The Awards Show Podcast
Sound effects courtesy of 500+ Sound Effects: Amazon.com. In this podcast I attempted to provide some synthesis from our readings, while also offering targeted critique and asking a critical question or two. I was specifically interested in the overlapping connections of praxis and expectations as related to pedagogy and technology in the classroom. Here I combine ideas from Bemer, Anson, & Rice, while later critiquing a few of Bernhardt's distinctions, and pondering aloud about the research methodology employed by Blackmon. Finally, as part of my own attempt at becoming a logomechanic and put some praxis in practice, I tried to take Rice's advice and teach myself an unfamiliar piece of software. So: today's podcast is proudly brought to you by Adobe Soundbooth... hopefully it doesn't suck :)
Comments
Format and Content Comment
The structure of your blog is quite clear: synthesis, critique, and question. This format is logical and serves to guide the listener so that he or she may better understand what your goals are for each part of the podcast. I especially enjoyed the humor of the podcast that was made possible by the "awards show" bits. These additions made the podcast not only more entertaining, but also more relatable in that they situated the podcast into the events that are occurring at this time in popular culture.
The only two recommendations I have for your next podcast is to slow down the speaking and to cut some of the synthesis. At some points in the podcast, the speaking is a bit fast. I was able to still follow the podcast by going back and re-listening, but slowing down the speaking would prevent the listener from having to go back to understand. As you noticed towards the end of the podcast, it was getting a bit long, and you did do a good job to bring it to a close; however, the last parts of your podcast were particularly intriguing and if you cut some of the synthesis, you would have more time to explore your extensions of the theory further.
One of the parts of the podcast that I found to specifically illuminate the readings was when you discussed this class' environments. Although you notify the listener when you move into the "critique" section in your podcast, you already begin to extend past merely synthesis when applying the theories to your own classroom experiences. This helped me relate to your podcast as I too have had to struggle with the computer lab set-up. In addition, this application made it possible to see how this scholar's own findings are still relevant to many our experiences now.
I think your analysis of Blackmon's methodology is also very enlightening. When I read this essay, I failed to notice that she never incorporated any contradictory reports. It makes me wonder whether she had any contradictory findings or if she purposefully left them out, but, either way, this should have been addressed at some point in the article.
Cheers
Thanks for the comment; your advice is helpful and appreciated. You're not the first person to mention the importance of clarity and speed, and I would be wise to parse out my discussion a bit slower next time (perhaps I'll even include some musical interludes). The feedback on content is useful as well; despite the speed, I'm glad that I was able to better offer clear markers to preface and summarize my discussion. I got a bit carried away on the synthesis, although at the same time I find synthesis to be the most productive way for me to retain information, so perhaps it was a little self-serving. I did have a lot more to say on Bernhardt's piece, as I thought he raised some very productive but problematic distinctions throughout, resorting in some instances to seeming essentialist tendencies when describing print based text. Perhaps some of that might be chalked up to the context of his time, as his goal was to distinguish screen based text as much as possible. Finally, I found Blackmon's essay engaging in terms of questions of access, visibility, and identity, but poorly argued. I admire the type of informed praxis she was attempting to bring to her class, but her use of student responses in her essay seemed very obviously hand-picked, and I had a hard time taking her at face value afterwards. I wonder if anyone else had similar or contrary feelings?
"Legen...wait for it, and I hope you're not lactose-intolerant because the last part is...dary!"
Postpartum Edit
Got rid of the extraneous looping and the noisy bits, which cut down the file time back to its intended level; guess that'll teach me to try to learn new audio software (or at least practice a bit first next time)...
Cheers,
- Jeff
"Legen...wait for it, and I hope you're not lactose-intolerant because the last part is...dary!"