What Podcasting can be
I have expressed a great interest in ACU (and their ilk's) foray into Web 2.0 education (see recent posts), and I have expressed some open skepticism on how they may make the relevance.
If you are interested in using technology to address educational content, you must check out The History of Rome podcast (don't click the link yet...you won't be back). Most of the entire podcast catalog can be found in iTunes, which is a nice way to collect and move to your MP3 player of choice.
I commend you, Mike Duncan. Engaging content that educates, engages and completely sucks me in!
Labels: education, higher education, history, podcasting, technology in learning
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posted by Piss Poor Prof at 1:57 PM
2 Comments:
Dear Piss Poor Prof,
I respectfully disagree. These are not the best podcasts out there, although they might be the absolute best on the history of Rome. I've now listened to 11 podcasts---on your recommendation, so I feel I have a fair sample size from which to critique.
I find Duncan's voice and forced points of emphasis to be more irritating than conducive to learning. It's like he's trying to infuse the topic with urgency, rather than letting the topic either inspire one to draw parallels, or convey the joys of a far off time.
What exactly, beyond the information (which is fascinating), do you like about Duncan's delivery style?
- TL
I stand by my positive assessment, while conceding your critiques. Given the paucity of podcasts (especially history one, although there are more about history than literature/poetry/fine arts), The History of Rome is still remarkable.
What I like about Duncan's style is the tangential-like nature of introducing a character and giving a picture of where that character pops up later (X, who twenty years from now would be named Emperor for the fourth time...). That is, Duncan gives a broader sense of context for the people and events.
Is he sonorous? A bit. But, the smaller nature of the podcasts (about 10 minutes) allows for a decent chunk of material, without dozing too much.
As to urgency, it is history--any sense of excitement is preferable to none at all. :)
I would love to hear/read a better approach.
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