Information Overloaded

Communication is changing; it is and will have a huge effect on the ways we learn, teach, and communicate!

I read about a class recently where students were podcasting their literature circle meetings! What a great way for the teacher to listen to the conversation without actually being at the table.

When I did literature circles in my grade 8 Language Arts classes, the most difficult aspect was making sure that students were talking about their books when they met in their groups. However, podcasting their meetings would ensure that they were on task.

Hehe, I love this idea!

In 1991 I took a course called “Sociology of Communications”. We studied Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian Professor of English who was interested in media and communication and coined the well-known phrase – “the medium is the message” .

Ironically enough, I typed my Marshall McLuhan essay about the need to be producers and creators of media for that course on my Smith Corona electric typewriter (while wishing I could afford a Mac Classic like my roomate).

My audience for my labors was Professor Peter Weeks and the blue plastic storage box in my garage where those papers currently reside. My typewriter became my message; I got an A and passed the course and my ideas….well they are still in my garage.

I guess the point in all my ramblings is this–now when I write, I have the potential to have a real global audience. I write for more than my plastic storage bin and the professor that will give me marks.

The same can be said for the students we teach… and the same can be said for Mr McLuhan.

I can’t help wondering what he would think of his own interviews being on Youtube. No longer do you have to sit in a university course and buy a $150 text book to learn about Marshall McLuhan. I can google his name and read about him on a website; I can watch his interviews on youtube, and I can even hear his radio interviews.

The participatory nature of our changing Web would really have him saying, “I told you so”. (Check out the video below)