I only have a minute … but I have to pass on this lovely little conversation about voice and other related topics. The follow on discussion in the comments are a wonderful example of how conversation can work in the blogosphere. the value of voice by…

Professor In Your Pocket
Now course casting lets college students skip classes and download lectures onto their iPods. Biology rocks! But some parents just don’t understand.

Con:

“..Students learn an important skill when they are required to show up for a lecture: creating a schedule and sticking to it. Being in class keeps them in regular contact with professors, which, experts say, is a key to keeping dropout rates low. Lectures, too, force students to focus for long, uninterrupted stretches. Course casting might work, says Lee Knefelkamp, a professor of education at Teachers College at Columbia University, if a professor is trying to deliver facts and concepts for later regurgitation. “Students can listen to that anywhere.” But a topnotch lecture, says Knefelkamp, “should be provocative, catch you up short and make you think in ways you never have before.” Those kinds of intellectual epiphanies, she says, rarely happen at the laundromat.”

Pro:

“..But converts say course casting is an easy way to add a much-needed jolt to the large introductory courses most departments must offer to underclassmen each semester. Students “aren’t interested in absorbing every word like passive sponges,” says Richard Lucic, a computer-science professor at Duke. Weaned on fast-paced music videos and thrill-a-minute game systems, students often complain that 90-minute lectures are mind-numbingly dull. The technology makes it easier for professors to enliven lectures with guest speakers and primary-source material. Some professors actually act more like DJs than Ph.D.s, composing musical intros, adding gong sounds, jokes and other aural cues to emphasize important ideas on the digitalized version of their lectures.”

I remember M. Gell-Mann saying:

“It [ physics course in high-school ] was INCREDIBLY BORING..”
– from “Student to Scientist”
[ a 1 hr program directed at high-school students, featuring prominent scientists incl many Nobel Laureates ]

I think the multi-media based Technology (”Alternative Model”) can *enhance* the current “Standard Model” lecture.

I used the HPP course in high school, & it was great:

http://libserv.aip.org:81/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!5803~!0&profile=icos

“Harvard Project Physics was a curriculum development group based at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA and supported by the United States Office of Education and the National Science Foundation. Its goals were to develop a humanistically oriented physics course by presenting the subject in historical and cultural perspective, help increase high school physics enrollments, and contribute to the knowledge of the factors that influence science learning.”

Along the same motives of HPP, the new Technology is another tool that can:

“help increase high school physics enrollments, and contribute to the knowledge of the factors that influence science learning.”

This is relevant to another topic, about dropping physics enrollments in UK universities

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/5953/

‘Course casting’ lets students listen to lectures on iPods
By Larry Angell | 11.23.05 | iPod

Several universities across the U.S. have begun distributing lectures in digital form so students can download and listen to them on their iPods. Critics complain that the “course casting” of lectures cuts down on vital interaction with professors, and also lets students get by with cutting more classes.

“Could ivy-covered lecture halls become as obsolete as the typewriter? This fall, a dozen colleges across the country have introduced a controversial new teaching tool called course casting, aimed at supplementing—and in some cases replacing—large, impersonal lectures,” writes Newsweek’s Peg Tyre. “Although it has been around for less than a year, course casting has become as popular as a keg party on homecoming weekend. Students at Purdue University have downloaded 40,000 lectures since the start of the semester—not bad for a school with an enrollment of 38,000. Drexel, Stanford, Duke and American University have begun course-casting programs, too.”
————-

Well, I can comment on the value of recorded lectures as it was a major part my success at college. As a science major, there’s a lot of note taking along with the lecture, more often than not I’d miss a piece here or there. For instance, many professors draw diagrams on the board and discussing it, most of us try to get the diagram down. I used a digital record and changed my style of note taking to better utilize this tool. It works great and I will never take another course without it. As far as the comment of interaction with the professor and student, there are two aspects, first, as I mentioned, there are other things in courses, ie the diagrams, that just won’t work via a recording for obvious reasons, I never missed a day of class either, again, a science major. But, with that said, it depends on the professor, for some, all you’d need is a recording as even when you’d be in class to see if the lecture wasn’t a pre-recored, if you know what I mean; for some professors, there is NO interaction.

By kaioslider on 11.23.05 at 02:49 PM
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The TV broadcast medium is being impacted by the new technology. The recent “video on demand” deals by CBS/Comcast & NBC/DirecTV, is equivalent to the above “lecture on demand”. No longer, does one have to be at watch a TV show at a certain time (or be at a lecture at a certain time): “time-shifting” via TIVO, iPod, etc allows the user to receive content at their convenience.

Students can review lectures while killing time: commuting, waiting for the bus, eating, etc. I’m travelling right now, using a Powerbook over a Verizon wireless-card — I was getting work done while waiting for flights, at the hotel. No more boredom.

Netiquette

As you can see above in this post box the rules have been defined. This sets out the conduct on how our admin’s here want us to work in our forms of response. That’s really simple. How I might quote from a writer of a web site for example, I might set out in my own html coding, yet it does n0t work here becuase they had set th eparameters around such issues. This is the method by which they had determined the netiquette they will follow.

Yes universal applications indeed.

But I believe through “good intentions” and “conduct” we can open ths space up some more. It is never the intention to be disrepsectful so direct linking and tracking might serve make these conection here within cosmic variance, but why cannot this applicability be taken beyond th eocnfines of this site?

Why I gave a link to Gamow’s historical analysis from what it had been taken from towhat it has become now? The internet is very alive on this “other level.”

Perhaps similar standards to that when you write an author of a web site … that is, politeness? Here are a few tips from a longtime (and sometimes jaded) WWW author:

1) Understand that a human lives on the other end. a) this human is not a free resource (for example don’t write and say he/she “should” do something for you) b) probably has higher priorities than the web site.

2) Please say please.

3) Please open the letter and close the letter (Dear_author.. thanks_yourname)

4) If the author states at their web site what they can/can’t do, that please don’t ask that author to do what she/he said he/she can’t do.

FreeVlog

Some points I have considered and if others reject these notions please say why.

I’d have yet to see anyone in the comment sections post a image. There are issues with this here in wordpress, and in blogger sections. For the admin’s this is not a issue.

The legalities, have forced me to consider how to push this envelope? Stealing bandwidth was one comment I took note of and to heart. If this issue bothers you, then should we rely on people to say, that they do not wish to have this done without permission? Or, not at all?

If you attribute paragraph information and directly link it to the sites, then what use is the link to the location and introduction of information that you would like attributed to you? Direct links in terms of images and written material should invite all of you to open the doorway not just to the creative commons, but open up the internet brain to all it’s neuronical linkage capabilites.

Having seen different methods in communications techniques, you get a sense of what attrubutes of HTML work and don’t. Trial and error. So you learn to adapt quickly

Making these functions universal through all communication techniques would bring the level up and reduce the frustration.

Something that Mark posted in terms of locations are a superficial way in which to look at ip addresses and locations of posting originations.

It’s a fact of life. If you are on the internet you are connected by this umbilical cord, whether you like it or not. Of course there are ways to hide, just because using an alias one might think protects you. Non!:)Being “invisible and acting on these forces of probabilities,” you may disappear after a time and life resumes

Unfortunately the connection also invites individual who are probing these IP addresses and trying to infect. Make sure your protected. There lots advice out there I am sure.

So if we accept such signatures as the connection to this world, what standards would we set for all who particpate and act responsibly? Agree to enter this world domain to add probabilistic valuation to individuals who operating on “another level?” Should this term be qualified?

Clifford, thank you for all the good links. I am buried in homework so have not had the chance to go on link hunts, but I think I should not simply add your blogs to my aggregator but create technorati watch lists as well to see when and where you (we?) are all talked about. It was THAT interesting.

(2) on the other hand, the ignorance (the root of most fear) that most academics have about the blogging thing, which may make them view their colleagues’ blogging as timewasting. What is it? Why do it? How can it help you do your job more effectively (teaching, research, service)? How does it contribute to the life of a university? How does it contribute to the success of the university in its roles in society (outreach, dissemination of knowledge for the public good, etc)? How do I start my own blog? How much time does it really take?

There is a variation of blog, called the video-blog. Video is the medium, rather than text. It’s getting a lot of attention:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4728259.stm
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/19/eveningnews/main788618.shtml

Now, with the introduction of the (video capable) iPod on Oct. 12 where Apple is doing a “test” for TV shows, a video-blog (with an RSS feed submitted to iTunes) suddenly have a new (mass-consumer) MEDIUM over iPod/iTunes.

Content: Video
Device: iPod
Distribution Network: iTunes music-store

from last June:
“NEWS: iTunes Podcast Subscriptions Top One Million in First Two Days ”
“That event kicked off a tsunami of new audio podcasts that has yet to abate.”

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/11/01/video.ipod.reut/index.html

“Apple on Monday announced that its customers at its iTunes Music Store has bought and downloaded more than one million videos in less than 20 days. Video content first appeared for purchase on October 12, 2005
…
“Selling one million videos in less than 20 days strongly suggests there is a market for legal downloads,” Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, said in a statement. “Our next challenge is to broaden our content offerings, so that customers can enjoy watching more videos on their computers and new iPods,”

Sources have said Apple is in discussions to lure more television networks to provide programming.”

http://business.bostonherald.com/technologyNews/view.bg?articleid=111152

“CBS and NBC have announced deals to offer replays of prime-time programs for 99 cents per episode, shifting television toward a sales model that gained popularity with downloaded music.
CBS is teaming up with Comcast Corp. and NBC with satellite operator DirecTV to offer the on-demand replays.

Less than three years ago, Apple helped spur the explosion of legally downloaded music with its iTunes Music Store and iPod portable players - the latest versions of which now play video. “

http://www.latimes.com/business/custom/cotown/la-fi-ondemand8nov08,0,2732256.story

“Both deals are the first of what are expected to be numerous similar arrangements. They mark the latest examples of how technology is altering the television experience and the traditional network business.”

The “Standard Model” (TV/Print-Media) for Media-Exposure is getting enhanced (or replaced?) by an “Alternative Model” (Blogs: Text, Video, Video podcasts)

UC Berkeley has a radio Science show for the purpose of Public Outreach, called “Berkeley Groks”

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~clgroks
[ open up iTunes on your computer, do a search on "Berkeley", then suscribe to it ]

..which is available as an (audio) podcast. Note that the hosts are 2 science PhDs, to reduce any nonsense caused by science-challenged journalists. Obviously, the next step is taking it into a video-podcast (”vodcast”). Any University, or science dept should have a “Science Groks” as part of their “Toolkit”.

Technology has developed powerful/portable/personal video-tools (Mac laptops, iMovie, Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro, video-cameras), which makes them accessible to the masses. The entire video production of a Public Outreach, can be done by the scientists themselvers (or hire a “Berkeley Groks”-type outfit for their Dept). Personal Computing has led to “blog Citizen Journalist”, now “video-blog Scientist Journalist”.

No more long-distance travel (e.g., Lawrence Krauss to Santa Monica), no more worries about goofball journalists screwing things up.

This year I’ve been playing with Wireless Technology: WiFi, Bluetooth (BT), cellphone networks (1xRTT, EVDO), (mobile, car-mounted) satellite-DSL. See

http://static.flickr.com/26/62712085_ff4bc39036_b.jpg

There is a

- Powerbook 1.5G (built-in WiFi & BT, with a Verizon EVDO wireless card)
- Treo 650 pda-phone (Internet access over cellphone network, built-in VGA camera which can also do video)
- PocketPC: HP iPAQ 4700 (WiFi, BT)
- PocketPC: HP iPAQ 3715 (WiFi, BT, built-in 1.2M pixel camera which can also do video)

Any of these portable-devices can do picture/video blogging (via picture-emails, which blogs will accept), with the added feature of (near) real-time. That “Flash Mob” meeting could have been LiveWebCast’ed over a Moblog:

http://baja500scout.textamerica.com

..note that there are short video-clips there.

The Cosmic Variances blog is perfectly capable of playing videos (use blip.tv or Ourmedia.org to archive videos). Get an RSS feed with Feedburner.com, submit it as a video-podcast to Apple iTunes (with a nice thumbnail image, better chance of getting it accepted..it’s all hand-picked by Apple right now).

Then, people can subscribe to Cosmic Variances video-podcast, download to their (video) iPod, & listen/watch it at their convenience. It would be perfect for kids (where the iPod is a fashionable, hip gadget), for the “Little Einsteins” Public Education project.

It's been another long and enjoyable day here in LA. There are some more summaries of our productive meeting yesterday, from Jenny D, Free Range Librarian, and most thoroughly, from Clifford Johnson. Since there are comments at Cosmic Variance tha…

The Future of the Book

I am short for time here, so it was quickly put together.

On your question: No, it was free-form discussion with a go-around-the-table in turn short monologues about what you think at the beginning of the session and at the end. Everyone was connected via ichat to the same group so that there were sub-conversations going on and so that people could throw up examples on the main screen that we could all look at or on our own computers….examples of good practice, or data on some matter or other…..

The content was of very high quality throughout the discussion. I could not imagine what we woudl talk about for a whole day before I came, but by the end of the day I found myself wishing we’d had more time to go into more details and explore more ideas and areas…. but we’ll do that over the web I guess.

Cheers,

-cvj

Clifford, did you (either singular or plural) give talks, or was it more freely-floating discussion? Sounds like a great group.

It was a pleasure to meet you too. Fantastic day, and an enjoyable evening indeed. I’ve more photos which you’ll get to see later.

-cvj

It was a pleasure to meet you. I wrote a long note to Bob on the plane ride home. I may post it, or parts, and maybe on Sidebar.

Lots to think about. The sushi was great. Enjoy LA!!

Fear of new technology is a very human response, and I understand why professors might fear being forced to work in unfamiliar territory. However, I feel UCLA is correct in asking professors to find ways to take advantage of the new medium. The Internet is simply a new mechanism for enabling communication. Teaching is all about communication. While I’d hate to see traditional forms of debate and discourse replaced with Web pages, I can see great added value in having information, questions, links and other resources available between class sessions. I hope people overcome their fears and see the Internet as another extension of the many means of communication, and use the Internet to enhance, not replace, the learning experience.

– Lisa Pease, Emerging Technologies Specialist, Prosoft I-Net Solutions (posted 5/13, 10:01 a.m., E.D.T.)

I understand why professors fear the Web. Professors don’t know how to produce Web sites. They know how to produce linear text documents, but not much else.
The reason why UCLA has to charge extra for course Web sites is that new people have to be hired in the academic loop to produce them. Professors are right to fear this — it makes plainer that course creation in the coming age will be collaborative and not sole-authorship. The central role of the traditional academic professor in the class is going to fade. I can only hope through this process that the students don’t have to bear too much of the extra cost.

If professors were wise, they’d all make do with one fewer obscure publication in an academic journal and take the time to learn good Web design and interactive course design themselves. Anyone who doesn’t do that will feel lessening control over their traditional educational territory in the future.

– Patricia Schwarz, graduate student, Caltech (posted 5/12, 11:24 p.m., E.D.T.)