Comments on: ‘casting courses

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 23:00:05 +0000

Jeff: I think that it is a go since you have a radio face!

By: Timothy Hitchens

Timothy Hitchens — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 19:42:41 +0000

You’re standing in a sewer, Jeffrey.

By: Robert Feinman

Robert Feinman — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 15:23:13 +0000

I was being a bit flippant about the “perfect” course tape, but for those of you who don’t follow developments in higher ed this is not too far from what is actually happening.
Schools like the “University of Phoenix” and other online institutions provide the students with canned material and some sort of way to (indirectly) interact with an instructor.
Many professional, in-service, refresher courses are also provided using canned media.

Also don’t underestimate the pressures on college administrators to cut costs. Several big name schools tape introductory lectures by the leading professor and then show it to overflow sections rather than using a second live professor. And for this the students pay $20,000+ per year. Other widespread techniques are use of adjunct professors and graduate students to teach courses instead of regular faculty. A professor making say $60,000 (average at a small school) teaching six sections per year costs $10,000 per section. An adjunct can be had for $1500-2000 per course with no benefits.

Football, however is fully funded.

By: jonny goldstein

jonny goldstein — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 12:09:43 +0000

Definitely do the podcast. The occasional video podcast might be fun too, but at least audio podcast it. Not just a service for potential listeners, it’s also a good experience for you with this new-ish media.

By: Quit Smoking

Quit Smoking — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 08:55:45 +0000

Podcast would be great!

By: Robert Pointer

Robert Pointer — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 08:31:02 +0000

nicole simon - no, that’s not all I think it takes. What a rude, arrogant, and fully unqualified statement you’ve made. I think what Jeff is doing is great, and for those of us who don’t attend college anymore because we work but find immense entertainment by reading blogs and listening to informational podcasts, then this outlet that Jeff is providing is great. And if you think “learning” is somehow excluded by having access to material like this, then you are the one that has an issue of understanding how knowledge is acquired, not me.

Personally, I feel there is a lot to be gained by listening to someone teach who has the experience and opinions that Jeff has and would provide. That’s what I meant by learning.

Rob.

By: Mark Forman

Mark Forman — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 02:40:29 +0000

You tell ‘em Nicole.
Jeff-Nice of you to show some respect to your podcasing readers-good move. Use the tools and get other people using them too.

By: Easycure

Easycure — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 02:22:52 +0000

Will watchers get credit for taking the course?

By: DLoye

DLoye — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 01:12:07 +0000

I hope you do go ahead and do the webcast thing. Still most of the learning in the courses I’ve experienced from the teaching or learning end occurs in the non lecture activities. Then again, I’m a wonderful lecturer, but brevity and guided activities became my hallmark. Let us superanuated learners know where we can find the podcasts.

By: Phil Wolff

Phil Wolff — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 23:23:34 +0000

Don’t fear the “ultimate lecture”: it is a fantasy. That’s like saying that the perfect Macbeth was performed in 1824 so nobody should ever attempt to play it again, or that what we know and how we know it can be perfected.

Balderdash.

It’s a snapshot. A sample.

By documenting your seminars for the public, you fuel the grand collage, where we make sense by pulling the pieces together. The bricollage is everything, it’s how we experience and understand the world. And it’s where our collective wisdom emerges.

By: Nicole Simon

Nicole Simon — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 21:37:35 +0000

Robert, if you think all it takes to learn something can just be done through having some tapes, you are mistaken. There is much more to it.

But while there are tapes (or podcast) it may as well be, that some others are educated a bit more because they suddenly have the _chance_.

By: Robert Pointer

Robert Pointer — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 18:52:30 +0000

Thanks for doing this Jeff. I wish more schools did this as well with different kinds of subjects for those of us who have degrees already, but still yearn to learn.

rob.

By: Jon Lester

Jon Lester — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 16:23:48 +0000

I hope you get accurate syndication reports for the course podcast.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 15:28:55 +0000

I’d love to hear the Q&A - especially the “paid journalism is dead, newspapers are history, open source is the future” rap and how the students react….

By: Robert Feinman

Robert Feinman — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 15:00:02 +0000

For years administrators have been waiting for the day when the one “perfect” version of a course would be given and recorded. Then all the other professors at every other school could be eliminated as all the students just watch the tape. For that matter why go to school at all, just order the tapes and watch at home.

You are hastening the day by your proposal, no tapes, just bits over the internet. If the courses are available online (not that I’m against it) then the only reason to attend is for the beer and football. Since CUNY has neither, I guess it can close up shop after your first year.

Seriously, the outsourcing of higher ed is a looming problem. It is already being faced by the academic libraries, the lectures can’t be far behind.

By: Nicole Simon

Nicole Simon — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 14:51:09 +0000

Yes. And make your students make nice show notes and do not forget to include material in the podcast. *g*