Here I am with lots of tasks awaiting my attention, and I decide to do the least immediately required and read Stephen Downes's OLDaily. I don't focus strongly on the meaningful links, and I don't add even a quite relevant one to my del.icio.us account. I'm feeling rebellious about focussing, which is a state I get into when I have lots of (too much?) work to do. As I continue my reluctant scan, I see the link for Blogger's Play - http://play.blogger.com/ - I left click and open a new tab --- and I'm hooked. So hooked that I put the link on my Personal Toolbar, probably a serious error ;->

Between this and Status Updates on Facebook, I'm having serious trouble focussing on required work! Wish me luck ;->

I read Stephen Downes's OLDaily regularly, sometimes a few days or even a few weeks after it arrives in my inbox. I don't read everything, but often enough he has a link that fascinates and educates me. Here's a video that I found through Stephen's links - and it's amazing. If you teach post-secondary students, you really need to see this, made by Micheal Wesch's Anthropology Class. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o   

I'm beginning to think I could put together a course just using 5 minute videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM  

This is another one by Michael Wesch, the provider of the video in my previous post. Courtesy of Donna Papacosta - http://trafcom.typepad.com/blog/ - blogger, podcaster, and all-around amazing woman.

So I was checking my email last night, and there was a message from a former student, Karen Bader, from my Oral Rhetoric course. I might like this video - The Last Lecture of Randy Pausch - and she gave me the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HqdnjgkExY I dutifully clicked on it and saw that it was a YouTube video, about 9 minutes long. Well, I had nothing planned for the evening except reading and could spare 9 minutes watching to see what a former student defined as good oral rhetoric after completing my course.

 

As the video ended it was obvious that it was only the beginning, and I was so impressed by Pausch's lecturing style and so interested in his stories, that I decided to watch the next in the series. I hadn't read about, and Karen, my former student hadn't told me, the context, but I was beginning to figure it out, and that strengthened my curiosity.

Eight videos later, I was really impressed by Pausch's ability to speak, his understanding of pedagogy, his acomplishments, and, most of all, his sheer humanity. Give yourself the gift of watching and listening.

• via YouTube - start here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HqdnjgkExY 
  
• for the whole thing, plus the context - http://www.etc.cmu.edu/global_news/?q=node/42
  

My former student, Karen Bader, really picked a winner!

Zonbu sounds amazing! A cheap computer that operates by using the web instead of its hard drive. In my opinion, that's a very sensible approach.

I'd like to embed the video, but I have a problem. I can't figure out how to embed videos in my EduSpaces blog posts - maybe it's my Mac, although Firefox usually works well. Maybe I've missed the secret. If you know how to, could you drop me a line or a comment and tell me the method.

Meanwhile here's the link to my WebToolsForLearners post, where  I could embed the video, on Zonbu, and a link to the video on the Zonbu site.