Monday, December 11, 2006

Podcasts on information

I came across a whole academic class-worth of podcasts from the the University of California at Berkeley (I know I came across this resource via another blog - but can't currently remember which one! When I've traced it back, I'll make an acknowledgement). The class is called History of Information and it covers topics of great interest to anyone concerned in information science and the information landscape. Most of the lectures are from Paul Duguid, of the Social life of information fame. I've only listened to some snippets so far, but intend to listen to some of them properly. Sessions include ones on intellectual property, information work, information economy etc. As you might imagine, one of the lectures I sampled was on Internet and Information Literacy. However, I think he is unaware that there is actually a concept "information literacy" already, since he seems to be talking about other things (interesting though those other things are). On the other hand, perhaps I should listen to all the talk before commenting ;-)

My only pedagogic comment would be that the lecture seems to dominate this class - but that's useful from a podcasting perspective (much more difficult to capture sessions with lots of class discussion and interaction without more sophisticated sound setup). The page from which you can listen or download is http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/
archive.php?seriesid=1906978352
.

Photo by Sheila Webber: Hawthorn Terrace, Sheffield, November 2006

3 comments:

Nancy Graham said...

Hi Sheila

I'm so glad that you've flagged up these fantastic audio lectures. I mentioned them on our blog some time ago as I've been listening to all of them this term. My addiction to them started when a colleague sent me a link to Google Video of a lecture by Geoffrey Nunberg who co-lectures the course with Paul Duguid.

I have really enjoyed listening to the lectures and they've also provided me with great examples to use with students when teaching on various aspects of information and the internet. In the 'Open Source' lecture Paul Duguid gives the example of the Daniel Defoe page on Wikipedia and his attempts to make corrections - very enlightening.

I think these lectures would make great reusable learning materials, not only for students but also for many colleagues. In fact, we did put a link up to the Geoffrey Nunberg lecture for students on our Information Discovery module which is part of the University of Birmingham Personal Skills Award.

I would be really interested to hear what you (and others) think of the other lectures in the series.

Kind regards,

Nancy Graham
http://brumproject.blogspot.com

Sheila Webber said...

Thanks, it was one of your blogs that mentioned it, then, I think?

Sheila

Anonymous said...

I love this series. I ususally 'consume' one in my way from Oporto to Lisbon and another on the way back.

Everytime I feel tempted to quote wikipedia I remember the "Daniel Defoe" incident and think better of it. It was an excelent exercise.

Some parts on the origin and early history of the press, and scientific publishing, are impossible to get in such a nutshell anywhere else.

My only question is if the history of the Postal Service in Portugal has anything to do with what happened in the US...