Listen Listen

I just listened to the IT conversations podcasts and I noticed that I was having a difficult time envisioning exactly what they were talking about. Most notably, during the podcast “A Conversational Approach to Search,” Mark Drummond, the CEO of Wowd, is trying to describe his layout and features of the search engine and real-time updated website Wowd.com. (Drummond, 2009) I found it difficult to exactly picture in my head what he was describing. Because of this, I went to the website, Wowd.com, and starting clicking around and trying some of the features. This led me to a much better understanding of what the website was about rather than listening to Mr. Drummond speak about Wowd on the podcast. Also, it was very helpful to go to the about Wowd link and read about the website. Because of this experience, I think I would much rather read or visually see the topic content rather than listening to it. I attribute this to the fact that I am a Kinesthetic learner first and likely a visual learner second with the auditory learning coming in last place. Therefore, I learn and understand ideas and topics much better when I can mess around with them to figure them out or visually see them.

If the lesson was provided by podcast, I would definitely sit down and listen the podcast very carefully without any distractions. Since auditory learning is my weakness, I would need full concentration on just listening. Also, I would likely do some additional research after listening to the audio. I would try to find visual items to look at to help aid me in learning about the topic.

While I am not an auditory learner, some people are. Because of that, I think that podcast should be used in conjunction with other teaching methods in order to try and cater to every type of learner. This would likely produce the best results as far as learning and teaching effectiveness.

Also, and somewhat off topic, Wowd.com is a pretty neat site. It is called a “real-time search engine for discovering what's popular on the web right now,” according to their website. (http://www.wowd.com/overview.jsp) Essentially, you can either use the traditional search option or select a category and see what most people are searching for right now. In other words, you can see what the popular hot topics are out there in that category. It is definitely worth checking out and messing around with.

Works Cited:

Drummond, Mark (2009). A Conversation Approach to Search." ItConversations. Podcast retrieved July 16, 2010 from:
http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4409.html


Wowd (2010). "Wowd.com." Retrieved July 15, 2010 from:
http://www.wowd.com/overview.jsp