I would think, though, that it’s largely something that has to fit into your life. If I had a 5 minute commute I don’t know when I’d listen to them with two kids at home…..

— Scott

One of the things that scares me is that I’m still finding it hard to get them to think about all this (which was part of the purpose behind 2020 Vision). We’re so caught up in the day to day struggles of the classroom that it’s really hard to look forward a little bit. And if they aren’t aware of both the promise and the peril of Google and others, how can they help shape how it’s going to turn out?

Anyway, yeah, it isn’t like the availability of podcasts is hurting anyone and, in the cases you note, it’s the medium of choice. I guess what I’m urging in all cases is that we always match form, content, purpose, and audience to the best of our ability. It doesn’t seem as though anyone would disagree with that. Podcasting worries me in particular, though, since the ease it offers the speaker often costs the listener, but that by no means disqualifies it.

I also echo Chris’ and others’ comments about the voice – in both senses of that word – it gives our students. There’s a difference between reading what a student writes, and then hearing that same student actually speak it from the heart. The example I give my teachers is Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech (but you could pick others). If you read the text, it’s a good speech (maybe even a great speech). But I think most folks would agree that it doesn’t compare to hearing him deliver it . . .

I also printed out 20 pages of The Edge’s annual survey. I took them to the gym and, while reading, wondered how many of the same writers would retain even a fraction of their insight and lucidity if constrained by GCast’s podcasting utility, which gives you one take, no editing, no overdubbing, all via a mobile phone’s mic.

I admire the enthusiasm of School 2.0-savvy educator bloggers, I really do. I think some temperance is necessary, though, and I guess that’s the role I’m continuously, though unintentionally, self-selecting. In that spirit, I need to point out that Blogger, WordPress, and Typepad democratize writing in ways that GCast and AudioBlogger and all of these one-take, no-edit, no-overdub utilities do not. Imagine typing your posts without a delete key — can’t correct misspellings, can’t correct syntax, and, most importantly, can’t spruce up structure to accentuate meaning. Moreover, with podcasting, it’s the listener who absorbs all of these costs.

That’s how I see the current situation, anyway.

Thanks for the heads up on your interviews, Scott. I’ll check those out and get back to you if anything strikes me. (By the way, I wonder on a daily basis if you’ve got the same website in your newsreader that I do: Information Aesthetics. If not, it’s you, man. It’s totally you.)

http://www.castleconversations.org/

have been well-received so far, both by my students and others (you’re a data guy, Dan: let me know what you think!). Hearing presentations I couldn’t attend, getting to hear people’s actual voices when usually I only interact them via text, being able to think and reflect via my iPod while biking or driving to work with a distant school district: these all have value for me. I do tend to like more structured podcasts (e.g., Steve Hargadon, presentations) but they don’t have to be so professionally-polished that they start to reek of inauthenticity…