jeromemartin.ca

iPods and Learning

An article in the November 24, 2007 issue of the Los Angeles Times entitled The iPod Lecture Circuit by Michelle Quinn tells the story of how the iPod has created new learning opportunities for people who are not enrolled at colleges and universities.

BERKELEY -- Baxter Wood is one of Hubert Dreyfus' most devoted students. During lectures on existentialism, Wood hangs on every word, savoring the moments when the 78-year-old philosophy professor pauses to consider a student's comment or relay how a meaning-of-life question had him up at 2 a.m.

But Wood is not sitting in a lecture hall on the UC Berkeley campus, nor has he met Dreyfus. He is in the cab of his 18-wheel big rig, hauling dog food from Ohio to the West Coast or flat-screen TVs from Los Angeles to points east.The 61-year-old trucker from El Paso eavesdrops on the lectures by downloading them for free from Apple Inc.'s iTunes store, transferring them to his Hewlett-Packard digital media player, then piping them through his cabin's speakers. He hits pause as he approaches cities so he can focus more on traffic than on what Nietzsche meant when he said God was dead, then shifts his attention back to the classroom.

iTunes University makes lectures available online. There are currently 28 colleges and universities which post lectures on iTunes, lectures which may be downloaded and played by anyone in the world who has a computer and a connection to the internet. Quinn reminds us that 'unofficial students' do not earn degrees for listening. These students learn for the joy of learning.

Some of them have college degrees and some have never had the opportunity to attend an institution of higher learning.

By making hundreds of lectures from elite academic institutions available online for free, Apple is reninvigorating the minds of people who have been estranged from the world of ideas.

Quinn says that 'Retirees in Long Beach and Weaverville, California, halibut fishermen in Alaska, data entry clerks in London, and casting agents in New York' are learning from some of the world's top scholars. Institutions such as Yale, MIT and Stanford are providing lectures to people who may otherwise have never have heard of distinguished professors such as Hubert Dreyfus.

One can access lectures by Dr. Dreyfus by going to the iTunes Store, searching for his name and downloading any or all of his online lectures. iTune lectures may be played on a computer or transferred to an iPod. iTunes is free software and iTunes podcasts are free downloads.

Free and accessible knowledge helps all of us to learn new subjects and to keep up to date on others. Thanks to iTunes University and the institutions which support it Baxter Wood and other students now have access to a continuing and exciting learning process.

Michelle Quinn and the Los Angeles Times deserve top marks for this excellent article.

Cappuccino U: A Canadian Bestseller

Cappuccino U: A new way of learning and working, a free e-book available on the Spotted Cow Press website, was downloaded by more than 6,000 people in the twelve months since it was released. This book has reached more readers than a Canadian bestseller (5,000 copies per year) and was probably circulated to other readers by those who downloaded it.

Asynchronous Radio: CBC Expands Its Podcast Program

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has been a pioneer in providing podcasts of radio programs. Yesterday it expanded its offerings dramatically: one can now access podcasts of virtually all of CBC Radio's national broadcasts and some of its local items as well.
CBC, BBC, NPR and many other major public networks provide hundreds of podcasts, so many that those of us who love talk radio cannot listen to them all: but we can choose our favourites and listen to them at any time, as many times as we would like.
Public Radio is now largely asynchronous and accessible to anyone with a computer. I listen to podcasts from these networks on my iPod when I'm travelling and on my computer when I'm at home.
And while someone has paid to create these podcasts there is no direct cost to the user.
CBC podcasts are available on iTunes and on the CBC podcasting site.

Carmel-By-The-Sea

After enjoying the excitement of MacWorld and San Francisco we drove down the coast to Carmel to relax and enjoy some time by the ocean. Our favourite place to stay in Carmel is The Sandpiper Inn, located on Martin Way (indeed) within sight and sound of the ocean. No phone, no pool, no pets, no TV sets in the rooms. Breakfast in the dining room from 8:00 to 10:00 AM; sherry on the sideboard at 5:00 PM.
The ocean is only a block away.

I'm sitting at the Carmel Valley Coffee Roasting Company in The Courtyard, a shopping area on the edge of Carmel, enjoying great coffee and hospitality, as well as free wireless. Patrick, a four year old dachshund is enjoying a small cup of latté at the table next to me while his elderly owner is discussing Patrick's health with one of the owners of the shop. There's a Bentley Azure convertible parked outside. It belongs to Patrick and his owner. Life is fine.
We've had overnight frosts for the last several days. As a result, 70% of the California citrus crop has been lost. Plumbers have been busy dealing with frozen pipes. However, after leaving Edmonton in a blizzard this weather seems ideal to us, although we feel badly for the farmers.
Tomorrow we drive to San Francisco (a two hour drive) and fly home to Edmonton.

The Cozy Season

Winter has hit Edmonton early this year. We've had a lot of snow and temperatures that have dipped to -32 C, a new record for November. However, we're a resilient lot and we take some pleasure at being able to survive and even enjoy this type of weather.
Yesterday was one of the coldest days. I stopped by Jeffery's Café and Wine Bar – my favourite 'third place' for meetings and work – to prepare for a meeting, to relax and organize my thoughts for the presentation I would make.
I sat near the fireplace, ordered a bowl of clam chowder and a cup of coffee and read the book review section in the Sunday edition of the New York Times.
Jeffery's has free wi-fi. I checked my e-mail using my laptop, sent a note to someone in England who gave a favourable review of Cappuccino U, and then finally moved on to the work at hand. No phone calls. No interruptions. Just a pleasant environment with interesting people at the other tables.
Winter keeps us inside, at least on days like these. It may be cold, but we don't have to cut the lawn, wash the car or cut the hedge.
Find a café like Jeffery's. Then let it snow.

Lectures Online

I'm listening to the second lecture in a course entitled History of Photography, Photography 1105 taught by Jeff Curto at College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois as I write this blog entry. I listened to the first lecture last week while travelling by bus from Vermont to Boston, enjoying the fall colours while learning about the early history of photography. I was using an iPod without video capabilities so I missed the images that accompany the lectures (but New England in the fall is a reasonable substitute).
The web page listed for the class contains the images Curto discusses, but these images – and the summary slides he uses – can be viewed not only with a video iPod but also with iTunes on a computer, which is the way I am viewing them today.
The lectures are live. Curto is an excellent lecturer and the audio quality is certainly adequate. Listening to the lecture, and the periodic coughs from students, while watching the slides is similar to sitting in the back row in a lecture theatre. One can't hear all of the questions (which is often the case in large lecture theatres) but Curto's answers incorporate the questions and the overall feeling is that one is part of a live event. A worthwhile event.
I've studied the history of photography for many years on an informal basis: but I'm learning a lot from these lectures. I'm frequently critical of the 'I'll talk for 50 minutes and you better write down everything that I say because most of it will be on the exam' approach, but the lecture system can work effectively if the lecturer is well prepared and is an effective communicator.
Having the lectures online with slides included allows students to review the lectures, to discuss them with others – or to stay in their dorm rooms and listen to the them at their leisure. Attending the lecture allows students to ask questions and participate in class discussion. Lecturers can use more of their lecture time for discussion if they decide to put some material only on the web or in podcasts.
This lecture series is another example of how knowledge is being made available at no direct costs to the public. I am able to learn about the history of photography from Jeff Curto without going to Illinois and enrolling in his course. I can learn at home or on a bus. I can't get academic credit for learning but I don't care about that: I simply want to learn.
You can access this and other podcasts on virtually any subject by going to iTunes and searching for key words.

Scan This Book: Kevin Kelley's article in the New York Times

Scan This Book!

According to Kevin Kelley in the New York Times Sunday Magazine (May 14, 2006) scanning books and making them available to everyone in the world with access to a screen is both inevitable and desirable, in spite of the difficulties with copyright and the affection we still have for the paper book.
'In the clash between the conventions of the book and the protocols of the screen, the screen will prevail. On this screen, now visible to one billion people on earth, the technology of search will transform isolated books into the universal library of all human knowledge.'
Kelley said that people who currently have limited access to fine libraries and bookstores will benefit more that the rest of us from mass digitization of books and access to those digitized products.
This is a comprehensive and fascinating look at how knowledge will become more accessible for all of us and what impact this will have on writers, publishers, students and the public.

Catherine the Great, Cervantes, and Dandelions

If you had driven down the back alley behind my house this afternoon you would have seen me digging dandelions in my back yard: but you would not have known that I was also learning, first, about Catherine the Great and, second, about Cervantes, courtesy of the BBC and technology developed by Apple.
I was listening to podcasts which I had downloaded from In Our Time, a BBC 4 program in which Melvyn Bragg and his learned guests investigate the history of ideas. Apple's iTunes downloads new In Our Time programs as they are made available by BBC, once I have asked to subscribe to this series. The programs are copied to my iPod when I plug it in to my computer. Thus, I can listen to the programs on my computer or on my iPod.
One of the advantages of learning through podcasts is that one can play them again and again, something that cannot be done with a live lecture. Some professors in some educational institutions are recording their lectures and making them available as podcasts.
Learning while working or walking is one of the benefits of modern technology. It's multi-tasking, and it's fun.
Tomorrow: Aristotle.

Cappuccino U

This week I published Cappuccino U: a new way of learning and working, an e-book which is about a new style of learning in which innovative people have combined new information technology with traditional ways of learning to develop a new, personally-driven approach to learning. This learning happens primarily in 'the third place' which is neither home nor office. Your third place may be a local coffee shop or a library, a place where you can be with other people and yet be alone as well.
I used the book in two presentations this week, one to a professional association which is considering using innovative technology in their professional development program and another to a University communications class, and got excellent reactions from each group.
The e-book is free – and I'd be pleased to send you a copy. Send me an e-mail with Cappuccino U in the subject line and I'll reply with the e-book (PDF) as an attachment. It's a short book (14 pages) but since it's well designed and includes a variety of links and references the size of the the attachment is about 1 megabyte.
In the meantime, I and thousands of others will be using wireless connections at coffee shops, libraries and other public areas to work and learn, perhaps even taking university courses – or teaching them – while we sip coffee and smile at our colleagues at the next tables.