Friday, September 16, 2005

A nice article about the Wardlaw-Hartridge School workshop

Kathy Meier just sent me, via email, a nice local newspaper article about last summer's workshop at her school. You can read it here (.pdf). Me, I'm still reeling from being mentioned in the same sentence as Kathy Schrock!

BTW, I'm looking into all kinds of new options for collaborating online, and one of the coolest is the way the marvelous, hardworking Richard Vobes is experimenting with the service at camstreams.com. Some of the online streams there are just the kind of thing one would expect--silly waste-of-time office cams, beachside webcams, and the occasional scantily clad human (that's purportedly as risque as it can get and still stay on the streaming service)--but Richard, the creator of the podcast, The Richard Vobes Radio Show, is using a live stream combined with telephone, VOIP (Voice Over IP), and a live chat room to make his "radio show" the most interactive of the medium.

While most podcasts are free, Richard asks a 20 dollar subscription fee for his show after 7 listens. I subscribe, because I love his G-rated DAILY (whew!) show. His show won the "Best SoundSeeing Tours" category in the recent international competition for podcasts. Along with his 12 year-old daughter Georgie, Richard serves up a rich and witty 30-45 minute show each and every day. I'm watching the streams and sitting in on the talk and the chat as he moves toward instituting "The Weekly Debate" on his show, using all the interoperable technologies to feature his most loyal fans in the actual show!