podcast – Page 2 – D’Arcy Norman dot net

Demo Podcast for Education

This is a demo.

Podcast: On blogging, and ePortfolios

Update: The podcast audio file was borked (thanks for the heads up, Brian!) so if you downloaded a 6 minute version, it’s truncated. The whole thing should be 18 minutes long, and is available here. Sorry about that…

So, I’m still not using the computer when I’m “off duty”, but that doesn’t mean I can’t stretch out on the couch with my iPod and TuneTalk microphone and think out loud about stuff after Evan’s gone to bed…

I actually started this podcast as an offline notebook page, on the bus ride home on Friday. Then, I did more thinking about it, and read some of Nona Lyons’ With Portfolio in Hand, and wound up rambling into my iPod…

In this episode, I talk about two topics. First “How do you find time to blog?”, and second “Thoughts on ePortfolios”

Here’s the download, or if you’re listening along in iTunes, you’ve already got it.

Since both started out as offline notebook pages, here are the pages in raw form, as well as cleaned up versions for searchability.

How do you find time to blog?

Sparked by a conversation with Patti while waiting for a meeting (ironically, about ePortfolios, hence part 2)
Short answer: “I don’t (find time to blog). It’s an interstitial activity.”
- in the time-between-time
- a minute here, a minute there…
- slowly build up a body of work that acts simultaneously as
  - outboard brain
  - framework for collaboration and dissemination
  - a fluid, practical eportfolio
  - scaffolding for personal and professional reflection
  - indispensable tool for structuring info + knowledge
- and, if it’s shared, so others can build on what I write
  - value added by each user (comments, trackbacks/links, emails
  - contribute to, and help build/sustain a community of practice
  - reputation building/management – personal, and professional
semi-formal thinking
- because it’s “public” it helps to direct streams of thought, to produce tighter, more coherent writing
it’s become part of what I do – not an additional task
now, it’s just a part of my thinking process

Thoughts on ePortfolio

ePortfolio as a slice across all of a person’s online works
- blog
- Flickr
- del.icio.us
- …
use an “eportfolio” tag in all of these tools, and use something like SuprGlu to gather pieces together – Small Pieces Loosely Joined
foster collaboration/review/reflection
professional development vs. compliance
- ePortflio as a tool/process – a verb, not a noun. journey, not destination. process, not product
- should be an optional activitiy – force people to do it, and it becomes meaningless
- must be flexible – structure, content, design
- able to opt-out, but you would then lose benefits of community/culture of professional development (but that should be a decision made by the individual)
ePortfolio as theoretical process
- critical thinking about what best represents you
- pedagogical design/showcase
- can’t be represented by a simple fill-in-the-blanks “template” ePortfolio
ePortfolio review
- by peers
- to foster discussion/reflection
- how about an “ePortfolio club” where students get together to critique ePortfolios (what goes into them, design, etc…)
“Mass Amateurization” – where an amateur is able to easily reach ~80% of the quality of a professional, due to increased effectiveness of tools.

In this episode, I talk about two topics. First “How do you find time to blog?”, and second “Thoughts on ePortfolios”

Here’s the download, or if you’re listening along in iTunes, you’ve already got it.

Since both started out as offline notebook pages, here are the pages in raw form, as well as cleaned up versions for searchability.

How do you find time to blog?

Sparked by a conversation with Patti while waiting for a meeting (ironically, about ePortfolios, hence part 2)
Short answer: “I don’t (find time to blog). It’s an interstitial activity.”
- in the time-between-time
- a minute here, a minute there…
- slowly build up a body of work that acts simultaneously as
  - outboard brain
  - framework for collaboration and dissemination
  - a fluid, practical eportfolio
  - scaffolding for personal and professional reflection
  - indispensable tool for structuring info + knowledge
- and, if it’s shared, so others can build on what I write
  - value added by each user (comments, trackbacks/links, emails
  - contribute to, and help build/sustain a community of practice
  - reputation building/management – personal, and professional
semi-formal thinking
- because it’s “public” it helps to direct streams of thought, to produce tighter, more coherent writing
it’s become part of what I do – not an additional task
now, it’s just a part of my thinking process

Thoughts on ePortfolio

ePortfolio as a slice across all of a person’s online works
- blog
- Flickr
- del.icio.us
- …
use an “eportfolio” tag in all of these tools, and use something like SuprGlu to gather pieces together – Small Pieces Loosely Joined
foster collaboration/review/reflection
professional development vs. compliance
- ePortflio as a tool/process – a verb, not a noun. journey, not destination. process, not product
- should be an optional activitiy – force people to do it, and it becomes meaningless
- must be flexible – structure, content, design
- able to opt-out, but you would then lose benefits of community/culture of professional development (but that should be a decision made by the individual)
ePortfolio as theoretical process
- critical thinking about what best represents you
- pedagogical design/showcase
- can’t be represented by a simple fill-in-the-blanks “template” ePortfolio
ePortfolio review
- by peers
- to foster discussion/reflection
- how about an “ePortfolio club” where students get together to critique ePortfolios (what goes into them, design, etc…)
“Mass Amateurization” – where an amateur is able to easily reach ~80% of the quality of a professional, due to increased effectiveness of tools.

Intro to Wiki Presentation

I gave a presentation/workshop this morning introducing 20 folks to wiki. “Collaborative Publishing with Wiki”. The session went really well, I think, and there have already been edits by some attendees on the U of C wiki (and perhaps on Wikipedia as well).

Here’s an interactive Quicktime version of the presentation. I didn’t record audio – I really need to record the full session. If you view it, imagine me talking about stuff, and making things really interesting and clear. It’s another modified-Lessigian-style presentation, so no bullet points, and some of the slides may not make too much sense without me talking. If a slide looks odd, imagine something interesting or pithy, and click the mouse to go to the next one…

I borrowed an image from Alan (he got a better shot of the Wiki Wiki Shuttle than I did), and pulled a couple images from Flickr. I also took advantage of the Santa Claus Parade this weekend to illustrate solo vs. group efforts 😉

You might need to right-click-save-target-as to download the movie – .mov files are being throttled at the U of C right now, so it’s taking FOR EVER to load in my browser. Save the sucker to your desktop, and when it’s (eventually) done, it’ll be completely viewable.

Intro to Weblogs and RSS Presentation

I just finished the first Weblogs and RSS workshop/presentation – “Personal publishing with weblogs and RSS” – an introductory overview of blogging, rss, aggregation, and benefits (and some risks) of blogging.

The session was sold out (20 people), and I think it went reasonably well. Not the best presentation I’ve ever given, but it seemed to be received OK. It’s a hard topic to present about – acronyms are in blogging’s DNA – and some of the concepts are just plain foreign to novices. Read/write web? Aggregators? etc…

Here’s a quick screenshot of the intro presentation (click for a download of an interactive QuickTime version – sans audio. Imagine me talking compellingly…)

Almost forgot – the presentation is a modified Lessigian style – not quite MTV level of hyperanimation, but no bullet points. The presentation may not make too much sense without me babbling on about stuff 🙂

Also, I used one of our Kensington wireless presentation controllers for this session – wow, that is one nice controller! Uses radio (bluetooth?) and a USB dongle, so no line-of-sight limitation, and worked perfectly with my Powerbook once it was recognized (it triggered the Bluetooth keyboard recognition process, so I think it’s a BT doodad, even though it doesn’t have the logo on it…) I’ll definitely be using this sucker in the future. Only $40US or so, too!

Here’s a quick screenshot of the intro presentation (click for a download of an interactive QuickTime version – sans audio. Imagine me talking compellingly…)

Podcasting demo for ADETA

I just finished demonstrating podcasting for the ADETA group. During the session, I tried to upload audio to weblogs.ucalgary.ca to demonstrate podcast publishing and subscribing, but it failed for some unknown reason.

So, I’m trying again here. 2 podcast posts in one day… (you did notice the video from the last post was provided as a podcast enclosure – might even play on those fancy schmancy video iPods all the cool kids seem to have these days)

Demo Podcast for ADETA.

Also, the wiki page on podcasting that I mentioned in the session.

Update: Here’s the Podcasting session for ADETA. It’s a Java Web Start application, but should take you right to the presentation (eventually – bear with the download etc…). I had to turn up the “Speaker” volume – the right audio slider dealie in the bottom left corner.

Paul pointed out that I could have charged more. 😉 – it was a free session, of course.

Demo Podcast for ADETA.

Also, the wiki page on podcasting that I mentioned in the session.

Paul pointed out that I could have charged more. 😉 – it was a free session, of course.

NMC 2005 Conference Overview Video

This summer, at the NMC 2005 Summer Conference, they shot a bunch of video with interviews of some of the attendees, and some highlights of the conference. The video was distributed via DVD to the campus NMC rep – which is/was me. Instead of duplicating the DVD, or managing some form of sign in/out process, here’s the video. It was a quick-and-dirty rip of the DVD using Handbrake, so no bonus points for the art of video compression… The video is only 9 minutes long, so it’s not a big time investment.

It looks like the “official” version of this video on the NMC website is MIA, so if you want to see it, this may be your only chance. I make a quick cameo early on – look for the guy in the blue Hawaiian shirt and beige shorts walking past the camera with snack in hand at the Apple reception…

Brian Lamb podcast interview from EDUCAUSE 2005

I finally got a chance to listen to Matt Pasiewicz’ interview with Brian Lamb during EDUCAUSE 2005. What a great discussion. Always fun to listen to Brian talk about subversive activities in the Academy 🙂

Main points I took away from it:

I owe Brian a few bucks for mentioning me so positively – perhaps a round of brews during Northern Voice 2006 will suffice? 🙂
I have to check out AGGRSSive – sounds very cool for an rss aggregator and tagger. I saw a preview of it a while back after stumbling across it in my referrer logs, and it was very cool. It’s kind of like an RSS rip-mix-burn-omatic.
“Mass amateurization” – the concept that social software is at the point where it gets amateurs to 80% of the output quality that a professional would produce, with only modest technical skills and effort required. I’ve used the term myself a few times, and love what it implies about the read-write web.
Blogging as “narrating your work” – Brian mentions (almost apologetically) that his blogging has shifted with the advent of tools like del.icio.us – less impetus to “link blog” new finds, as they just get hurled into the social bookmark bucket. His blogging has shifted to be much more personal in nature – more in tune with his daily activity. Brian mentions that he’s sure he’s got a smaller audience, but is getting a much more intimate/rewarding experience. I fully agree. Over the last few months I think I’ve switched to be doing much the same thing, with the blog providing a narrative journal of daily work/projects/interactions. IMHO, this kind of blogging is actually much more useful (or perhaps more meaningful or thoughtful) than the previous link-blogging style.

Anyway, give the interview a listen. Brian is always entertaining and engaging. And every single time I hear him talk about social software, I find new ways of thinking about it, or of applying it, or just of describing it. He is such a deep thinker about this that I am truly humbled as a mere software geek :-).

Main points I took away from it:

I owe Brian a few bucks for mentioning me so positively – perhaps a round of brews during Northern Voice 2006 will suffice? 🙂
I have to check out AGGRSSive – sounds very cool for an rss aggregator and tagger. I saw a preview of it a while back after stumbling across it in my referrer logs, and it was very cool. It’s kind of like an RSS rip-mix-burn-omatic.
“Mass amateurization” – the concept that social software is at the point where it gets amateurs to 80% of the output quality that a professional would produce, with only modest technical skills and effort required. I’ve used the term myself a few times, and love what it implies about the read-write web.
Blogging as “narrating your work” – Brian mentions (almost apologetically) that his blogging has shifted with the advent of tools like del.icio.us – less impetus to “link blog” new finds, as they just get hurled into the social bookmark bucket. His blogging has shifted to be much more personal in nature – more in tune with his daily activity. Brian mentions that he’s sure he’s got a smaller audience, but is getting a much more intimate/rewarding experience. I fully agree. Over the last few months I think I’ve switched to be doing much the same thing, with the blog providing a narrative journal of daily work/projects/interactions. IMHO, this kind of blogging is actually much more useful (or perhaps more meaningful or thoughtful) than the previous link-blogging style.

Battlestar Galactica Podcasts

Dear Ronald D. Moore…

I am a total Battlestar Galactica junkie. Fell in love with the previews of the miniseries, and have been watching every episode since. Absolutely great stuff – some of the best scifi on tv. I love that it avoids the formulas as much as possible, and doesn’t treat the audience like lobotomized droolbots that need constant spoonfeeding. It seems like, by and large, each episode is better than the last – and that’s hard to do for 1 season, let alone 2.

The podcast by Ronald D. Moore is also a stroke of genius – giving us the “director’s commentary” (ok, the executive producer / developer’s commentary) in almost realtime. Brilliant.

However, I would really like it if either Ronald or someone from Scifi.com (whoever does the post production on the podcasts) would please turn down the volume on the commercial-break BEEEEEEP. If I’m listening on my iPod while commuting, I have already turned up the volume pretty high because the level of Ronald’s voice recording is rather low, and I need to hear over traffic noise etc… So, Ron (hey, if I let you into my iPod, I get to call you Ron) is talking about the episode, and how wonderful the actors are, yadda yadda. Then, after a second-long pause in speech, there’s the three-second-sonic-lobotomy. BEEEEEEEEEEP. No real warning. Just a HUGE spike in volume, turning my brain to mush for three seconds. I can dive for the pause button, the neurons controlling my finger don’t respond when I’ve been hit by the commercial-tone-stun-ray. By the time I’ve struggled my way to the volume controls, the lobotomy is over, and I start to recover just as the commentary kicks in again. Too late, again.

Other than that, I am so totally addicted to the podcasts that I keep listening – learning to brace myself when I think a commercial might be coming up. Gritting my teeth really tight seems to make it hurt less. I think the other people on the bus think I’m fighting the urge to obey voices in my head or something, though… I suddenly tense up, pupils dilate, breath stops short… What? Kill them all? No. The noise will stop. Aaaaaah. There it goes…

Dear Ronald D. Moore…

The podcast by Ronald D. Moore is also a stroke of genius – giving us the “director’s commentary” (ok, the executive producer / developer’s commentary) in almost realtime. Brilliant.