The great thing about audio is you can listen while doing something else. This morning, I’m sitting on a train again off on my way to London while catching Alan Levine’s inspiring presentation on 50 Web 2.0 ways to tell a story which I transferred to my iRiver at 6.30 a.m after hearing about it through my Twitter feed in Google Reader.
Thanks to the portability of mp3 files these days, I never need to be too far away from some high quality CPD opportunities. Admittedly, most of the time, I do listen to podcasts on my computer directly. However when ‘on tour’ it’s great to be able to start up a mobile device, sit back and reflect on the recording of one of my own sessions, someone else’s or even an informal conversation with colleagues.
At The Language Show for example, I spent two glorious hours chatting with Drew Buddie and Wilma Clark over a drink, mashing up ideas and comparing notes. As I recorded the conversation (with their permission, of course), I was then able to listen back to it on the way home and reflect again on our animated discussion.
These off the fly snapshots are not intended for publication but simply create a fantastic aide-mémoire which I can then refer back to whenever I wish to laugh, smile and think again about all these golden thoughts which could prove invaluable in the future.
Moreover, I don’t feel geeky when I ask colleagues if I can capture their thoughts for my private CPD collection and fortunately no-one so far has refused.
I’ve found listening to teachers sharing their ideas in this way to be a very useful pastime and an opportunity to remind myself of those colleagues’ thoughts who I may only get to see face to face say once or twice a year.
One of my favourite aural treats is David Noble’s Booruch podcast which I always look forward to as a way of hearing his in depth analysis on the latest Web 2.0 tool. In fact it was David and Ewan who really inspired me to start the practice of recording mine and others thoughts for publication or personal consumption. Over the last thirteen months since I’ve been doing this, I can honestly say it has helped me immensely to reconsider my own sessions and learn a great deal from like-minded colleagues.
Food for thought.
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