Let’s cancel tomorrow’s Skypecast. For those of you in the U.S., happy July 4 holiday!

I had a great time as part of a panel on podcasting at the recent GMAC conference in San Francisco. Peter Johnson, my outstanding co-panelist for the session and a director at U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, was kind enough to share a few remarks on camera. I asked him what surprised him most about their podcasting efforts. He described how he went from skeptic to believer in podcasting, and how podcasting can complement existing communications channels when it comes to recruiting and admissions.

The Haas School launched podcasts in 2005 aimed at providing advice for students applying and information about financial aid and career services options. They’ve been updating their episodes as information changes during the year.

The practice of sharing video online is really taking off. As Karine Joly mentioned recently, institutions are beginning to have a presence in places like YouTube, a free video sharing site that’s similar to the popular photo sharing site Flickr, but for video. Some, like Multnomah, have been at it for a while.

Last week I had a conversation about video sharing with Allegheny College’s Mike Richwalsky via IM. Mike shared that he’s experimenting with ways to use video sharing platforms as a place to establish a presence for Allegheny.

Says Mike, “It’s nice to be on there with something official if someone searches for Allegheny on Google Video or YouTube.” Allegheny recently posted video from their Senior Project Celebration to Google and YouTube. The video was loaded onto YouTube May 25, 2006, and already it’s been viewed almost 80 times.

Both Google Video and YouTube provide a snippet of code you can use to embed a Flash movie in your web page, as I’ve done with Allegheny’s video from YouTube in this post.

Why not join us for today’s open-mic Skypecast at 1 p.m. Eastern time?

Today we don’t have a set topic–anything goes. In some recent Skypecasts, we’ve talked about the importance of blogging, education journalism and new media, and microformats. What’s on your mind relating to this new world of new media? Are you sick of hearing about blogs and podcasts, and need a place to vent? Are you interested in getting started or sharing your ideas?

In order to participate in the call, all you need is Skype, a free program for making calls over the Internet. When 1 p.m. Eastern rolls around, click this link, and you’ll be given instructions about how to sign into the call.

I’m pleased to share part two of our interview with Jonny Goldstein at the recent Vloggercon 2006 in San Francisco, where he was presenting about his experience teaching kids to video blog in New York City public schools.

Jonny talks about the technical and logistical considerations teachers face when they begin video blogging. The site Freevlog.org, which Jonny mentions at the outset of this clip, is a great resource for anyone who wants to learn how to set up a free video blog. Check out some additional comments and resources Jonny provided in a comment here yesterday, including links to a helpful podcast for teachers and video footage of the education session at Vloggercon 2006.

Syndication for Higher Ed caught up with Jonny Goldstein at the recent Vloggercon 2006 in San Francisco, where he was presenting about his experience teaching kids to video blog in New York City public schools. (Check out their site BX21.org.) I asked him how teachers should approach video blogging as a classroom tool, and he made some excellent suggestions about how to get kids to use video blogs to help support learning in a variety of subjects. I think he’s right on target.

I should note that in this segment, Jonny refers to the work of Jen Simmons (Temple University) and Bre Pettis, both co-panelists in Jonny’s Vloggercon session on vlogging in education.

Stay tuned for part two of this interview, where Jonny talks about the technical and logistical side of video blogging.

Thanks for interviewing for SHE, Jonny!

Conversation Strategies in Higher Education
The Weekly Open Skypecast
June 9, 2006, Part 1 of 2
New Media and the World of Education Journalism and PR
(20 minutes)
Mp3
RSS Feed

Participants: Paul Baker, Karine Joly, Dan Karleen

How do education reporters think about new media?
Are education reporters blogging as part of their journalism?
An education journalist at Dayton Daily News has a blog that can be found on the paper’s site: http://www.daytondailynews.com
An education journalist Atlanta Journal Constitution has a blog found at the paper’s site: http://www.ajc.com
Alexander Russo’s blog: http://thisweekineducation.com
Why aren’t more education journalists blogging?
“Newspapers companies are going to have to move in new technologies to continue to reach their readers.”
Do you have to be clever and opinionated to be a blogger?
Is a blog just a platform, or is it something more?
Education Writers Association lists some blogs: http://www.ewa.org
What will it take to change negative opinions about blogs?
Who’s interested in using an RSS reader?
Karine’s offer to set up a Bloglines account for those that want to get into RSS
Is there any evidence to suggest how are journalists using blogs and RSS in general?
Where are all the education blogs?

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this conversation, where we’re joined by Dimitri Glazkov who shares his opinions on fundamental distinctions between blogs and other forms of communication media.

Join us live for these Skypecasts each Friday at 1 p.m. Eastern time.

- Lenoir-Rhyne College has an RSS news feed

- University of Ulster has a podcast page and RSS feed. The podcast covers “the life and work of the University, its staff, students, partners and visitors.”

- Society for New Communications Research today announced an awards program for excellence in the use of new communications models and solutions. There is a category for an academic award. Why not consider nominating a project you think is particularly outstanding or innovative? (Disclosure: I’m a Research Fellow with the Society.)

University of Oregon has RSS feeds for news and events linked from their home page.

It will be fun to participate in and record our weekly open Skypecast on new media in higher education from my hotel room in San Fran. Dimitri Glazkov has kindly offered to be discussion leader. He’ll be walking us through the wild new world of microformats and what they might mean to universities.

Right after that, I head downstairs at the St. Francis to talk to a group at the GMAC annual conference about podcasting in admissions. Pete Johnson from Berkeley is my panel partner. It will be great to hear from Pete about his adventures in podcasting at the Haas School. I’m really excited about it, as GMAC has graciously given permission to post materials from the presentation, as well as the screencast. Tomorrow we may be creating the first-ever screencast from a GMAC conference.