Joyce Valenza’s Neverending Search

I love what’s happening at EdTechTalk! It’s where the real buzz is.  The stuff that goes on there just may be in my professional journals–two months from now.

Every (well most every) Wednesday night at 8 PM EST, I join educators from all over the world for discussions about where the ed tech world is going.  The EdTechTalk webcasts are ably and cordially hosted by Dave Cormier and Jeff Lebow who often invite lguest luminaries.  These chats are in large part responsible for getting me to think outside the “library box.” 

Recent discussions center on how wikis will be used in curriculum and the potential for wikibooks as a supplement to, or a potential replacement for traditional textbooks–addressing cost, aging, relevance, and equity issues.

Last Wednesday, March 8th, 16 or 17 folks got together for an international wiki-building lesson under the of guidance of our learned moderators.  Sundays at EdTechTalk are for planning. Tonight’s planning session, is labeled the EdTech Barnraising, because as Dave Cormier notes in his blog,

“I like the image of a community coming together to build something we all agree needs to be built. All contributing the skills that they have, their more specific knowhow, bringing their bests to a project that supports the entire community. yes, nice image, but what does it mean.”

Come by tonight or join the fun every Wednesday!  http://edtechtalk.com

Some technical details about the project:

“EdTechTalk is a community of educators interested in discussing and learning about the uses of educational technology. We webcast several live shows each week. During shows, listeners can use any common media player (i.e. Windows Media Player, Real Player, or iTunes) to listen to the discussion and use the chat room to make comments and ask questions. It is also possible to join in the discussion using skype or (sometimes) a U.S. based teleconference. 

After each show, we post a recording of the discussion as an mp3 file, which can be downloaded directly from the site or subscribed to using our RSS feed. We usually post a chat room transcript and a comment forum where people can continue the discussion (in text) after the show.

Because we have listeners all over the world in many different time zones, we usually list times in GMT. Click on the listed time to find what out what time the show airs in your time zone.