by Scott McLeod | Apr 16, 2009 | CASTLE, Leadership and Vision, News and Events, Podcasts |
This is a long overdue post that Episode 3 of 4 Guys Talking, the new ‘talk radio’ podcast series from CASTLE, is now available. As usual, our conversation ranged a bit but our focus was on reinventing schools. Justin Bathon said that we may have been a little negative. You’ll have to listen to see if you concur.
FYI, you’ll see that we had some hosting glitches at the beginning. If you start at 5:45 into the podcast, you’ll skip all of our confusion!
You can download the podcast or listen to a Web-streamed version here:
You also can subscribe to the 4 Guys Talking feed using iTunes or a RSS reader.
Thanks to those of you who joined us live, either by calling in or listening over the Web. Future dates/times are as follows (all times Central):
- April 20, 2pm to 3pm
- May 11, 9am to 10am
- May 26, 1pm to 2pm
My hopes to rework CASTLE Conversations, the old CASTLE podcast channel (which will include all previous and podcasts such as 4 Guys Talking), are on hold until the end of my semester. I'll post about it when it's ready.
Happy listening!
by Scott McLeod | Apr 7, 2009 | CASTLE, Higher Education, News and Events, Tech Tools |
Recently I was interviewed for The Chronicle of Higher Education’s article on academics who Twitter. Here’s my portion of the story:
8. Scott McLeod, an associate professor at Iowa State University and director of the university's Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education. Tweet: "College students are online more AND reading more? http://snipurl.com/eko4k"
http://twitter.com/mcleod
Followers: 1,307. Posts: 1,190.
Mr. McLeod argues that professors have been too slow to adopt Twitter. Academic discussions online often take place on closed e-mail lists, he says, when they should be happening in public forums like Twitter, so that a diverse group of outsiders can join in. "I think academics are actually missing a lot by not being involved in more of these social tools," he told me. "There are a lot of academics who think, 'If it's not coming from some other academic it's not worth a damn,' and that's not right."
He admits that some of the messages on Twitter are banal, such as people describing what they had for lunch that day, but he said such notes are part of what makes Twitter such a powerful way to feel connected to far-flung colleagues. "It's like those daily interactions you have with your neighbor — sometimes they're highbrow and sometimes they're lowbrow, but after a while you really get to know the person."
I don’t know if academics have been too slow to adopt Twitter specifically, but I definitely believe that academics have been too slow to adopt social media generally.
Check out the article if you’re interested. What do you think are some good ways that professors could be using Twitter?
by Scott McLeod | Apr 1, 2009 | CASTLE, Leadership and Vision, News and Events, Podcasts |
FYI, Episode 3 of 4 Guys Talking is today at noon Central. Follow the link to the live Internet stream, which also includes the call-in number if you want to give us a ring!
by Scott McLeod | Mar 10, 2009 | CASTLE, Higher Education, Leadership and Vision, News and Events, Podcasts, Pre-Service Preparation |
Yesterday was Episode 2 of 4 Guys Talking, the new ‘talk radio’ podcast series from CASTLE. Like last time, our conversation ranged widely. Among other things, we discussed whether or not university educational administration programs should bear some blame for the poor leadership that exists in many schools, the fact that most school district technology leaders have had little to no leadership training, the unfortunate and continuing marginalization of technology to its own ‘silo’ within school organizations, and efforts within our respective states to train school administrators to be better technology leaders.
You can download the podcast or listen to a Web-streamed version here:
You also can subscribe to the 4 Guys Talking feed using iTunes or a RSS reader.
Thanks to those of you who joined us live yesterday, either by calling in or listening over the Web. Future dates/times are as follows (all times Central):
- April 1, 12pm to 1pm
- April 20, 2pm to 3pm
- May 11, 9am to 10am
- May 26, 1pm to 2pm
I'm still reworking CASTLE Conversations, the old CASTLE podcast channel, which will include all previous and podcasts (including 4 Guys Talking). I'll post about it when it's ready.
Happy listening!
by Scott McLeod | Mar 9, 2009 | CASTLE, Leadership and Vision, News and Events, Podcasts |
FYI, Episode 2 of 4 Guys Talking is today at 2pm Central. Follow the link to the live Internet stream, which also includes the call-in number if you want to give us a ring!
by Scott McLeod | Mar 7, 2009 | 21st Century Skills, Blogging, CASTLE, Law, Policy, and Ethics, Leadership and Vision, Learning and Teaching, News and Events, Our Changing World, Planning and Funding, Pre-Service Preparation, Professional Development, Quotes, Research and Evaluation, Tech Integration, Tech Tools |
I've had a lot of fun guest blogging over at The Des Moines Register this week. For those of you who would like to have a single link that you can forward to others, you can use this web address:
by Scott McLeod | Feb 28, 2009 | CASTLE, Leadership and Vision, News and Events, Podcasts |
Thursday was the inaugural episode of 4 Guys Talking, a new podcast series from CASTLE. The podcast consists of me, Jon Becker, David Quinn, and Jayson Richardson talking about a variety of education (K-12 and higher ed), technology, and/or leadership issues. We're all Educational Leadership professors who care about things like digital technologies, 21st century skills, and the like. Unfortunately, we're an extremely small minority in academia…
Thursday's conversation ranged widely. Among other things, we discussed whether undergraduates are truly the 'digital natives' that many say they are, universities' implementation of open source course management systems, how to facilitate K-12 teachers' buy-in toward technological initiatives, and who's to blame for the bad leadership that exists in many schools (a topic we'll likely return to in our next episode).
You can download the podcast or listen to a Web-streamed version here:
We do the podcast live on
BlogTalkRadio, which essentially allows you to host (for free) an Internet version of live talk radio, so you can call in and participate if you wish. I think we can handle two or three callers at once besides the four of us (thanks to Jared and Lance who joined us for Episode 1!). Future dates/times are as follows (all times Central):
- March 9, 2pm to 3pm
- April 1, 12pm to 1pm
- April 20, 2pm to 3pm
- May 11, 9am to 10am
- May 26, 1pm to 2pm
FYI, I'm reworking CASTLE Conversations, the old CASTLE podcast channel. It will include all previous and podcasts (including 4 Guys Talking) so you'll be able to subscribe via RSS or iTunes. I'll post about it when it's ready.
Happy listening!
by Scott McLeod | Feb 13, 2009 | CASTLE, News and Events |
Are you (or your superintendent) going to be at the AASA conference next week? I’d love to get together Thursday night or Friday morning after my presentation. If so, drop me a note!
Given that the month’s half over, I’ve been a little remiss about posting where I’m going to be in February! Nonetheless… (* = public events)
Plus the usual other stuff like teaching, writing, meetings, hiring new faculty, etc.
![K20 Winter Institute follow-up]()
by Scott McLeod | Feb 1, 2009 | CASTLE, Leadership and Vision, News and Events |
Is it possible to spend an entire day with Wes Fryer and not have fun? Nope!
I updated the materials from my keynote at the K20 Center’s Winter Institute, including adding a podcast of my talk (listen while you view the slides!), some links from my follow-up session, and some Flickr photos.
Here are Wes’ materials from the institute:
The K20 Center rocks. If you’re not familiar with its work, you’re missing out. Oklahoma is very lucky to have this center!
![K20 Winter Institute follow-up]()
by Scott McLeod | Jan 29, 2009 | CASTLE, Leadership and Vision, News and Events |
I’m excited to be in Norman, Oklahoma for the University of Oklahoma K20 Center’s annual Winter Institute. I really like the folks at the K20 Center and am looking forward to spending more time with them today and tomorrow. I’ll also get to see Wes Fryer and Jan Borelli, among others (I think Jan’s excited to see me too!). Everyone here is wonderfully welcoming. They even brought in the snow and ice from Iowa so that I’d feel more at home!
I wandered around the hotel last night, getting my bearings and snapping pictures. As you can see, I’ve got a large roomful of people to keep engaged so the pressure’s on!
I’ve posted the materials for my keynote. I think both Wes and the K20 Center are going to record me as well. If so, I’ll update this post with links to the recording(s).
Update: here's the audio podcast of my keynote.
