maagusfcaedu's blog

The international academic podcast repository is an online database developed by the University of San Francisco and the University of Illinois Springfield. Through the sharing of  podcast lectures and related academic materials, students and faculty members gain access to new sources of expertise and diversity of views to enhance learning and faculty development.

Ed-Cast is in the alpha phase and soon will be ready for academic podcast submissions. Please contact Professor Ray Schroeder at rschr1@uis.edu or Professor Margaret Maag at maag@usfca.edu

We look forward to your response to this collaboartive effort to bring expert m-learning to students.

One of my goals this summer was to create an education pod (e-pod). A friend of mine "nudged" me to take the time to create the e-pod. Here it is: http://margaretspod.blogspot.com/. I have updated my lecture podcast page,
http://www.maagnursing.com/podcast. Hopefully the tutorial will help the students.
I am in the process of finding out the university's policy on making the lecture podcasts public. Perhaps if given the go ahead to make the pod lectures public it will assist nursing students displaced by hurricane Katrina.
Another reason for making the MP3 lectures available via RSS technology is to assist the TAs  in conducting exam review sessions for the students and to assist athletes while they are traveling to tournaments.
I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Jean-Claude Bradley from Drexel University this week and he introduced me to "screencasting." He uses pod lectures, as well.

This week the students started their end-of-year project presentations. I have recorded constructive feedback via my MP3 player and sent them short (3min.) feedback clips via their email on Blackboard.
I will let you know what they think!
I objective is to provide the students' constructive feedback in a timely manner. And, it took me 1/4 the time to type it or write it on a piece of paper.

Margaret

A student emailed me some feedback about the recordings of my lecture podcasts.

"I have found it really helpful to have your lectures
recorded and available on the web. I always think that I
am taking accurate notes but always find myself with questions
when I review them later. Being able to go back
and listen while I go over my notes and make up flash cards is
extremely helpful. I think one of my problems is
that the class is so late in the day and is after clinicals. My
intellect bottoms out after about 2:00/3:00 in the
afternoon.

Nsg Dx: Declining intellectual perceptiveness r/t biological
clock's
effects on intelligence and memory AEB
stuporous expression and increasingly obtuse questions." ;-)

Students informed me this evening the MP3 lectures are of excellent voice quality. Remember I am using an iPod photo player and a Griffin lapel microphone. I walk toward the student when they ask a question so they feel important and are contributing to the pod-lecture.
I think my self-efficacy in lecturing is improving because I listen to the lectures after class and see where I might improve. I am more relaxed when I lecture because I know that I am providing another method of delivering the course learning objectives and I can check what I said when I am developing test questions.


Question:

Does blogging and podcasting assist tenure-track faculty in meeting the goal of achieving tenure? Does blogging and/or podcasting increase a faculty member's ability to publish?

Just some thoughts-

Margaret

Matt has encouraged me to blog about my recent use of the iPod photo (60 GB) and Griffin lapel microphone attached to the Griffin iTalk for recording my lectures at the U of San Francisco. The files are automatically saved as wave files in iTunes and then I use soundgrinder to convert them to MP3 files. Then I transfer them over to my server via fetch for the students to pull onto their iTunes and MP3 players. Needless to say they are happy campers because they have the lecture on their players and I can listen to myself to see where I need to improve upon my presentations.

I am a bit shy when it comes to presenting at meetings, therefore, it is helping me to critique my presentation style.

I would love to hear about your experiences with podcasting!

Three of my goals are:

1. Create a nurse educator podcast this summer. iPodderX has not gotten back to me to let me know if they want to sponsor my show.
2. Do a podcast at the upcoming ANIA meeting in Las Vegas toward the end of the month.
3. Create a "Poe-Cast" (named after Edgar Allen Poe) for reciting poetry.

I am a novice podcaster, but I see great potential in nursing education and healthcare professions. I wrote an article for a journal last month and look forward to hearing the editor's response to "Podcasts: A New Medium for a New Voice in Nursing Education"

Let me know what you are doing with podcasts and the equipment you are using/suggest for podcasting!
Need a place to post my casts!

Cheers-
Margaret

I had some time to read George Siemen's paper on connectivism yesterday. Connectivism, coined as the learning theory for today's learner, may be better understood by reading Siemen's paper at http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

There is also a website and a connectivism blog at
http://www.connectivism.ca/

The theory makes sense because it emphasizes that learning is a social event and occurs in organizations. So, there I was this evening sitting in on a DE course facilitated by Ray Schroeder at the U of Illinois and students from Columbia University in New York City. Actually, there was a student in class from Korea, as well. I observerd their communication pattern and then the topic of online vs. f2f came up. A student asked: If we have online courses in school are we not missing the social aspect of f2f contact? After 30 minutes of observing this online chat and playing in the whiteboard garden, a social network evolved and connectivity was happening right before my eyes. A student driven culture was so apparent. The way they communicated and questioned common social behaviors, such as multitasking, etc.
Distance education does provide a "social" group environment and connection and actually it is very similar to f2f learning environments. Sometimes we do not realize that we are creating community in a society that is driven by technology.

I am thankful for George Siemen's theory of connectivity! It makes sense to me.