Tech journals, blogcasting, disruptive technologies, etc.

The other day, I awoke from a snooze with an idea for using technology in my work place: blogcasting.

Actually, I'm not sure if that is a word, but I'm combining two of the more popular technologies of today, blogging and podcasting. My idea was to create a combination of a podcast and a blog to give ELL (English Language Learning) students a motivating way to practice their English with native speakers and other students outside the classroom. I'm currently working out a plan to propose to my colleagues to see if they are interested in participating.

Additionally, I have found a link to a directory of educational technology journals. Interestingly, there is a journal called Language Learning and Technology. One of the stories is about using podcasts, focusing on the idea that podcasts and Internet telephony are 'disruptive technologies' that will soon change the way mainstream teaching takes place.

Therefore, there is literature in peer-reviewed journals suggesting that I go ahead with this idea. But will I (or my colleagues) come up with the idea that hooks the students into participating, or will this simply be another brainstorm that goes nowhere? I hope it's the former.

The absurdity of over-population

Warning: this is a reaction rant.

You're living in a country that is roughly the physical size of southern Ontario, but containing almost 50 million people. Or think of it this way: imagine yourself living in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), where for every person you see, there are now four people. That is what it is like to live in the Seoul metropolitan region.

I like being in cities, always have. I love the energy of being around a lot of people. But that feeling turns bad when you get stuck in traffic. The Bundang area is only about 15 years old, having formerly consisted of farmers' fields. Now it is the fastest-growing suburb in the Seoul metropolitan region. It also happens to attract a lot of rich folks who, in spite of a very efficient public transit system, all drive cars (or so it seems).

Today, driving home from an afternoon in Seoul, we found the freeway into Bundang congested due to the air show going on at the Seongnam Airport (Bundang is a district of Seongnam). Drivers decided to simply stop on the side of the road to watch the show. But Koreans like to double park (more on that later), so the freeway got narrower and narrower.

Once in Bundang, we went to Carrefour. Big mistake on a Sunday! We had to go straight to the roof to find parking. The roof has elevators only, as the escalators only go to the sixth floor. Anyway, we did a bunch of shopping, and we had the kids in their strollers. When it came time to go home, we were trapped -- there was no way we could get into the elevator to go to the top floor (because the elevator is always full on Sunday!).

So I sent Heather and the girls down to the first floor and I went up to the car. Along the way, as I was taking the escalator to the sixth floor, I looked out the window and saw the bizarre parking pattern of cars on the side of the street. You really have to see this from up above to appreciate it. Some cars were parked in parallel fashion, while others were parked diagonally. Of course, there was double and triple parking, a norm for Korea. Basically, it looked from my vantage point that someone had taken a box of toy cars and thrown them indiscriminantly onto the street.

After getting to the car, it took nearly 20 minutes to drive out of the Carrefour parking lot. I drove around the building to get to Heather and the girls and picked them up, and then decided to go for a drive over to Sunae-dong to get Subway subs. Well, the traffic along the way was bad, of course, and I never did stop to get the subs because there was no place to park.

I wonder if it will ever be this frustrating in Sydney when we go there. I'm suspecting NOT!

KOTESOL Conference 2005

I attended the conference again this year, but found it slightly disappointing. Many of the presentations I attended were less than stellar, and much of the information presented was hardly news to me. Especially, the seminars on being an online teacher and using podcasts in ESL merely regurgitated experiences I've already had.

I did enjoy the presentation by Brian English on upgrading your EFL teaching career, but that was tempered when I asked him about university teachers' salaries in Korea. Let's just say that when he asked me what I was earning right now (and I told him), he told me not to bother with universities. Well, just one more fact that I already knew.

I spent most of my travel time to and from the conference (1 1/2 hours by subway) reading Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats. It is an interesting read. In fact, it has given birth to an idea I have for getting published. Since my M.A. research project was hurt by students who missed classes during the research phase, the report as it ended up was not good enough to get published. But now, I think I might try analyzing the outcome of my project with the Six Hats method, and then write a paper for submission to the English Connection: Six Thinking Hats and Reflection on Action Research.

Getting "Vocel"

Since I've been talking a lot about the potential for delivering education to handheld devices, I decided to actually search the Net for companies that may be doing this. Right away, I discovered a company in the U.S. called Vocel. This company was founded by a parent, Carl Washburn, who wanted to help his son study for the SAT.

By partnering with Princeton Review and having developed "push" technology that sends sample test questions to a cell phone, Vocel has basically come up with the very idea I have been discussing on this blog. The term "bite-sized chunks" of education is even included on the company's web site. Must be a case of great minds thinking alike.

There are also some media reviews of the technology which point out the positives and negatives of this new kind of learning. Interesting points were made in this article from December 2004, and in this article from August 2004. I thought that the suggestion that kids may have to be concerned about zealous parents sending questions throughout the day was a good one.

Just like any technology that seems like a good one at the start, there are often unforeseen side effects that have to be dealt with. I think this is where I find interest in pursuing further study.

Using iPods to teach English

I see where MP3 players and associated tools (i.e. podcasting) are starting to move into the ESL/EFL classroom.

This story in a Dallas newspaper illustrates how teachers and students use iPods to practice English by listening to songs. As well, I've seen an ESL podcast on iTunes. It wasn't super-great, but people are starting to make use of these portable devices that so many people - especially kids - already possess. As well, I see that there is a presentation at the KOTESOL conference this weekend about podcasting.

Macromedia Flash and cell phones

I was reading an article in the Macromedia newsletter about how Flash can be used to develop content for cell phones. Flash is the program that lets you make and see those animations on many web sites.

As I continue thinking about the potential for delivering education to people on the go, Flash seems like a viable option for producing that content. The article mentions how cell phone users, particularly in the U.S., are not getting their money's worth out of the potential in their devices. According to the article's writer, Gary Kovacs, lack of relevant content and poor graphics are among the reasons why users don't access online information services.

Funny thing (from my point of view) is that nobody is talking about education as one of the online information services to be used on handheld devices. As I think of markets like Korea, Japan, and the waking giant China, I can definitely see the possibility for doing something big with this idea. In Asia, the 3G cell phone networks are already catching fire. In Japan, the Sony PSP is very popular, especially now that a web browser has been added to its interface. Koreans love their MP3 players and cell phones. And China looms, with its market of 1.2 billion people. Even if only 25% of the people there own a handheld device, that will exceed the population of the United States.

Smart phones

When I began this blog months ago, I mentioned that I saw potential for cell phones as a way of delivering education in bite-size chunks. I own a Motorola cell phone that does many things. I can access weather forecasts, use short message service (SMS), send e-mail (although not easily), play music (not great for this), and play games.

But the future in mobile technology is the smart phone. I've been trying to learn about these devices, but I don't own one and probably won't for quite some time. Essentially, however, they combine PDA and phone capabilities.

It is the smart phone that I see as being the best way to deliver education on-the-go. People carry their phones with them all the time, so what better way to get the mini lessons that one needs, especially if you are a busy professional or student. I'm thinking specifically of language learners who may need a quick brush-up on conversation, or who may be preparing for a test.

The thing about smart phones is that they utilize third party apps, and they are (generally-speaking) web-enabled, in addition to the fact that users will have access to them whenever needed. This is why I see a future for developing mobile forms of education for users of handheld technology.

A new blog

Given our choice to go to Australia, I recently started a new blog to document my thoughts and plans for getting there. I will keep track of my progress in terms of getting accepted at a university down there. Feedback from anybody reading my blog, who has something to say, is welcome.