Podcasts a wider net

A new publication was waiting patiently for me on my desk when I finally sloped back into work yesterday. It's a review copy of 'Podcasting for Learning in Universities', edited by Gilly Salmon and Palitha Edirisingha. I will be writing a review for the journal Interactive Learning Environments for this one in the next few weeks, but here are my first impressions:

This is a slim volume, with less than 230 pages, but it contains 17 fairly heavyweight chapters, focused on various attributes, applications and outcomes of the use of podcasting techniques in higher education, from academics in the UK and Australia. It's in essence a celebration of the IMPALA project (IMPALA - Informal Mobile Podcasting and Learning Adaptation). Contributers include the Gillster herself and Pal, and a galaxy of fairly well known names including Mark JW Lee, John Traxler, Simon Bates, and of course the host of researchers who count themselves members of the Beyond Distance Research Alliance.

One neat little touch in the book is where Gilly and Palitha along with Ming Nie provide a chapter (15) entitled 'Developing Pedagogical Podcasts' in which they provide an overarching critical review of the preceding chapters, and essentially put the cream on the cake of the IMPALA project. There are very useful 'how to' sections, and large tracts covering such topics as collaborative learning and reflective learning. Most of the content is case study based, but much is also expertly theorised.

At first glance, this looks like a welcome addition for many online educators, and I suspect that in due course, and with more considered glances it will be regarded as a seminal text for those interested in developing podcasting as a serious educational tool.

High level talks

I'm sat in an office on the top floor (18th) of the Attenborough Building, here in the heart of the University of Leicester. There are spectacular views over the city from up here, or there would be if I could see past the scaffolding and netting that is covering most of the building. Leicester is suffering from the same syndrome as many other universities throughout the UK at the moment. It seems that every university I visit is in the process of being rebuilt, refurbished or repurposed. The University of Plymouth is probably the university with the most building at the moment. Millions have been spent in the last 2 years to create buildings on the main campus so that we can 'pull our horns in' and close down all our external sites. Anyway, back to Leicester...

I'm here as guest speaker for the Beyond Distance Research Alliance - an influential group of academics and professionals from several UK universities who meet to discuss research around e-learning, distance education and learning technology - the group is led by Professor Gilly Salmon. She will be at the talk, as will Professor David Hawkridge, whose work I read during my teacher training days. In my seminar today I will be presenting some recent research I have been doing with my team on wikis as collaborative learning spaces. I've also promised to briefly discuss Second Life as a 3D wiki - but I won't give too much away, as I'm saving the best for Online Educa in Berlin next month. I don't think I have ever given a talk at so rarified an altitude, although my trip to the skyscarpers of Frankfurt a few days ago gave me some useful training...