29 Years of EdTech in Vinyl Martin Weller

And this old town is lifeless, then that way our whole life's just, work at the mill until you die, work at the mill and then you die, back together, race up a giant ladder, with love and trust and friends and hammers, this summer, we're going this ladder up again.

Against the water tower, climb up to the top and drink and talk, this summer, me and my friends are like, double whiskey, coke, no ice, we drink along in total time, might drink too much but we feel fine, we're gonna build something this summer, we're gonna build something this summer, grant us all the power to drink and talk,

on top of water towers, with love and trust, this show's all summer, let this be my annual reminder, that we, I went to your schools, I did my detention, but the walls are so gray, I couldn't pay attention, I heard your gospel, it moved me to tears, but I couldn't find the hate and I couldn't find the fear, I met your savior, I knelt at his feet, and he took my 10 bucks and he went down the street,

with all the things that you said, but my friends that aren't dying are already dead,

raise a toast to St. Joe's drummer, I think he might have been our only decent teacher,

get it over, it makes it harder to remember, we are our only saviors, we're gonna build something this summer,

yes, I think you can press stop now, hello everybody, welcome here on DS106 radio at the DS106 summer camp, it is messy vinyl casting with 100 years of edtech, and here is Martin Weller, hi Martin,

hello, Martin playing at the wrong speed, well, so we apologize in advance, the production values of this session are going to be messy, because there's two of us in the same room, plus two dogs, and one turntable,

So, Martin, we started off with 29 years of EdTech. Thanks to Jim's inimitable introduction, we've gone straight to the max, 100 years of EdTech. So you're now committed for the next 75 years.

I was going to give a book away as a prize, but I remember at OER 16, we gave away a book as a prize, and Jim was keen on it, and he got up on stage and said,

what kind of conference is it that thinks a book from Martin Mallory is a prize?

Okay, that was my suggestion, so I'm glad that we didn't go with that.

Anyway.

Anyway, what we've got planned for this hour is I'm going to be the DJ, Martin is going to spin the turntable, and we're going to play some tunes that are all associated with different technologies that you've covered in blogging and in books, because you're all about the blogging as well as the books.

Yeah, so that was Constructive Summer by The Hold Steady, so see if you can guess what year that was.

So that was, you can play along if you want, that was 1997 in the book, which I'm sure you've all got to hand, which was Constructivism, of course.

If you haven't listened to it, you should listen to the podcast between the chapters, because Jesse Stone talks about Constructivism and how he hates the whole idea of scaffolding that, and it's a really good listen, actually.

But I put that one on there because, A, it's a good tune, and also, I was talking to someone today, I did an interview with someone,

and they were talking about online pedagogy and stuff, and I was going back and thinking about, we were talking about the pandemic, and kind of how when the pandemic happened, it revealed that, you know, this was 1997, and at the time we learned it was great, we're going, yeah, you know, it's like, and everyone's exploring new ways of teaching, and then that, it sort of really came home when the pandemic hit, that, what are we going to do for online teaching?

I know, face-to-face lectures, so that was it, that was our online pedagogy.

So anyway, but on the...

The Whole Steady, I love The Whole Steady, they're kind of a bit of a frat boy band, he has a lot of these repeating characters through his albums, there's this vague theory, I've heard somewhere, that a great artist, a great band, had five consecutive great albums, and The Whole Steady had four great ones, and then their fifth one wasn't quite up there, so they didn't quite reach it, and it's quite a tricky benchmark to me, because even like someone like Barry, being consecutive, it's like, he'd often, they might have one dip one or something.

Okay.

Yeah, well be careful, because Dave or Bonnie may be listening, and you know, you need to be careful what you say when it comes to Bowie, I think.

Yeah, of course, I think Bowie did manage it in the 70s, but it's actually quite difficult, even great artists sort of have a dip album, so yeah, cool.

There's some chat on Discord about The National, and we had a lot of fun earlier this week on the radio camp with Daniel and Tim.

Yeah.

And I think you were talking to Tim on the session on the Recifer, your playlist, which I think motivated you to straightly order some more vinyl, is that right?

Yeah, that's right, so they played Barty Strange, who'd done a cover album of National songs, it was great.

Yeah.

I really loved that song.

Yeah, I know, and straightly an excuse to buy more vinyl, so...

Yeah, that's right.

Any excuse will do.

Yeah.

So are you going to announce what you're playing next, or are we doing the play along, what are we doing?

I'll announce it.

Okay.

The next one is...

Yeah.

It's a very popular song, I think.

Yeah.

And it's called Goldfrapp.

And the song's Utopia.

This one's quite tricky because it's white vinyl, so trying to find the track gag on white vinyl.

Okay, I'll get the vinyl up the volume and we'll listen to that.

Enjoy.

It's a strange day.

No colours or shapes.

No sound in my head.

I've found my way.

I forget who I am when I'm with you.

There's no reason. There's no sense.

I'm not supposed to feel.

I forget who I am.

I forget.

Fascist baby.

Utopian.

Utopian.

My dog needs new friends.

New ears.

See forever.

Making you like me.

Again and again.

Fascist baby.

Utopian.

Utopian.

That's how they made me.

Fascist baby.

Utopian.

Okay, so we're trying to carefully time the end of the vinyl with the next bit of chat.

But we're doing okay so far.

I think all the remaining ones are at 33 RPM.

So here goes.

So that was Gold Frat Utopia.

And I put that in for 1999 e-learning.

It sort of follows on from the thing I was saying before.

But I think when we were doing those early years of e-learning,

it was a kind of very utopian vision.

You know, we were really excited about all the possibilities.

And then look how that turned out.

And I thought it was quite good because she talks about, in the lyrics,

she talks about fascist baby and stuff.

And that's why I put the book there.

There's I Am The Law, which is...

This guy looks at Judge Dredd, for those of you who know it, in 2000 AD.

And how a lot of the stories in Judge Dredd in 2000 AD

sort of predicted the kind of police state that we have now.

And how sort of policing became politicised.

So nice few connections there.

But a great tune also.

I love a bit of Gold Frat.

Yeah, lots of love for Gold Frat on the chat as well.

And I know that you made a bigger playlist as well.

That's true.

For this show today.

Because I know that in...

Well, given that we start with at least 29 years of EdTech,

we don't have time to play all 29 tunes today.

But you'll be sharing that link later on?

I'll share the Spotify playlist.

Okay, cool.

I think there is some love here as well

for the weekly discovery on that platform,

which can be really helpful.

I...

I had a fun moment the other day listening to music on Spotify

and it suggested to me Coastal Grandmother

as a genre that I might enjoy.

This is not a genre I'd come across before,

but I do enjoy it.

And the algorithm was completely correct.

There was also...

Yeah, there were more playlists for Coastal Grandmother

as a genre than I'd imagined.

It's the whole vibe, isn't it?

It is, yeah.

It's like something that, you know,

as I'm not on TikTok,

I think it's just completely passed me by.

But it is something apparently that has a lot of vibes.

Yeah, so you never know.

What are you going to find?

Okay, moving swiftly on.

What is next?

Now it's a new release.

I don't just listen to old stuff.

Probably one of my favourite albums of the year so far.

It's Waxahachie, Tiger's Blood.

And I'm playing a track called Bored,

which is...

I'm going to dedicate to the year 2001

and e-learning standards.

We needed those standards,

but they're very difficult to get excited about.

Metadata fields, you know,

you can't get to...

This one's white marble vinyl,

so also tricky to find.

Here we go.

Okay, I'll put that up as well.

I-I'm playing a video game

Armed with a safety pin

Overly confident

My skin is airy thin

But my game is rigged to win

I keep my head up

Fill up your empty cup

All in the name of love

While you get the hang of

The shade that suits me

It's not natural beauty

The line of duty

Collapses in me

I-I-

I keep my mind occupied. Watch for the falling tight. Make an exit on this sleigh. Armed with a memory. Surely will stay with me. Fragments of misery. Feeding off my body. I keep my eyes shut. Sage advice to rebut. A blind squirrel finds a nut. Mapping out the shortcuts.

Twenty questions. Dexterous protesting. And what a blessing. Say you've been manifesting.

I am facing science. Missed it by years. I can't get along. My spine's a-riding to my bone. Barely...

Okay. Back we are for a little bit more chat. And we were just...

I was just catching up about the DJ names that have been appearing throughout DS106 Summer Camp.

And there are a whole lot of wonderful library metaphor references that are popping up here on the Discord chat.

And also on the DS106 Radio Summer Camp hashtag.

So, Martin, I was just asking you, as we were listening to this tune,

what would be your kind of DJ names?

Yeah, so I'm going to opt out of that and go for self-promotion instead.

So, if you look at the picture I've just posted, Discord, of the Waxahachie album,

is on a reservoir, taken by a reservoir in Wales.

And I've set up this, as many of you know, I left out of university,

so I'm trying to find things to fill my time now.

One of those things I've set up is a vinyl account on Instagram.

I've joined that vinyl nerd community.

And so I take pictures of vinyl.

I'm out and about, and I'm doing hikes with my dog, Tylo.

So my DJ name would be Vinyl Wales, which is my Instagram account.

And I've put a link in the Discord chat for all those people who want to see pictures of vinyl out and about in Wales.

I mean, it's a niche market, I feel.

But, you know, you're at the corner, and it's art.

Yeah, well, I don't know.

When I was listening to Jim and Brian earlier this week talking about art,

I had to laugh so much when, towards the end of the session,

Jim was kind of riffing off something Brian was saying.

And he was like, is it art? But is it art?

And I think you should totally claim, you know, hiking with vinyl as art.

I think that's the best possible option of what this is.

Oh, wonderful. I love that.

And, you know, thank you for coming on air here as well and bringing some of your vinyl to us.

I think we've been having so much fun with different sessions.

And I loved the session Dave did yesterday.

And in the evening, big shout out to Dave,

who I think has pulled in the biggest audience so far off the radio,

Summer Camp, with over 30 listeners live on DS106 Radio.

He's got to be a world-renowned author, isn't he?

I know, if only.

So, yeah, absolutely. Big shout out to Dave.

But we're so excited now for the next tune.

So tell us, what's up next?

Right. So we're going back now, having been modern.

I'm going to go with The Who.

The Who, won't get fooled again.

I put this next to 2006 for Web 2.0, but it could also be social media and stuff.

And again, I was having this conversation, lots of people kind of like, and I've been doing a blog series about things I got wrong.

And my last one was the democratisation of social media.

And I think when you see people like the world's richest man trying to undermine UK governments and promote right wing ideology,

you think, yeah, it's really not that democratised, is it?

And so I was very wrong about that.

And I think a lot of us are quite kind of idealistic about that early social media.

And so I think the kind of the line here, you know, meet the new boss, same as the old boss, rings true.

But you've got to, at least in my opinion, I think this is the kind of approach that we've been going to,

especially through the internet, to help you guys get right in front of the issues,

And I think, you know, we gonna have to do that in the next few years.

You know, I think that the internet brand should be the market's biggest powerhouse for these people.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I tip my hat to the new constitution, take a bow for the new revolution, smile and grieve at the change all around, pick up my guitar and play, just like yesterday, then I'll get on my knees and pray.

We don't get fooled again, we ain't changed, cause I'm on in the last war, I'm on a new revolution, smile and grieve at the change, just like yesterday, then I'll get on my knees and pray.

We don't get fooled again, we don't get fooled again, we don't get fooled again, we don't get fooled again.

We don't get fooled again, no, no, move myself and my family aside, if we have all my papers and smile at the sky, oh, I know that the hypnotized never lie.

Okay, sorry for those of you who are air guitaring and hard out there, we are back with a little bit more chat.

This is a...

This is a very long song, so apologies for those of you who were really rocking out to that, but you get more good tunes coming in, but before we move on to the next one, I wanted to just pick up on the federated social media bit, because I think Jim mentioned that just earlier in his first session, we have a super chat coming up in just over half an hour here on DS106 Radio Summer Camp, where we go and talk about...

about social media and getting federated and Mission Macedon, which is really, really exciting, I'm looking forward to that.

Yeah, it's all about don't get fooled again.

Oh, yeah, no, I am, well, I'm not sure I am going to get fooled again, because I don't think I'm doing all that well keeping up with social media these days, but it is...

You've gone boutique now.

I've gone radio all the way.

That's right.

Fifteen listeners, it's a big number now, who needs thousands of people?

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And that's 16 listeners, I have you know. But yeah, now I'm really, I'm really excited about connecting with people this week. And we had a couple of people getting very excited about having the regular shows on DS106 Radio, and I just saw, yeah, and I saw earlier, I think Paul has already put together a new blog post.

I'd like to look at that.

All right.

Like in the New York Times, in the magazine, in the New York Times, all about how to get on the radio. So, I'm no one, not looking at anybody in particular here, who's got a big vinyl collection. But just in case you are interested and you're listening, then check that out.

So Terry has just put in a chat that I could announce it, won't get fooled again, and they're never going to give you up, and I'm gonna say it. Marin didn't know what Rick Rowling was. I told her the other week, and she'd never heard of Rick Rowling. Bless her, innit.

Thanks for bringing that up again.

I'm just going to leave it for a minute.

Oh, that was so funny. My little face was incredulous. I just didn't get it at all.

You were like, but why? I said, I don't know, why? It just is.

Yeah, I didn't get it. I think it's a generational thing.

But yeah, that was awesome. I'm glad Terry's playing along. You see, someone does get your

sense of humour. All right. So we have a lot of songs still to play. And we've only got half an

hour left. So what is next? So the next is I've been going through a little phase of an artist

and get all the stuff. So recently, I've been going through a phase of listening to the Style

Council, the band that Paul Weller formed after the jam. And I got one of their albums that they

called Our Favourite Shop, a classic album. And

I'm going to play Walls Come Tumbling Down. And this is in honour of 2011, the personal learning

environment. And the whole idea of that was walls between institutions and different technologies

would come tumbling down because you can share data and that never happened either. But I blogged

so I said, my daughter says to me that I wrote a blog about that is my most used phrase in my house.

And I think she's probably right. So I wrote a blog

about that is my most used phrase in my house. And I think she's probably right. So I wrote a blog

about that is my most used phrase in my house. And I think she's probably right. So I wrote a blog

post recently about the person, we don't have personal learning environment, but perhaps we

have personal engagement environments. But that has the acronym of P. So that's probably not a

great acronym. But I think increasingly, because the social media thing, we don't all go on Twitter

now people are developing their own little environments by combining together all these

different things. So someone suggested perhaps we should call it the personal interaction

environment, that'd be fine. That'd be nice. So I'm just gonna tune this one up.

Well, while you do, I want to give a

shout out and a hello to Anne-Marie Scott, who is listening in as well. And it was just saying hi

to us on Mastodon. So if you're not on the discord chat, and you want to say hello on Mastodon, and

check in to the jokes here and all the fun. It's ds106 radio summer camp. That's the hashtag,

you need to post that.

Up our nose and authority

But you never know until you try

Our fears just might be in

Our fears just might be in

your soul

So show me

Are you gonna try to make this work

Or spill your days down in the dirt

Cause your dreams can't change

Yes they do

Yes they do

Yes they do

Yes they do

Yes they do

Yes they do

Yes they do

Yes they do

Yes they do

Yes they do

A little pause... and we are back.

A little pause... and we are back.

A little pause... and we are back.

Okay, and we're back. So there's always careful shuffling between the tracks, but yeah, it's

been so much fun in the Discord chat, seeing all the pictures, and yeah, it's been so much

I think, Martin, your multimedia approach to this session is getting some love with

the penguins, and they featured earlier this week as well, when Brian and Jim were talking

about the artwork that happened for GoGN.

So when we were getting some merch made for the GoGN project, we developed these little

stress toys with the little logo on it, and that's what led to Brian doing all the drawings

around the penguins, because penguins are... everyone loves a penguin.

And I believe you got a very special delivery this week.

I did, yeah. So my colleagues from GoGN, Rob and Bek, got me some custom-made vinyl. How

do they know I like vinyl? And it's like tracks they'd put on it, and with the GoGN artwork.

I'll post a picture of that on Instagram, I guess.

Oh, awesome. Yeah, that was a special treat. I really loved seeing the GoGN network...

not network.

The GoGN logo actually, when it spins on the turntable, looks awesome. And I think

maybe we need to get more Brian Mathers vinyl artwork to put, you know, to kind of do the

spinning piece, because like, I know we have like moving video and stuff, but...

We should line them up with the Rolling Stones for the next album.

Oh, well, there's lots of love for the GoGN penguins, and I know they're travelling still

far and wide all across the globe.

What is next in terms of the line-up?

That we've got here?

OK, so next up is a track by one of my favourite bands. I'm sort of going back a bit, again.

This is when I was growing up. It's by Tear Up Explodes, so Judy and Cope. And back in

the early 80s, I used to listen to Tear Up Explodes a lot, and Echo and the Bun, and

there was this whole kind of Liverpool, Mersey revival going on around then with people like

Waheed and Zoo Records and stuff. It was great. It was really one of my favourite times, and

I listened to this stuff a lot.

And the track is books, and it's for open textbooks, which I put into the year 2013.

So we can dedicate this to all the lovely people at BC Campus and all those people who

really pushed the open textbooks idea. So here it is.

You know, I just need to interrupt here. It is now 37 minutes into this broadcast. There

are a couple of Canadians at least listening. There are more Canadians at DS106 Radio Summer

Camp, and the word hockey hasn't been mentioned once yet.

I know.

I mean, it's very, you know, it's a record, I think.

I know. I haven't got many hockey knickles yet. I'm sure people will share my joy when

I tell them that we go and see the Carded Devils a lot, and the track they come out

onto the ice is a knickleback song, so we all, you know. Hockey music's not known to

be great.

Across the sea.

Oh, I do love hockey.

I think we're back. Awesome. All right. We're getting into a bit of a groove here with the

vinyl switchover, and we've tried to make it as hard as absolutely possible. There is

a different record every track. It's not always the first track. We're trying to chat

in between that as well, together in this room. So I hope you're appreciating everybody.

What lengths we're going to here. And, oh God, that's a lovely record, actually, isn't

it? It's nice orange, yellow, sunshine colours.

I'll take a picture of this for the chat.

I'm sure everybody wants to see. Yeah. Okay, cool. But before we jump in to the next record,

I just wanted to, you know, to give you an opportunity. Is there any hockey chat you

need to get off your chest? I mean, there are 17 people listening right now.

Yeah, so commiserations to Terry and the Edmonton fans. Lost out in the finals, Stanley Cup

final show. I wanted them to win. But no, it wasn't to be Florida. Florida's not even

a hockey place, is it? You can't go to hockey where it's too hot. Ridiculous state of affairs.

I think I take the blame. I cursed the Oilers by going to the opening game of the season

last year. So my curse came through. Yeah, but we're getting ready for the Cardiff Devils.

I've converted Maren to be a Cardiff Devils season ticket holder now, haven't I?

For my sins, yeah. That's right. It's going to be a family affair. That's right. Awesome.

Well, I want to give a shout out before we go and do the new record to Clint Lalonde

because Clint was a big inspiration when we designed this event. And as you all know,

Clint is a veteran broadcaster and absolutely generous with his time. And I think that's

his expertise when it came to radio. I think that the setup that we've had this week has

been a bit of everything, you know, trying to make it work to as many people as possible

to be on the radio in as easy a way as possible. But I do really appreciate what every guest

DJ is bringing here to the table. And Clint has been on holiday, well-deserved rest. So

he hasn't been able to join us live this week, but I know he's been listening in alongside

some of his friends. Yeah, he's been listening in. Yeah, he's been listening in alongside

some of his BC Campus colleagues as well. And it's just been fabulous to have so many

sort of radio nerds come and share their expertise. I've been loving it this week.

So anyway, sorry, enough chat. What are we listening to next?

We're jumping back to 1998. So going back to a bit of that sort of utopian idea. And

this was wikis. I remember the first time I went to a conference, it must have been

96, 97, and someone talked about wikis. I thought, they're amazing. You want people to see them.

Let's do this stuff together. And they never quite became the thing they could have been, I think.

But I really like the whole idea around wikis and sort of co-construction of knowledge and stuff.

And the band I'm playing is a British jazz band, the Ezra Collective, who we love in this household.

And the track's called Togetherness. It's on translucent orange vinyl, so it might be a bit tricky for me to find the track.

I'm hoping it's 33. Let's give it a go.

Out in the street, they call it Ezra.

And we're back. More chat. Eek.

Okay. Trying to get the volume control sorted there. Sorry about that.

But yeah, I love this tune. The vinyl looks amazing.

And I'm really getting into this. I think I'm having more fun than I thought I would.

No offence. Obviously, I'm excited about the concept, but I was a bit worried about the technicalities of the show.

So what's next? Tell us.

Where are we now in the centuries of vinyl?

So we're up to 2022 for the technology.

And I'm going with, of course, generative AI. And of course, we've been talking about this a lot.

I'm going back to 2000 for the record.

Again, a very well played album of mine.

It's Grandaddy and the Software Slump.

And Grandaddy, I think all of their albums could be subtitled We Are Sad About Technology,

which I think is a vibe that I can get into and get behind.

So the track I'm going to play is called Jed the Humanoid.

And it's about these friends who build a robot and they play with it and they get friendly with it.

And then they just ignore it and leave it. And Jed the Humanoid becomes an alcoholic.

So I'm sure there's a metaphor for AI amongst that.

So we're going to listen to Jed the Humanoid.

Oh, I love it.

I also have a book recommendation on this that I'll post on Discord.

Your son.

This night something pretty bad happened.

We lost a friend.

All shocked and broken.

Shut down, exploding.

Jed E3 is what we first called him.

It was Jed.

But Jed's system's dead.

Therefore so is Jed.

We assembled him in the kitchen.

What of this end?

He was out of hand.

When we finished Jed,

we were so proud.

We celebrated.

We congratulated.

Jed could run or walk,

see me talking.

All our thoughts end.

Solved lots of problems.

Solved lots of problems.

We learned so much from him.

It's so true.

A couple years went by and something happened.

We gave Jed less attention.

He changed.

All our inventions.

All our conventions.

Jed had found our booze and drank every drop.

Okay, and we're back for one last time.

That was a cheery tune, wasn't it?

I loved it.

Cheery upbeat tune.

I also loved the kind of book chat

that's been happening on Discord

where we've been getting different recommendations in.

So thanks Shannon and Tom for sharing.

I think we're at the stage in the show.

We've only got five minutes left

where we're going to start talking about

the most important topic of them all.

Yeah.

Save the best till last.

Save the best till last.

So I forget what year I've put it in,

but it's...

Oh yeah, 2003 was the technology.

And the technology is blogs, blogs, blogs.

Okay.

I may have written a blog post about blogging.

But as we are on DS106 Radio

and we all know blogging is for life,

we want to give a big shout out to tomorrow's closing plenary

because we're going to be talking about blogging,

we're going to be talking about blogging about blogging.

We are going to have an amazing session

and I'm really excited that you've chosen a tune

to play us out with,

which is all about blogging for you.

So yeah, what have you picked?

Well, I once wrote a piece, not a blog post,

but a piece for one of those things like Inside Higher Ed,

where I said becoming a blogger

was the best decision I made in my academic life.

And it's the technology that stayed with me.

So I'm choosing as my track,

Sade, fantastic artist, we all have Sade,

No Ordinary Love.

That's how I feel about blogs.

Okay, okay.

I think in the hierarchy of affection,

there is a big black dog lying at your feet

and there's a record player and there's blogging.

I think we have the Holy Trinity now.

And with that, we leave you here on DS106 Radio.

In just a few minutes after this amazing track,

we are going to go over to Beavitt Taylor and Kerry Pinney

to talk about the social media reclaim,

reclaiming social media.

And I'm looking forward to that session as well.

So we're going to play you out with this amazing tune.

Stay tuned for the next session.

Beavitt Taylor

This is no ordinary love. This is no ordinary love.

With your sweet smile.

Didn't I tell you what I believe? Did somebody say that a love like that won't last?

Didn't I give you all that I've got to give back?