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

Nina - 

I tried one of Janet Cardiff's pieces in London. It was amazing. She uses
binaural (I think that's right) recording - so that she gets an immersive
sound. Her "tour" through a London neighborhood was the highlight of a week
long stay in London.

I think what we can learn from Cardiff's work (she's an artist specializing
in audio pieces) is that we should try to think of  podcasts as more than
just straight-forward recordings. They can be artistically-driven pieces
that bring a completely different layer of experience, beyond information.

Sari Boren
Wondercabinet Interpretive Design, Inc.


On 3/24/06 9:58 AM, "Nina Simon" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> 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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>> To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
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