bobCast #7 Emerging Communication Technologies for Online Learning

On Thursday June 23 I attended the Emerging Technologies Conference held at The University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. This conference was a part of the Partnership for the Advancement of Distributed Learning program at the University. This workshop covered several of the newer technologies that are being used by faculty in the classroom. These technologies include blogs, vlogs, podcasting, rss feeds, news aggregators and exposure to several different types of portable devices such as iPods, PDAs and Blackberry devices. This podcast discusses some of the information and ideas that were presented and how these technologies might be employed in the mobile classroom.
Below is a list of websites that were given as sources of additional information:

Blogs

Bloglines - http://www.bloglines.com
Myblogsite - http://myblogsite.com
Blogger - http://www.blogger
Blogger includes Autoblogger – http://autoblogger.com call autoblogger from any phone and leave a message that is immediately posted to your blog site as an MP3 audio file.

Podcasts or audio blogs

Podcatching (Aggregator) software

ipodderx – http://ipodderx.com
ipodder – http://ipodder.org
iTunes – http://www.apple.com/itunes Version 4.9 will have a built in aggregator
Dopplerradio – http://www.dopplerradio.net aggregator for Windows XP computers
Podfeeder – http://www.podfeeder.com

Podcasting directories

Castregister.com – http://www.castregester.com
Digital Podcast – http://www.ditigalpodcaster.com
iPodderx - http://ipodderx.com/directory
ipodder.org – http://www.ipodder.org
penginradio – http://penguinradio.com/podcasting
podcast.net – http://www.podcast.net
Podcast Alley – http://www.podcastalley.com
podcastDirectory – http://www.podcastdirectory.com
podfeed.net – http://www.podfeed.net

The Podcasting Community Online

Podcasting News – http://www.podcastingnews.com – A site to read about the latest podcasting news.
Daily Source Code – http://www.dailysourcecode.com – A daily audio blog by Adam Curry in MP3 format
Ipodsoft – http://www.ipodsoft.com – A resource for ipod applications
podcastExpert.com – http://www.podcastexpert.com – A community-driven site for resources on creating, producing, and receiving Podcasts
Ultimate Podcasting – http://www.ultimatepodcasting.com – The Companion Podcast for The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Podcasting

Integration of technology into the Curriculum

Sue LeBeau – http://www.suelebeau.com/blogs.htm - Blogs, vlogs, wikis and podcasts websites compiled by Sue LeBeau
Australian Computer Society – http://www.acs,openlab.net.au/content.php?article.88 – Weblogs, blogs, vlogs and wikis by ACS on Monday March 14th 2005
Utah Education Network – http://www.uen.org/is/podcasting.shtml - Utah Education Network for exploring models for offering educational content via Podcasting.

bobCast #6 June 6th, 2005 Using Podcasting as a Teaching Tool

How can podcasting be used as an educational tool? As discussed earlier, one of the biggest advantages of podcasting is the ability to download a podcast file and listen to it in a mobile fashion. This means that the student be use the file in any place they happen to be. This could work very well for the community college becasue the basic community college student is by nature very mobile. Many students have a long cummute just to get to the classroom. They then rush off to work, which means more time in the car or on the bus. The mobile MP3 player can go right along with them, and offer them entertainment or education. In the car, and FM modulator such as the Griffin iTrip for the iPod will allowthem the play their device through the car radio. They can listen to the class lecture that their professor has posted as a podcast on his or her website, or listen to a test review that might help them pass the test that they will take later in the day.
I teach a class entitled Introduction To Speech Communication in which the students are exposed to the various elements of speech communication including group discussion. We do an excersice called the Financial Aid Project. In this project, the class divides up into small groups of around five to seven students, and they must choose two people from a list to recieve scholarships that will allow them to complete four years of college that they might not otherwise be able to do on their own. Do they pick the person who has worked to achieve high scolastic standards, the football player or cheerleader or the person from a third world country who will go back to his country after school and help his people produce more much needed food?
In this bobCast, I recorded the presentation of each group and I have included the highlights from the presentations. When you listen to the reasons why they choose the people you start to get an insight into the thinking and feelings of the community college student.