University of Helsinki
If you have an MP3 player, or the like, and the transport strike is giving you extra time at the bus stop, or you have something else tedious to do and need a distraction, you might be interested in something ecological to listen to.
Here are some of my recommendations. I would be interested to hear about any of Journals or bodies in Plant Science whose output I might have missed or that your would recommend!
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) has various series of podcasts – but the most interesting tends to be Beyond the Frontier every 2 months, where the author from a featured paper from each issue of Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution is interviewed. URL feed
The Nature podcast is weekly and complements quite closely the content of the News and Opinion sections of the Journal. It provides an easy introduction to some of the less accessible subjects covered that I might otherwise skip over while reading it. The presentation style is very professional and it usually contains several interviews with lead authors. URL feed
For something lighter, I particularly enjoy the BBC’s natural history podcast. Typically a half-hour radio programme from the BBC’s weekly output is selected. My favourite is the Living World (which I have listened to since I was a young child!) where habitats or species from the British countryside are covered in situ and with a high level of expertise. URL feed
They have a vast archive of Living World programmes on-line which serve as a fabulous resource. Last year an interesting interview with Lynn Margulis was broadcast too.
Various US Universities, particularly UC Berkeley, put their lectures on-line with open access. These are sometimes a bit rough and ready being simply audio recordings of classes, but they can serve as refreshers for half-forgotten topics, or stimulate ideas for how one might present an area in class oneself. Do you have any plans to Podcast your lectures Pedro?
No, I do not have any plans to Podcast my lectures. I use too much graphic material for them to be of any use as a sound recording (and I am not a gifted speaker either). I sometimes dream of finding the time for writing them up as notes (maybe a prototype for an eventual book or eBook.) Would you be interested in helping with such a project?
I looked at most of the links, and they are very interesting. One important thing is that for us non-native English speakers listening to these podcasts is a good way of improving our language skills.
After looking at the lectures at UC Berkeley I understand that it would be possible to make podcasts of my lectures, but still given the number of students I do not think it would be worthwhile. I would rather write them up, and organize a course with a minimum of lectures… I do not think that lecturing is a very effective way of teaching, and a recorded lecture is even worst, as all interaction is lost…
WordPress works fine for me. However, I am not an administrator, I just use our university’s server to host my blog. You can use WordPress for free or almost free. Just search for wordpress.com and wordpress.org
Hope this helps.
Pedro.