July 2009 Archives

The Virtues of Podcasting

By CHRISTOPHER PHILIP LONG on July 16, 2009 8:06 AM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks
When I began my summer faculty fellowship here at ETS, I did not think that podcasting would play a big role in the project as a whole. However, Allan Gyorke convinced me that the podcast would be a great medium to do the sort of things I wanted to do with my scholarship. 

Over the course of the last few weeks, my team and I have produced a number of podcasts that center on the excellences associated with digital dialogue. Our work raised my comfort level with the technology of podcasting and with the sound of my own voice digitally recorded and now I have started to move out into a wider academic community to produce podcasts of my own with students and scholars at diverse locations using Skype Recorder.

One of the main goals of my project was to expose my research to others earlier in the creative process to see if new ideas and directions of research emerged from that exposure.  Originally I thought I would do this with blog posts, and I have to some degree.  However, the dynamic, probing, tentative and, indeed, dialogical nature of the verbal exchanges captured on podcasts actually seems to be the more natural medium for this attempt to cultivate a cross-pollination of ideas.

Check out the Digital Dialogue Podcast on the Socratic Politics in Digital Dialogue blog or visit us on iTunesU.

Digital Literacies workshop update

By Chris Millet on July 7, 2009 12:05 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks
(this is a follow-up to Ellysa's post about our workshop)

As part of the faculty fellowship with Ellysa Cahoy, we're going to be holding a workshop on digital literacy.  As we've been meeting and planning this, we've started to come up with some really great ideas that I think will make for an engaging learning experience for instructors, instructional designers, librarians..  basically anyone involved in developing student instructional activities.  It started out as essentially the DC Digital Storytelling workshops rounded out with information about literacy, research, and utilizing library collections.  The idea we came up with last week was to wrap the whole workshop in an overarching project to develop a historical narrative.  Essentially what we'll be asking participants to do is choose an important moment in history, and use library media collections and media authoring tools (potentially Kaltura) to tell a story from the point of view of someone who was there.  Each step of the way participants would develop their digital literacy.  For example, effective research skills by searching AP videos of the event, and then identifying appropriate use given licensing restrictions and Fair Use freedoms.

The workshop will help us round out our understanding of digital literacy, especially as it pertains to literacies required by students to successfully complete digital media projects in their classes, which will factor into research studies we'll be running over the next year.

If you're interested, you can sign up for the workshop here: https://register4its.psu.edu/Public/ShowDetail.asp?scheduleid=106796

Digital Literacies workshop update

By Chris Millet on July 7, 2009 12:05 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks
(this is a follow-up to Ellysa's post about our workshop)

As part of the faculty fellowship with Ellysa Cahoy, we're going to be holding a workshop on digital literacy.  As we've been meeting and planning this, we've started to come up with some really great ideas that I think will make for an engaging learning experience for instructors, instructional designers, librarians..  basically anyone involved in developing student instructional activities.  It started out as essentially the DC Digital Storytelling workshops rounded out with information about literacy, research, and utilizing library collections.  The idea we came up with last week was to wrap the whole workshop in an overarching project to develop a historical narrative.  Essentially what we'll be asking participants to do is choose an important moment in history, and use library media collections and media authoring tools (potentially Kaltura) to tell a story from the point of view of someone who was there.  Each step of the way participants would develop their digital literacy.  For example, effective research skills by searching AP videos of the event, and then identifying appropriate use given licensing restrictions and Fair Use freedoms.

The workshop will help us round out our understanding of digital literacy, especially as it pertains to literacies required by students to successfully complete digital media projects in their classes, which will factor into research studies we'll be running over the next year.

If you're interested, you can sign up for the workshop here: https://register4its.psu.edu/Public/ShowDetail.asp?scheduleid=106796

Creating Cross Pollination

By ELIZABETH J PYATT on July 2, 2009 1:46 PM | 0 Comments | 0 TrackBacks

In recent weeks there has been a lot of discussion about how to create cross pollination among the faculty fellows. This week's big accomplishment for our groups has been to arrange a joint summit with Chris Long's group. The Fellows are also scheduled to be on a panel for the Summer Camp, but I hope there are more opportunities.

When we compared notes on projects, it definitely seemed like there was a lot of overlap. Allan asked what we thought the common theme was, and on further reflection, I think it's that we all are working towards a common vision of the Internet being a place where anyone, anywhere can contribute to the knowledge of the community (and I count brisk discussion as an important part of that).

Ellysa Cahoy has been focusing on new information literacy - which not only allow students to filter the enourmous amount of content out there but hopefully will allow them to make intelligent contributions. Carla Zembal-Saul has been focusing on student portfolios, which is an important skill to allow us to organize and share what we are learning with the world. Chris Long has been focusing on how the Internet can enable discussions of the type practiced by Socrates...but with a potentially much larger stage. And Stuart Selber has been focusing on how technical writers need to prepare for a world where users may be providing "official instruction" on a product.

I think there's been lots of interesting discussion going on and it's giving a lot of us a rare opportunity to think about how our jobs really can impact Penn State and the larger world. As I said, I hope there are more opportunities for cross pollination out there for us and the Learning Design community. These instructors have a lot to teach us.

If you want to sample what we are thinking, I would recommend Mary Janzen's last blog entry on technical writing. As always, I find it very interesting reading.

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