Is podcasting really my thing?

Well I spent literally hours trying to figure out which podcasts to subscribe to last week and then I got a dastardly cold (totally unrelated to podcasts I’m sure). But of course, my brain takes me on lateral trips, so I went looking on flickr for an image of a podcast! And once I’m looking at images and pictures – I wave farewell to my original task. I did find an informative site (for me) ‘A Podcasting Blog from Podcasting Tools’, which I have tucked into my RSS feeds.

Then of course the dawn of realization sparkled, and I remembered that I don’t have an iPod or anything remotely resembling one (well I do have an iPod shuffle but that really doesn’t count) so what would I do with these podcasts except listen to them on my computer. But I have better things to do with my computer, such as trying to find blogs of interest, listening to Ted Talks (thanks for telling us about these Tim) or pouring over great photos on flickr. Did I mention that I love flickr!!

Lonely No More

Thanks Melissa and Tim for 'speaking' with me, and Tim for your blogging insights. I'm going to check into sitemeter - who knows I might be getting as big in the blogosphere as Julie Powell!

And yes Melissa, Code Blue II was great; Code Blue III is already in the works.

The Lonliness of a long Distance Blogger

I was interested in Melissa's thoughts on blogs vs. wikis in education., and I agree that a wiki allows more options. I hope that in the new version of Blackboard (or whatever LMS might be chosen to replace it) that there will be wiki-like option as in my experience it is far superior to the discussion tool that we currently have. Her comments also prompted me to think about how very lonely blogging actually is. I mean really, I could write for hours (presuming I had anything to say) and my words could just continue to hang in mid-air with no one grabbing onto a few to have a conversation with me. I wonder if I need to value narcissism over the relational in order to be a bona fide blogger?

And lest I forget

P.S. re Flickr and a note re wiki

I did forget to give the link for my Flickr photo gallery - in it are the 'holiday lights' series plus the watercolors (very abstract - whoa, what goes on in my imagination!) of Chickering and Gamson's 7 principles. The images are all (except one I think) purchased images from istock photo.


I'm very fond of wikis so I had a great time setting up our DUT wiki. I appreciated the educational inputs to date and look forward to seeing more new pages.

As a sort of P.S.

I got to wondering if anyone had twisted Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People into something about teachers. Well sure enough, I found a blog called Education + Tech with a posting on the topic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers. Who would have thought!

Good Teaching Practices Sponsored by my new BFF Flickr

I thought a long time (and spent a long time) on this session, which is why week 4 is sort of over and I’ve spilled over into the start of week 5. The reason for such a delay is that I spent literally hours pouring over images that “spoke” to me. I love embedding images into slides, and now my blog and our DUT wiki . But here comes the big news – I don’t own a digital camera and rely on friends, istock or some other source to get my photos or images. And now I’ve found Flickr and WOW a whole new world has opened up for me. Judith gave me an idea when I saw the images on her blog The Body, Mind & Spirit Connection’ Judith gave some of her photos a label that is linked to education. This got me onto a notion that I could represent Chickering and Gamson’s Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education via abstraction (meaning most likely that no one have a clue how I came to think link a particular image to a particular principle ah, my mind works in strange ways). I started out by selecting 7 watercolors via istock and feeling that I had just what I wanted. Then of course I was required to go to Flickr. So in the end all 7 photos used for this juxtaposition (i.e. principle + image) were found on Flickr through a Creative Commons search in Krossbow's photostream in a series called Holiday Lights. I realize that the photos are totally out of season, however Hasan’s wonderfully hilarious blog post A Journey to the Land of Canada got me thinking winter wonderland all over again!

So away we go: Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education

Principle #1: Encourages student-faculty contact.

Principle #2: Encourages cooperation among students.

Principle #3: Encourages active learning.

Principle #4: Gives prompt feedback.

Principle #5: Emphasizes time on task.

Principle #6: Communicates high expectations.

Principle #7: Respects diverse talents and ways of learning.