Bronwen Clune on Heutagogy

Heutagogy is the process of allowing learners to decide what they want to learn, how they want to learn it and when they want to learn it. It enables the students to become responsible for their own learning. The project aims to use Web 2.0 technologies to engage and motivate the students and then mentor and support them while they complete a project based outcome. The word for today is heutagogy. Read more about this from Bronwen Clune!

PodCamp Boston 2 - October 26-28, 2007

PodCamp Boston 2 is rapidly approaching. We are into August and October 26-28 feels like it is just around the corner. It was a great event last year and I expect this year to be even more so. There are already 290 registered for this event. Are you in New England? You should consider participating! Even if you are outside the Boston metro area, this should be a good excuse to get here and participate! The PodCamp website with additional info can be found here: Register here: Technorati Tags: podcamp, PodCamp Boston, podcast

Boston Media Makers: Halley, Steve, and John listening

Boston Media Makers: Halley, Steve, and John listening Originally uploaded by shersteve Part of learning is listening. The sharing that took place today at the Boston Media Makers monthly meeting was insightful as proved by the intent listening looks on Halley, Steve and John's faces. Do you have your listening look ready to learn?

Podcasting Info

I get asked from time to time about what I use and how I do my podcast. This is an updated attempt to describe what I use and how I do it. Equipment I use one of two devices for my recordings. 1 - I obtained an MP3 at PodCamp Boston from Adam Weiss who was making podcasting starter kits available. It is an iRiver MP3 player with a mic and an instruction booklet that Adam wrote to walk you through the set up of the iRiver device. Adam blogs and podcasts at Boston Behind the Scenes and at Adam Weiss Podcast Consultant Adam has a good posting on mic placement The kit details can be found here 2 - I also have a headset for the computer which I use to make the Skype phone calls that also records very nicely directly with Audacity. I use a Plantronics DSP-400 Audacity is open source “free” software that manages the audio creation and allows for editing with far more capability that I currently know how to utilize. You can also use your phone. It will work nicely to create the "in the moment" environment. Adam has a good posting on mic placement Other sources of podcast info Online MediaTips The PodCamp Boston wiki has information from the sessions held last year Check the schedule to see if there is a PodCamp coming to your area Podcast Content An overview of all that I use to blog can be found here As an update to this posting from November 2006. I have created a formal pod cast for Passionate Runner. It is registered with a couple of pod cast directories including iTunes. I started an oral history project recording my father telling the stories of his life; Jerry's Story. This is not yet registered with iTunes but it is due to be. I have a poetry podcast also in the works. I'll update this when that is ready for prime time. Visit the podcast directories listed below http://www.apple.com/podcasting http://www.podcast.net http://www.podcast.com http://www.podcastalley.com http://podcasts.yahoo.com http://www.podzinger.com

Review: The Power of Play - David Elkind

The Power of Play by David Elkind is an insightful book. We all recognize that our children are the future. How do we help them learn well? David writes: "Learning is most effective when it involves play, love, and work. ... Children are not naturally motivated to learn from formal instruction. This motivation comes first and foremost from the ways in which literacy, math, music, and sports are introduced. Formal instruction is work. Parents and teachers are most effective if they build on children's love of stories, contrasts, rhythm and rhyme, unexpected facts, and humor. If we introduce literacy and numeracy with the use of these techniques, we build on children's spontaneous motivation and learning interesting and fun. At the same time, we also win the child's respect and affection and thus make the instruction a matter of play and love as well as work." Can we also apply these best practices on how they learn to how we learn? Aren't we still kids in some ways? In many ways, yes. I think if we look at how we learned best, we will recognize the same combination of play, love and work present at those key learning moments. If these components were there, then in order to continue to learn, we should try and replicate the same combination of play, love and work in all our learning situations. I would suggest that this combination of play, love, and work is what is behind the efforts of Sandra Dickenson and selearninggames is what is driving the efforts of the Joyful Jubilant Learning group is what is motivating the folks to create PodCamps There maybe other examples. These come to mind from activities I have been involved in. I recommend this book to all those wanting to know more and especially to those who appreciate understanding how to learn. For parents in particular, David closes the book with suggestions on how to beat the system. You can create opportunities to play the "Dumb books Caper", the case of the missing use, how to break the report card code, and tips on how to utilize the neighborhood tutor. These tips are worth working your way through the book. They will be fully appreciated (and balanced with play, love, and work) by the time you get to the end. Trying to get ahead of the "game" by going directly to the end defeats the purpose as you'll have missed the all important framing. I have written a series of posts around other quotations from this book. The series is collected here.

Rapid Fire Learning - Feb 2007

Almost March already, where does time go? While there is still time for more learning, here what I have thus far: 1 - Found that recording the Jewel concert in South Station worked pretty well with my podcast kit from PodCamp Boston. This gave me practice editing with Audacity as I split the 46 minute concert into individual MP3 song files. 2 - Found that there are a lot of Jewel fans cruising the Internet and a good number of them found my pages when I posted the previously mentioned MP3 files. Jewel fans, thanks for stopping by! 3 - Ran in a road race using the race as a workout as I follow my recovery plan. I decided to carry my camera with me to truly be a tourist for the race and ensure that I did not get caught up in the excitement and run faster than I was ready for. Learned that I can take pictures on the run. 4 - I learned that there are 10 dimensions and not just four. I don't understand them enough (yet) to be able to explain them to someone but I like how Rob Bryanton does the explanation! 5 - The web is indeed a place for connections. I am heading to the BeyondBroadcasting 2007 on Saturday, carpooling with a couple of local bloggers. One I had met at PodCamp Boston, and the second I met through the first. Hurray for connections!