by Derek Morrison, 12 March 2009.
I’m a big fan of speech radio so my attention was attracted to the short article Knowledge via radio: Learn in waves (Times Online, 8 March 2009). Later in the week I listened to a really interesting programme in the BBC Radio 4 Analysis series called Clever.com (BBC Radio 4, 12 March 2009) about how despite (or because of) the overwhelming surfeit of information we now have access to that we are all dumbing down and becoming information grazers. Notice the all, not just the so called digital natives. So download the podcast of this programme it should be required listening for those working in Higher Education; it will, at the least, make an excellent focus for discussion. It’s also great to see that BBC radio is starting to offer transcripts of such programmes as this brings them into line with some other broadcasters like the NPR On the Media programme.
Whatever side of the fence you are on for this particular programme I completely agree the assertion in the Sunday Times piece that “They still do proper education on the radio: learning for the sake of it”. We will stretch it a bit and include podcasts in that assertion as well.
