The feedbook is an idea I’ve been talking about and working through with many people over the last six months or so. The idea (not a very complex one I admit) came to me in conversation with Tim and Rob (more on these guys later) in our early planning stages for a new media program for UPEI. It is a flexible idea that can encompass many possibilities. For its first introduction I’ll restrict myself as much as possible to the ideal version of the feedbook as its been worked out between Jeff Lebow and I during our edtechtalk broadcast in September.
The feedbook is a collection of feeds (including podcast, blogs and someday soon hopefully vlogs) contained in an open ended opml first seeded by a course instructor and added to (or pared down) according to student needs. Imagine five instructors all teaching a an education course on using new media in the classroom. In their opml they might include:
- one blog from each instructor
- dave tosh
- will richardson
- george siemens
- edtechtalk
- barbara ganley
This would make up the main ‘textbook’ for the course. The students would not be getting a textbook positioned from a single instructor from last year or even a couple of years ago, but a collection of essays written right now about changes that affect the current issues in education. The instrutors can add their own flavour to the course in their own blogs as well as modeling blogging as good educational practice.
A feedbook is a living text. Students are getting material that is new. The material may surprise the instructor, but it gives them things to discuss, a real platform upon which to have a natural discussion rather than one forced by a lesson plan made weeks, months or even years earlier. As a final advantage, when the students leave the course, their feedbook goes with them, not a textbook slowly fading into kindling for your fireplace, but one that will stay current…
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