Podcast Anyone?

The first Podcast I chose to listen to was SmartBoard Lessons. It was very cheesy and lacked the luster required to have my full attention. The two hosts of the cast kept cutting one another off with jokes and random comments like radio personalities on a bad morning show. The quality of the audio was fantastic and I found it interesting that they can host a Podcast over the internet without any sort of lag in the stream.

The next Podcast I chose was Kidcast. First of all, I liked the custom introductory music. The host spoke well and in a way that people could easily follow him. I enjoyed the episode I listened to. It was about audio Podcasts versus video Podcasts. He argued that in strictly audio casts, the host has to rely on very descriptive language to set a scene whereas video casts, people can use not only speech, but also body language to communicate.

The third Podcast I chose was EdTechTalk. The first thing I noticed was that the shortest Podcast on the list was thirty-eight minutes! The longest was one hour! I am not sure what the general demographic of people says about free time, but I would not sit and listen to a one hour Podcast. They should try to make it short and to the point. I found a little irony in this Podcast. I have been watching numerous videos and discussions about how education needs to get away from the traditional lecture-style environment, but here I am sitting and being lectured on a topic; not by a teacher in a classroom, but by an audio file.

The last Podcast I chose was a bit of a wild card. It has nothing to do with education and technology in the classroom but I figured it would be interesting to see what came up in the search. I found one called Special Ops Paintball. It is a Podcast that is all about a type of paintball called "woodsball" or "scenarioball". It can be found by simply typing in the words Specail Ops Paintball into the search bar. Specialopspaintball.com is the leading supplier of scenario paintball gear, parts, accessories and apparel. Many of their products are made to military specifications so they look and feel like the real thing. They were mainly videocasts from what I could tell, and the ones I downloaded took some time. Besides that, they were interesting and informational. Still I wonder, does the fact that these people know they are being recorded make their jokes cheesy or is it just me?

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

This video was very interesting. This is, in my mind, what teaching is all about; finding a way to spark students' minds. When you can give them that spark, they run with it and do amazing things. Vicki Davis has found a way to empower her students.

Using interactive maps and connecting to people around the world, a history student can learn about another country and see it first hand. With technology as a major tool in the educational system, a more interactive and rewarding learning experience can be achieved.

Sir Ken Robinson Talk

Creativity is indeed something that is not as prevalent in education as it was two hundred years ago, but look at what we have achieved without its prevalence. If I am in a car accident and am in need of immediate surgery, I can rest assured knowing the person operating on me spent years in difficult classes with professors that "live inside their heads" to get to where he is. If the focus in education is moved toward the arts too much, then the curriculum for a discipline like medicine, for instance, may not require such rigorous training.

I am not saying that things like music and dance are not important to molding a well rounded person. I am simply saying they should not become the most important thing in education. Sir Ken Robinson makes a good point when he said that public education was created to support industrialization; and now that I think about it, grade school was very similar to a factory to build a person from a child to an adult ready to work. This was quite controversial.

Did You Know? 3.0 and Mr. Winkle Wakes

Technology is growing faster than the world has ever seen. It is so unfathomably fast that, by the time someone buys a computer or a piece of software that is, "up to date", it will be obsolete before they can use up half of the memory available on that system. The figures given in Did You Know? 3.0 were absolutely incredible. It shows how quickly not only technology is growing, but also the lifestyle and evolution of humans.

My theory is this: In ancient times people evolved from nomads to farmers, rocks to iron, bows to bullets. These changes took a very long time to come about. Now that technology has completely fused itself with how and what people do on a daily basis, I feel that we as humans will evolve along side of, and just as quickly as, technology. Soon there will be no need to travel because you can go into a room that is completely integrated with virtual reality. You can smell the salty air and feel the sun on your skin in Hawaii if you want, all while standing in a room in your home. This video is a perfect example of this.

Mr. Winkle Wakes was, to say the least, an eye opener. The basis of this movie is that education has not moved as quickly as technology has. It is almost as if the educational system was left out during this technology boom. Rip Van Winkle notices that offices and hospitals have totally integrated with all of these machines and new technology that is allowing the people there to do extraordinary things.

He points out that machines are allowing people to have conversations and see each other half a world away. Other machines are able to keep people alive that would otherwise be long since dead. So why does the school not have amazing machines like these? Machines that could absorb the information lectured for the student? Yes, the educational system is almost exactly as it was over one hundred years ago, whereas everything else around it has changed dramatically.

About Me

To start, I must say this is my very first blog. That being said I suppose I will keep it simple. My name is Ryan and I am a junior at the University of South Alabama. I am a Secondary Ed./History double major and I am also earning a minor in German. I have a lot going on in my life all the time. When I am not at school, you can find me at the gym, playing paintball, hunting, fishing, or watching UFC. I have a part time job at Leslie's Pool Supply. I am even in a rock band called Fire For Effect. We are ok. Out of all my hobbies I suppose paintball is my favorite. Sadly it is also the one that I have spent the most money on. Besides that there is not really much to say. I work hard, play hard and live life.