The Sniffer, Nov 4th, 2011: Trends in Publishing and Cellphones

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Nora| 7 Comments

In this trendwatching podcast, Cathi Bond talks about the launch of The Slant, dubbed an “artifact” publication (via JC Report). It looks cool, with a bit of an anti-consumerist edge. What’s the place for real, physical artifacts in a digital age? You can find out more about the project by watching their charming Kickstarter pitch.

Meanwhile, Nora Young mentions this new infographic on post-secondary students’ use of cellphones, particularly in class (via Mashable). Nora wonders how educators can respond. Should they design courses that actually involve interactive use of phones, thereby satisfying the urge for a quick info hit while keeping the course on track?
And a quick note in the ongoing struggle for publishers to adapt to a digital age: a division of Simon and Schuster is trying out smart books. These are regular paper books kitted out with RFID tags. Browsers can touch their phones to them to learn more about the books (via PSFK)

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7 Responses to The Sniffer, Nov 4th, 2011: Trends in Publishing and Cellphones

  1. Liquid | November 11, 2011 at 5:14 am |

    Hey, guys.
    Thanks for continuing to podcast The Sniffer. I’m always happy when a new episode comes out.

    Do you know about Dodo Press? They’re a deliberately small-press imprint who reprint classic titles that are old enough to be out-of-print, in small batches. My partner was bemoaning an inability to find anything by a particular favourite author, Enid Bagnold, but then was able to get her writing from Dodo.

  2. Scott | November 11, 2011 at 7:38 pm |

    Interesting podcast.
    Your chat about ‘mobile use in the classroom’ near the end resonated with me; I work in Learning Tech at a University. Engaging student’s on those devices to extend the learning experience beyond the classroom is where we want to get to. There’s lots going on to this end, with much of it failing but some gaining some ground.
    Check out Perdue University’s HotSeat application (http://www.itap.purdue.edu/studio/hotseat/) that gets students to pose questions to the Instructor in the classroom via mobile. Students can ‘vote up’ questions posed by other students that they like. The Instructor can monitor this ‘back channel’ and answer the questions that have risen to the top. This doesn’t extend the learning experience beyond the classroom necessarily but it is interesting in shifting the engagement of the student through the cellphone back to the class they are in.
    Anyways, there’s lots going on to start using ‘the phone in the teaching process’ beyond that example.

  3. Nora | November 12, 2011 at 5:48 pm |

    @Liquid Thanks for the kind words. Sometimes with podcasts it’s hard to know if anyone is listening, so we really appreciate the feedback.

    @Scott, that is so interesting. I was aware that some classrooms were experimenting with social media approaches, but hotseat is a really neat idea. Any idea how it’s being received by profs?

    • Scott | November 14, 2011 at 4:55 pm |

      Kyle Bowen from Perdue would be the guy that could answer best about HotSeat in particular but broadly, as expected we see a few early adopters for this sort of technology in the Instructor population and then more as it becomes proven. Our early adopters are eagerly seeking technologies like HotSeat to really change the classroom with the intent to make it better, more interesting, more engaging for the students. And, that really goes back to what you were saying in the podcast – students are more interested in what’s going on, on their cellphone than at the front of the class – so let’s partially engage them where their attention seems to be flowing anyways. I’m aware that using technology in the classroom in this way begs the question ‘if they’re not engaged with the Instructor at the front of the class then isn’t there a problem with the Instructor/instruction/classroom setup?’.

  4. cathi | November 12, 2011 at 10:47 pm |

    Nora! There are people out there! We’re not at the bottom of the podcast page all alone. Thanks for posting.

  5. Nora | November 14, 2011 at 5:31 pm |

    Hey Scott,

    Thanks for all this background. I think I’d like to pitch it as a story for my CBC show, Spark!