David Eckoff, VP of New Product Development & Innovation at Turner Broadcasting was a memorable speaker at PodcampSoCal.
He shared that there is just one question to ask when evaluating the success of a social media project – Do you know what that is?
The one question to ask your audience is…….
“Would you recommend this to a friend or colleague?” Rate 0 to 10.
Those that rate it 9-10 are Promoters (they create “buzz” and are the most important to build an audience and community)
7-8 are Passive
0-6 are Detractors (which create the opposite of a “buzz” and will keep people away).
This is why getting feedback is key. And to get feedback, you must be connected to your audience. Check out MyChingo. It allows people to give you audio feedback very easily from your site. It is quick and easy for them, and perhaps you will want to insert this audio feedback into your podcast.
If this Web 2.0 stuff is all new to you, understanding RSS feeds is a great place to start. And it is time to get started, right? Trust me.
RSS feeds allow you to get new information, news, and blog posts efficiently without searching the web. This is the RSS icon . For this site, find the icon on the bottom of the page. It has the magical power of subscribing you to this blog. You will get my posts automatically without having to check and see if I put something new here. It makes me happy to know that I’m not wasting anyone’s time. : )
As I mentioned earlier, I attended the Podcast and New Media Expo last month in Ontario, CA. Some of the presentations were designed specifically for educators. I soaked up so much valuable information. I was also a bit overwhelmed with how little I knew, and I see that I could be on the computer 24/7 to keep up. Baby steps and just having the courage to try new things is most important. Action, not perfection.
I’m happy to offer you for free a front row seat at the panel discussion focusing on podcasting in K-12 education. Dr. Kathy King and Mark Gura recorded the presentation as a ”Director’s commentary” on their Teacher’s Podcast. You will also find the slides and resources. Go to the Teacher’s Podcast. Their podcast covers the expo nicely.
Eventually all of the presentations will be available through the Podcast Academy. Listening to last year’s audio inspired me to attend this year.
Additionally, I found it useful to review the Podcasting Legal Guide, which was recommended for all who podcast.
Below is a podcast I created at the Expo with Mark Gura, Dr. Kathy King and Dan “the Math Man”. We found a quiet place and chatted.
I had a great conversation this morning about the value of incorporating Web 2.0 technologies into educational training programs. For many educators, blogs and podcasting are intimidating and misunderstood.
It is valuable for adult educators to understand how adults learn on the web and how technology can improve learning outcomes. Once fear is overcome and these technology educational tools become familiar, there is a transformation in the way one sees social media and the possibilities are endless!
I read a great article in Educause Review called, Confessions of a Podcast Junkie. The author shares her journey of discovering podcasting and then examines student podcast projects and lessons learned.
Most valuable as an educator was her sharing of what students saw valuable with podcasting.
For teaching and learning, the students saw concrete benefits to podcasting projects…
They were able to get “intimate” with course material, either by relistening to course lectures and supplements or by teaching the rest of the class.
They could showcase their projects to the rest of the community, expanding the reach of the classroom to their friends or members of the community.
They had the opportunity to review course material during pertinent moments in the semester, such as before exams or during course projects.
They learned new technical skills, whether they were downloading files or creating new ones.
I created the graphic below to show an example of how many learning outcomes can come from creating an audio podcast as an assignment within a course. Students get engaged and learn by experience. The creative process brings out individual authenticity.
On a personal side note – I always felt that I was challenged articulating my thoughts into words. I review and edit my audio podcasts; practicing, repeating and improving. I gained confidence and progressed. It is a cycle, because I am always striving to improve and want to get to a point when my audio conversations come naturally with less editing needed.
As I think about ways to expand the Hydroville Curricula to other audiences, such as community colleges, I also think about how to adapt it to give students technology skills that will help them in their careers. Since Hydroville is about understanding and solving on real-life enviromental health problems in the community, it seems a worthwhile assignment would be to foster students to share real-life environmental health stories to their communities using video, audio, blogs, and even virtual worlds like Second Life.
Educause has a written a worthy article called, 7 Things You Should Know About Citizen Journalism.
What are the implications for teaching and learning? An important corollary to learning how specific applications work, such as video-capture and online publishing tools, is understanding how the products of those tools can be used to present a particular version of a story. Citizen journalism encourages students to think critically about what it means to be unbiased, to present competing viewpoints, and to earn readers’ trust. It also forces students to consider what separates a mere anecdote from a legitimate news story. Participating as citizen journalists can help students hone their media literacy skills, making those students better able to assess online information and use it in appropriate ways. Citizen journalism gives students the opportunity to receive community feedback on their contributions, helping them gauge their comprehension of a subject, and it provides students with authentic learning tasks, engaging with communities of users beyond the walls of the classroom.
An essay written by Richard Crespo reminded me of where I would like to go with community health education. After some great examples of collaborative virtual projects, Crespo wrote:
What intrigues me about online communities is that the characteristics of community participation and ownership they exemplify are also fundamental to community health. Community health practioners, however, have fallen behind in applying these principles in the virtual world. In a recent report, an expert panel convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that public health officials should develop the idea of virtual community health promotion (7).
The Today Show caught my attention today. For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a site was highlighted to share the voices and experiences of breast cancer survivors, called Living Conversations. It is a nice example of creating a platform for sharing experiences – a learning community.
Understanding the issues of health and science literacy is very important in my role as a community educator. My passion is new media, however I do recognize electronic health tools provide little value if the intended users lack the skills to effectively engage them.
I found an interesting article entitled, “eHealth Literacy: Essential Skills for Consumer Health in a Networked World“. “Engaging with eHealth requires a skill set, or literacy, of its own.” I found valuable the “Lily Model”, which presents a holistic approach to health promotion through new media and the web.
”The eHealth literacy model presented here is the first step in understanding what these skills are and how they relate to the use of information technology as a tool for health. The next step is to apply this model to everyday conditions of eHealth use—patient care, preventive medicine and health promotion, population-level health communication campaigns, and aiding health professionals in their work—and evaluate its applicability to consumer health informatics in general. Using this model, evaluation tools can be created and systems designed to ensure that there is a fit between eHealth technologies and the skills of intended users. By considering these fundamental skills, we open opportunities to create more relevant, user-friendly, and effective health resources to promote eHealth for all.”
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