Ken Ronkowitz and educational technology

Ken Ronkowitz never ceases to amaze me with his excellent posts regarding teaching, learning and technology. During the last week or so he has posted some informative items regarding podcasting, Google Earth and the art of writing itself.

With respect to podcasting he brings up the point that simply repurposing lectures for delivery via podcast is not an ideal use of the medium. Ken illustrates, by way of a positive example, how David Miller at the University of Connecticut is employing the podcasting medium in a proactive manner. Each week David Miller and his students collaborate in an one hour discussion of the course material. The content is discussed and recorded for podcasting. Ken also points out how David precasts and postcasts key material before and after each lecture. Students are attracted to the subject due to this proactive and particpatory approach to the use of podcasting.

Ken also blogged an interesting post about the use of Google Earth to plot and trace the moevements of characters during the course of a novel. This would indeed be a novel approach for teachers of literature seeking to inpsire their students with additional visual cues as they explore each destination on the plotted Google Earth map.

The last gem from Ken that I wish to share is a new podcast set up by NJIT entitled 'The End of the Essay'. This podcast is a project that Ken has been working on with Dr. Norbert Elliot, Professor of English at NJIT. Ken points out that Dr. Elliot had given a presentation called "The End of the Essay: Writing in a Mediated Environment." Ken thought it was something that Dr. Elliot should develop into a book, however he was already involved in another book project, so the concept became a podcast. The blog post makes very interesting reading for educational technologists and teachers alike.