No, not really. To be honest, I don't get how people can twitter at work and stuff, or liveblog most stuff. I can't imagine liveblogging a class session. Nor can I imagine twittering.
Now that I think about it, though, I have a colleague who tends to play on his iphone a lot, during meetings, whatever. It irritates me somewhat, because meetings have a chance of actually being useful IFF people are paying attention and putting their minds to work. But this colleague seems to think he's way to important to be bothered, and it shows in lots of ways.
I also don't get the appeal of podcasting. Okay, I get the appeal of doing it (who doesn't love to listen to themselves talk?), but not the appeal of listening. I think I read fairly fast, and on blogs or whatever, I'm willing to skim and skip. So I can read a couple blogs in a few minutes. But the few podcasts I've listened to, people have spookkken veerrryy slooowlly, so that they can be understood, I guess. And then they feel like they need to do a whole five minute introduction. I even listened to part of one where the podcaster put in a musical interlude.
Anyway, liveblogging grading. I've turned in three of the four grade things I have to turn in. Now I have to read some papers and enter those grades.
Can I say here and now how very much I love Excel? I used to run grades by hand, and now I just enter things into a spread sheet, double check by running an imaginary B student, and voila.
Back to work!
I'm so with you on the podcasting thing. It just doesn't have such great appeal to me aside from perhaps a few NPR shows I'd listen to any which way.
ReplyDeleteHappy grading!
I'm with you and profgrrrl on the listening to podcasts thing. Reading is much faster (especially if you skim). I usually won't watch news in video form for the same reason.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I love Excel, too, for grading! It's especially good because I can say with total conviction to a student that, yes, turning in that assignment instead of getting a zero would have made a huge difference.
Well, I found a use for podcasts. I listened to the podcast of a class called Existentialism in Literature, taught by Hubert Dreyfus, at UC Berkeley, and my whole dissertation was changed by listening to this brilliant man's class. Plus, it was like taking an entire class at Berkeley for free. Yes!! Loved it. Now, I also started listening to a podcast of a Shakespeare class at Berkeley. Buzz, buzz. Not nearly as good. Still, it's cool that you can listen to lecture classes for free -- without having to actually apply to and be accepted by Berkeley. The classes were something I could listen to on my iPod while folding laundry, doing dishes, etc. So it was very good for me.
ReplyDeleteI feel exactly the same way about podcasts (and videos where really there is no need for the visual because it's just talking heads). I cannot sit through more than about thirty seconds of listening to something if there's the opportunity to read it instead. I always thought it was a sign of a short concentration span and that it made me a bad person, but really it might just be that I could be doing so much more with that time - read the equivalent of the podcast in a quarter of the time, then do something more productive with the time saved.
ReplyDeleteYeah, right :)
I wonder if the people who enjoy podcasts are good at multitasking, so they just listen to them in the background while doing something else?
profgrrrl, Oh, I can definitely see listening to npr stuff!
ReplyDeleteUndine, Yes, you can show a student what things will look like; it can be a good reality check.
Fie, Yes! I've listened to some lectures from Berkeley. They're really good. I guess I was thinking of blogging folks podcasting, rather than a really good lecture. I'll have to listen to the existentialism ones. Some of the history lectures are GREAT!
Styley, I can listen to stuff while I'm driving or going to sleep. Otherwise, I don't multi-task well.