer .. yet includes a review of learning theory, methods, student needs, assessment .. as well as content. Suggests that such a structured approach ensures some inclusion of these points which may often be overlooked in favour of a content focus.

7 - Suggestions for improvement? how could it be altered to better suit the needs of the audience

The presentation is very rich in content. As such, it lends itself well to podcasting and the ability to stop or pause when convenient to the listener. However, because of its rich nature, it could support listeners with a more detailed breakdown of the outline according to subtopics and their timings to allow targetted review of sections of the podcast for future reference or review. It might also include a transcript.

• Another strategy might be to repeat or rephrase important concepts that were introduced earlier when moving on to newer concepts. This might support a listener's comprehension of the various concepts and their interconnectedness.
• A glossary of abbreviations to again facilitate understanding of the presentation
• Follow up activities including a possible model template in a spreadsheet form that demos such integration and invites application
• A possible working example of the examples referred to in the presentation
  

Another supplementary strategy might be to include an online discussion thread to field both reviews from fellow practitioners who have put the ideas into practice and questions from those who may have differing perspectives or are seeking clarity on the ideas presented.

8 - Suggestions for use - if it were part of an information source for practitioners, what brief notes would you put on the site to place the podcast in context

An abstract with the following review

Noted elearning expert Diana Laurillard presents at the 1st international LAMS conference (Learning actiivty management systems), a course design model that aims to ensure learning activity design is pragmatic to the lecturer .. yet is also well grounded in pedagogy and addressing student needs. Such a structured approach ensures inclusion and alignment of learning theory, methods, student needs which the speaker suggests may otherwise be overlooked in favour of a content focussed approach by a lecturer.

While appearing to be targetted at lecturers, its focus on suggesting a pragmatic but detailed approach to learning activity design may be of interest to learning technologists who often are assisting such lecturers in this process.

Activity 8.3 - Podcast review - Interview w/ Gwen Dapper

Interview with Gwen Dapper: a podcasting course plan
Podcaster Steve Sloan
2005, December 2
mp3

Duration 37:30 min

Accessed Sunday, December 28, 2008 4:42:56 PM

1 - Quality?

16000 Hz stereo with a 32 bit sampling rate seemed to be more than adequate - a balance between ensuring it is high enough that one has a sound quality that does not distract from the podcast content ... yet low enough to minimize file size to facilitate downloading and storage

2 - Broadcast quality? - well constructed / intelligible

If the quality of the broadcast was to be compared with radio then it lacks for structure and conciseness.. beyond a mention at the beginning of who was being interviewed and the general shared interest of both the host and guest in podcasting . it wasn't clear how things might evolve the title offered some suggestions but only a very small portion of the podcast was devoted to the topic suggested in the title - podcasting course plan. discussion on the benefits of podcasting for both academics and their students proved to be interesting

3 - Suitability? does it meet the needs of the intended audience people interested in learning more about podcasting, its benefits, its possible applications in an academic context ...

Some of this seems to be there (read the general comments down below for details). However, in the absence of a clear structure or introduction, I have to wonder just how many people would have had the patience to take notes and listen for the gems of information.

4 - Length? is it of an appropriate length for the subject / intended audience

37:30 minutes in 16000 Hz much too long for what was talked about.. some repetition of key points.. namely downloading and improving student access to academic lectures .. but.. then again.. typical of the "folksy" nature of podcasting

5 - Interest? does it engage you

First 10 minutes did engage my interest .. I enjoyed the conversational style and there did seem to be enough of a focus plus discussion on the topic in a context that I could relate to .. however the last half seemed to go on forever.. some information that was local in context seemed out of place and undermined my interest .. repetition of some topics was also observed .. likely contributing to my own thoughts about the relevance and suitability of listening to justify listening to the last half

6 - Academic quality? is it based on research / argument / opinion

Academic in topic but conversational style .. general dialogue ... Sometimes appearing to drift off task but host guided it back to topic of podcasting in academics. In the absence of a compass (introduction) at the beginning it might have appeared to be more off task than it really was.

7 - Suggestions for improvement? how could it be altered to better suit the needs of the audience

Provide the listener with options on how to approach podcast

• listening to the whole thing
• chapters inserted
• topics listed with timings
• transcript
• introduction and structure of the interview
• abstract to give me some idea as to the focus
• glossary of key terms that may be new to people

This gives adult learners who are often time starved and task oriented .. a chance to quickly assertain the importance / relevance of one resource amongst many to warrant investing the time required to listen to all or part of a podcast

8 - Suggestions for use - if it were part of an information source for practitioners, what brief notes would you put on the site to place the podcast in context

Provide potential listeners with a general abstract with time lines and specific reference to sections of the podcast to target specific topics that may be of interest to target listeners. Something to the effect of "Conversation between a noted US Podcaster Steve Sloan (EduBlogger) and Masters in IT student Gwen Dapper on her plans to teach podcasting. In the process they share the benefits to faculty and students in using podcasts and how easy they are to set up."

content - Key benefits of podcasting
Key benefits of podcasting for students include

• time shifting
• remediation
• improve access to advanced materials for adv learners
• improve access to content for disabled students
• improve access to disadv students (single parents, etc.)
• commuting time becomes functional time
• future access to same material incorporation of speech or parts of speech into one's own podcasts
• capitalize on student culture / acceptance of tech

Activity 8.2 - Knowledge Marketplace

Selling = my skills / abilities that may be of interest to my peers

• Selling - screen cam program use
• Selling - Zotero - referencing utility
• Selling - basic but often not used utilities in MS Word

Buying = skills / abilities that I hope to learn from my peers

• Buying - remote technical support strategies
• Buying - Twitter users?
• Buying - Web 2.0 applications for use in

Selling - screen cam program use

I have made extensive use of screen cam programs such as Captivate ($), Camtasia ($ .. now free), Camstudio (Open Source) and Jing (free) to support remote demonstration of computer based activities. Useful for "showing" clients how to set something up or how something is "supposed to" work on the computer AND for leveraging one's already very limited time.

For example, I received many requests from faculty asking how to realize a listing of student email addresses. I shared with them how to use the CONCATENATE function in MS Excel to do this. I used Jing to support it.

The same information can be placed on an institutional server or remotely (i.e. Jing) for future access.

Jim Buckingham -email jab226@student.open.ac.uk

Selling - Zotero - referencing utility

I have become a habitual user of Zotero (Open Source) as an alternative to EndNote or RefWorks. It is built into Firefox and with the help of a Plugin can be used to easily cite within MS Word. Have used it to create libraries plus related online notes for each Unit of H808.

If you aren't familiar with Zotero... here's a more detailed review (Open U - password protected) I put together back in October 2008 which aims to describe it and present a value proposition.

Jim Buckingham -email jab226@student.open.ac.uk

Selling - basic but often not used utilities in MS Word

Embedding sound files to create listening jigsaw activities, password protecting documents to secure individualized tests, and bookmarking to support digital lesson plans for students.

Jim Buckingham -email jab226@student.open.ac.uk

Buying - remote technical support strategies

Looking for others who have dealt with the problem of remote technical assistance and what other strategies they have found useful / effective. Another technical tool that I'm currently exploring is Yuuguu

Jim Buckingham -email jab226@student.open.ac.uk

Buying - Twitter users?

Currently used in our department (spread across 2 campuses) to quickly call for and share expertise amongst us. Interested in learning how others might be using Twitter as a communications tool in either an educational or business or support setting .. perhaps setting up a similar support arrangement amongst fellow H808s.

If you aren't familiar with Twitter .. here's a more detailed review (Open U - password protected) I put together back in October 2008 which aims to describe it and present a value proposition.

Jim Buckingham -email jab226@student.open.ac.uk

Buying - Web 2.0 applications for use in

Some of this I've already started to explore but would welcome learning from others who have experience with innovative applications of Web 2.0 tools in such subject areas as Visual Arts, Mathematics and Statistics.

Jim Buckingham -email jab226@student.open.ac.uk

Activity 8.1 - Podcast - Perceptions of an Educational Technologist

As an educational technologist, I sense I may be confronting a mix of perceptions about what an educational technologist is. As a result, I chose to interview 4 faculty members to find out what their perceptions really were and to my surprise, I learned even more.

Duration 6:17




0:00 [beginning]
[author] Hi my name's Jim Buckingham and the issue that I thought would be worth exploring here a little bit was the perception of elearning and more specifically the perception of my position as an education technologist here at Zayed University. I set out to do this by interviewing four instructors to learn from them first hand how they perceived the position .. and my method for doing that began with drawing up a few simple questions. One of them was what is an edcuation technologist and what is an educational technologist is it really.. is it a professional or a technician. Listen now to a select sampling of those interviews beginning with Steven, an EFL instructor, then Fiona, an information literacy instructor, followed by Peter, another EFL instructor and closing with Kate, a business studies instructor here at the University.

With each one of them I add my own reflections and I think I or I hope that you'll find them interesting.

1:11
[Steven] .. oh really I think the person needs to be both. Umm.. and I think the other aspect which I would include there is "communicator". The problem with technology in various different fields to technologist ... that individual needs to have I think extremely strong communications skills to be able to umm.. to explain how something works, how it can be used by the educator but then of course to also understand how that meets the needs of the educator.. to be able to put himself or herself in (fade out) ..

2:01
[author] Steve made it abundantly clear to me the importance of communications for an educational technologist to do their job effectively and indirectly, how important that was to realizing the collaborative portion of the position. I also heard indirectly, just how important it was for an educational technologist to listen - to listen intently for the instructor's needs and equally so, to listen for the context of their teaching. Now listen to Fiona give her perspective on just what an educational technologist is.

2:36
[Fiona] I think some of the people who have been in the CTL have been staff and I think others that have been hired by the CTL have been professionals .. and I think ... people who are going into the field now or are being educated in that field come out as professionals whereas when it was first starting, I think it was basically anyone with an interest in computers

2:56
[author] It was fascinating for me to hear how an information literacy instructor, like Fiona, had picked up on the evolution taking place in the field. How it has shifted its primary focus from the technology to education. Just to put things into perspective, the CTL is the "Center for Teaching and Learning" here at Zayed University. Now listen to Peter, an EFL instructor talking about "is an educational technologist professional or technician?"

3:27
[Peter] Technologist tends to make some one sound like a technician but I think I would sort of take the leap in my head that this must be more than that. It can't be just a technician, it's going to have to be someone who understands education too unless ... perhaps they're being guided by somebody else and working as part of a team

3:44
[author] From my perspective, Peter indirectly uncovered how the position of an educational technologist may not be so clearly understood afterall. While it can be assumed to have an education focus, without an understanding of the working relationship an educational technologist has within their department, they could be just as easily, as he said, directed by others in a team. Now listen to Kate as she introduces the concept of technical challenges versus adaptive challenges as a way to help explain the professional nature of the educational technology position.

4:20
[Kate] Hafeets (Sp?) wrote a great book... and he talks about the difference between technical challenges and adaptive challenges. Technical challenges are those that we have preset solutions for, things we've done before .. adaptive is a unique or new situation and faculty members who are either trying to use technology in a.. way they never have before or a technology they simply never used before ... that's really an adaptive challenge for the faculty member. so you need somebody who not only understands what is going on technically in the classroom but also somebody who is going to deal with those emotional challenges as well because I think that's a more (fade out)

5:07
[author] I thought that this offered a relatively simple but effective explanation of the complex nature of our work as educational technologist. Listen in now to Kate's perceptive comments and how she saw education technology evolving as a profession.

5:23
[Kate] One of the things that it hasn't done yet.. because its new.. and all professions go through this phase where they need to define themseleve..and educational technology hasn't yet clearly defined itself. So I think (fade out)

5:39
[author] So what I discovered through the exercise were a number of things I really hadn't expected .. in general how well the position was understood by those I interviewed and specifically, how it reinforced four things. A clear expectation that education technologists have excellent communication skills. A respect for the challenging nature of the position. A realization that the profession is still evolving and a suggestion that it needs to work on defining itself further if it hopes to raise its status as a profession.

6:18 [end]

Activity 8.1 - my log on producing a Podcast

software involved

• Audacity (audio editing)
• WinFF (file conversion)
• Juice (Podcast - feed subscription)
• Switchpod (Podcast - file host)
• Google System Blogspot (Code for embedding MP3 players into Blog post)
  

hardware involved

• Olympus DS30 digital recorder

Background

I've worked with Audacity a few times but nothing beyond a quick recording to share with students. As for podcasts, I love listening to them when I'm running on the treadmill or going for a walk on the Corniche but don't see them as useful for much else. I never saw much point in creating them on the belief that unless the emotive qualities of my message or that of others was as important to communicate as the content of the message.. then I could just as easily live without them. This exercise (to produce a podcast) invited a review of that.

Recording

Interesting to think about how to prepare (questions, digital recorder) and then find a stage for my selected "sages" to speak .. then approaching them in a non threatening way to encourage a positive response to my invitation. I was surprised to see the level of support and equally strong responses to the questions. I also recall a sense of excitement about not knowing exactly what to expect..

Converting

Once done with the recording, I discovered a number of obstacles. I was already familiar with the basic operation of Audacity so that was easy. However, I was less familar with the digital recorder that I am using. I was already confronted by one seemingly major issue .. the need to convert wma (the ONLY setting on the recorder) to wav or mp3 files. This meant hunting down a solution .. an wma to wav converter. In the end I selected WinFF because it was free, and looked dead easy to use.

Once converted from wma to wav.. I discovered that it didn't end there.. I then had to open again each file into Audacity for editing. A very time consuming task .. if I wanted to produce something that I felt was worth the time to listen to .

Editing sound files

A new set of challenges with editing. This meant sorting out problems with sampling rates, creating tracks, adding fade ins and fade outs and editing sections. A couple of hang ups of the software stressed to me the importance of frequent saving of files as Audacity projects so that previous editing work would not be lost if tech problems emerged.

I noted how putting together a presentation and making it coherent felt a lot like editing an essay. I likened it to cut and paste in a word processor .. yet with sound bites.

Then the whole thing needed to be saved with consideration given to both the file's size and format. I chose MP3 because its pretty much the norm these days. I also adjusted the sampling rate to 22050 mono because this would reduce the file size to speed up the download for others and yet still provide enough fidelity to be clear and easy to listen to.

Broadcasting

This proved remarkably easy to realize. As per Martin Weller's excellent instructions (compliments of H808) .. I began by registering on Switchpod, I then followed the "Creating your podcast" steps... five in all but only 3 were absolutely necessary.
In the end Switchpod provided both a link directly to the MP3 file
and a feed link for subscription to the podcast (in the event I might want to repeat the whole thing again).
http://www.switchpod.com/users/buck_in_sand/feed.xml
http://www.switchpod.com/p22376.html

However, when attempting to carry out an uploading of the podcast to the Open University podcast wiki page, I confronted the issue of just where to put it - H808 wiki podcast page (to which I appeared to be the first customer) and the Tutor Group Wiki (which seemed to be a collection point for a slew of podcasts). In the end, I attempted to post it in both places... I had success in one site .. but not in the other and for reasons that are still not clear to me I had problems with embedding the podcast into the wiki.

Embedding player into Blog

This proved interesting to sort out. No widget (as of yet) supported in Blogger but an assortment of embedded audio players are out there to use for free. I used Odeo and the following code

Replace
[MP3 file address]

Template
<embed src= "http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_black.swf" quality="high" width="300" height="52" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars= "valid_sample_rate=true&external_url=[MP3 file address]" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>