Just a quick announcement: Tomorrow (Friday, Dec. 17, 2004) I’ll be a guest on Kristopher Smith’s podcast show “Croncast.” Kris and I have been having an interesting conversation about editorial considerations for text and audio. Last night we spoke by phone and he invited me to be a guest on his show…
Here’s another line of thought spurred by my ongoing cross-blog conversation with Maish R. Nichani of elearningpost – which I’m enjoying immensely. In his Dec. 16 article “It’s all about rich e-learning experiences,” Nichani wrote: “Amy Gahran points out that a task-oriented approach is more effective in most e-learning than an information oriented approach. My point is that a decision-making or an execution-based approach is even better. Decisions are what business organizations are about. The need to perform a task or to acquire information really depends on the decision you are trying to make. Thus, know-how is equally important as know-why or know-what, it really depends on the decision.” …That’s a very good point, and I’d like to respond to that. I think we might both be circling around the same goal here…
Between our two blogs, Maish R Nichani and I are having an intriguing conversation about e-learning. Yesterday in “elearningpost” he zeroed in on a concept that strikes a strong chord in me: e-learning as a narrative technique. See his article, “It’s all about rich e-learning experiences.” Here are a few quick thoughts to follow up on some points that Nichani raised in that excellent article…
Just a quick note: I apologize for leaving podcasters stumbling over how to pronounce my last name…
In my recent article about podcasting I wrote something that I’d like to retract, clarify, and take another stab at. Here’s what I wrote: “Listening to unscripted speech provides a more direct experience of how the speaker is thinking. It’s about the act of thinking, rather than the product of thought. There’s less opportunity to edit. (Well, you can edit the audio, but that’s generally less surgical than editing text.)” ….Kristopher Smith, who does the podcast “Croncast,” called me on this remark – and rightly so…
My recent posting Corporate E-Learning: Focus on Tasks has attracted a surprising amount of traffic, mainly because Maish R. Nichani blogged it in elearningpost, and added a good idea to my theme…
If any CONTENTIOUS readers are in Boulder, CO today and feel like venturing out (it isn’t really cold, just crisp), I’m working this afternoon from Caffe Sole in the south part of town. Just had a nice walk here from my house. Feel free to say hi! I’ll be here until about 4pm mountain time. I’m sitting at the counter in the back room, typing madly on my iBook, with a great view of the Flatirons and wireless internet. I’m the one wearing the t-shirt that says “I hear voices and they don’t like you.”
For the past two months I’ve been listening to podcasts. Almost every day. Lots of them, about all kinds of topics from many viewpoints. Everything from highly polished professional productions to simple low-tech recordings with plenty of uhms and ahs, crackles and hisses, and the occasional burp or barking dog. Having ventured this deep into the world of the “pod people,” I’m surfacing to tell you this: They’re human. In fact, they’re us…
Back on Sept. 14, I explained why it’s stupid to post plagiarized content online. Basically, it’s incredibly easy to get caught stealing someone else’s intellectual property. It’s also likely that you’ll be publicly humiliated for this transgression, and possibly fined or sued. It’s just not worth it. Speaking of online plagiarists, I just came across a perfect example…
A few items loosely related to the theme of how the internet is affecting society… TOP OF THIS LIST: Web Won’t Let Government Hide,” by Ryan Singel, Wired News, Nov. 29. Excellent overview of valuable resources on government information in this age of shrinking access to such information through conventional channels. Excerpt: “Governments at every level these days are providing less information about their inner workings, sometimes using fear of terrorism as an excuse. But it’s precisely times like these that mandate citizens’ rights to check the efficiency of their government and hold those who fail accountable, open government advocates say. The government itself won’t make it easy, so an increasing number of websites and data crunchers are stepping in to provide information about the inner workings of government.” A good complement to this article, coincidentally also published Nov. 29, is “Activists Crawl Through Web to Untangle U.S. Secrecy,” by William Fisher, Inter Press News Agency. (Read the rest of this list…)
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