ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Good thread.  Can podcasts be interactive?  I think there is real
potential for using personal audio devices to create interactive
experiences when the content is provocative or stimulates interaction.
Because each person is receiving the audio "privately," it can make
people more comfortable to interact socially about strange or
uncomfortable content.  For example...


Last year, the Hirshhorn art museum commissioned a piece by Janet
Cardiff, "Words Drawn in Water," that was really fascinating.  It was a
33 minute "tour" of the DC mall where the museum gave out dedicated iPod
shuffles loaded with the piece and you wandered, following Cardiff's
footsteps and words.  Beyond the interesting tour, there were two really
nice, unexpected elements to this (from my perspective):

1. Cardiff amplified and altered the environmental sounds around the DC
mall in a way that made you much more attentive to the environment--the
sounds of gravel crunching, the insects, the helicopters.  I felt more
engaged with my surroundings because of the sounds I was hearing both
through the earphones and beyond.

2. Because everyone who did the tour followed the exact same 33 minute
course, you became aware of and to some extent interacted with the other
strangers who were doing the tour in your five minute radius.  I've done
audio tours in museums where the headsets make each person focus inward
and everyone looks like quiet zombies, but because this piece was more
provocative than it was explanatory, everyone was reacting more
strongly, and it became a really nice launch point for interacting with
strangers about the experience.


Improv Everywhere in NYC has also created some very cool
interactive/personal audio experiences--the "MP3 Experiments"
(http://www.improveverywhere.com/mission_view.php?mission_id=52).

At the International Spy Museum, we are also looking into doing podcasts
that are functionally radio call-in programs where guests can post
questions for spies on our website that are answered "on air" during the
podcast.


Nina Simon
Experience Development Specialist
International Spy Museum

-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Matthew White
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 10:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Science pod casts

ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
************************************************************************
*****

I guess I should speak up and defend myself, but I just can't.

I was sloppy in my phrasing and should have used the word  
"interactive" throughout my post. I was responding to Eric who was  
responding to an earlier poster who said

  "But I think the question was how do we incorporate an essentially  
lecture
oriented, but hip medium into science center world.  which is a great
question, but nothing is hitting me... how do we make pod casts
interactive?"

And I meant to say that Podcasts need not be interactive to be  
productive delivery mediums for Science Centers, and besides, there  
is nothing that says Podcasts can't be interactive and if you want my  
opinion, Science Centers are just the ones to do it.

Everyone who has taken me to task for my sloppiness is right.

Matt

On Mar 23, 2006, at 2:55 PM, David Smith wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
> institutions.
> **********************************************************************

> *******
>
> Mostly I agree with Matt, but I do have one issue with what he said.
>
> Matt said:
>
>>
>> 1. I agree that not everything we do need be interactive for the
>> reasons Eric mentions. Many science centers know this. Many science
>> centers and museums sponsor lectures, TV shows and books. Not
>> everyone wants inquiry based learning all the time. Does anyone?
>
> I disagree with the implied equivalence of inquiry and interactive in
> this statement.  A non-interactive event such as a lecture (or  
> podcast)
> can, in the right circumstances, lead to inquiry learning (by which I
> mean learning that is motivated by the need to answer a question and
> that is based on the collection and analysis of data - see the  
> essential
> features of inquiry discussed in the National Science Education
> Standards, etc.)  The problem is that a lecture can only lead to  
> inquiry
> learning if I bring to it the question it was designed to answer, if I
> am at the level of pre-existing understanding for which the lecture  
> was
> designed, and if it presents data for my analysis (as opposed to
> preformed conclusions presented as factoids).  The unlikelihood of all
> the learners in a lecture all happening to be at the same place in  
> their
> learning and working on the same question is what makes lecture
> generally a bad technique to use in group settings, such as  
> classrooms.
> In this vision of lectures, they are actually ideal for the single  
> user
> podcast through earbuds.  The person who downloads a content podcast
> has, by the act of downloading, already thought at some level about  
> what
> they know about a subject and what they want to know (what their
> questions are), both essential prerequisites to real learning.  I  
> think
> Matt is exactly right to equate podcasts with books - they fill the  
> same
> learning needs.  A book is thoroughly didactic and reading a book to a
> large class is hardly an effective technique, but no one would  
> question
> the educational value of the book itself.  It's all in how it is used.
>
> The bottom line, when judging educational tools, is their efficacy in
> prompting learners to challenge their pre-existing understandings and
> construct new ones.  That depends not just on the tool, but also on  
> the
> setting, including the learner herself.
>
> David L. Smith, Ph.D.
> Director of Professional Development
> Da Vinci Discovery Center, Allentown, PA
> http://www.davinci-center.org
> "Who will pick up where Leonardo left off?"
>
> **********************************************************************

> *
> More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
> Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http:// 
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