For OEGlobal 2024 we are rolling out a new concept on an old medium… radio. When was the last time (or likely never for some) that you turned in a radio receiver to listen to music, news? For this year’s conference we are trying out transmitted audio aka radio over the internet as what we are calling “Conference of the Air”.
The Why
Extending the reach and participation opportunity for the OEGlobal conference as in previous years includes a selection of live-streamed keynotes/major sessions and a few “from the conference floor” streams. This benefits those in the regions unable to travel. In a turn-around for a part of the world that extends itself to participate in North American / European events, the timing to view live events originating in Australia has challenges.
World Time Clock Planner for multiple regions of the world
As a more flexible way to provide access and increase participation, idea is a throwback to a traditional means of communication to offset time and distance, plus opening an innovative mode of participation - radio.
Or more accurately– Internet Radio (for example, explore the world of online radio stations via Radio Garden).
The Conference of the Air concept involves creating conference and conference-related audio content available 24 hours a day, accessible via a fixed URL. Anytime you tune into the link, you will hear something related to the conference or the world of open education.
The Experience
Before outlining the details below, this is what Conference of the Air will “sound” like. Referring to the published schedule (converted to your local time) or just deciding to “tune” in to hear what’s playing via a web browser / mobile device, you might hear
- Selected live audio streams of conference sessions and also on the ground live activities (e.g. from the conference floor)
- Recordings of conference sessions that happened earlier
- Recordings from previous OEGlobal conferences or other conferences like the recent Open Education Conference that have shared their content
- Suggested episodes from relevant podcasts like the award winning Gettin’ Air or others you suggest to us, and our own OEGlobal Voices.
- Listen to scheduled playback of audio content contributed from other openeducators unable to present/participate - e.g. a presentation in sound. This is a way we will open up the conference sharing experience to everybody And it need not be presentation, it can be conversations, messages from learners, others are planning to share music.
- Where possible, volunteers from elsewhere could offer schedule blocks of time for live broadcasts from different parts of the world.
- More! Let us know your ideas.
The Name: Remixing School of the Air
Conference of the Air is named for and honours the pioneering Australian distance learning history – School of the Air, where in the 1960s, instruction was provided to students in remote areas partly carried out by terrestrial radio (OEGlobal board member and Moodle founder Martin Dougiamas completed several years of school via School of the Air).
We will include a block of time featuring archival audio from documentaries, news stories of School of the Air, as described in another post in the Interaction Zone. Help us find more examples!
106 on the FM Dial! Locked in to #ds106 Radio flickr photo by cogdogblog shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
Internet Radio Has Been (and still is) Done: DS106 Radio
The technology and experience we are using is born and still in practice by DS106 Radio, invented in 2011 to support the DS106 open digital storytelling community. Experience it now by listening to whatever is being broadcast at https://listen.ds106rad.io/ – these days usually a cross stream broadcast of radio station WFMU but regularly interrupted by the live broadcasts of individuals. There is always something playing, 24 hours a day.
When DS106 was offered as a digital storytelling course (most but not exclusively from University of Mary Washington), the DS106radio station was used for class events, class activities, and publishing group audio projects (for more examples see Radio Show Archive). Its graphic was created in 2011 by a UMW undergraduate student.
The DS106 web site and radio station are currently hosted and supported by Reclaim Hosting and a small collection of individuals around the world still participate in live broadcasting.
As an demonstration of a conference like gathering via internet radio see the experiment Reclaim Hosting hosted in August 2024-- DS106 Radio Summer Camp- part of an effort to explore the idea of a “conference by radio”.
As an official OEGlobal 2024 Conference Supporter, Reclaim Hosting is providing us access to use DS106 radio to broadcast Conference of the Air and also helping us set up a live program so you will know blocks of content scheduled time during the conference.
Have We Piqued Your Interest?
Go now and see how easy it is to listen to DS106 radio or see how the radio player was embedded into the program for the DS106 Radio Summer Camp.
We are some scheduled and live programming during the week of October 28, 2024 as part of the OEGlobal 2024 Pre / Unconference-- see the schedule of live events being broadcast on DS106 Radio.
And we are looking for your audio content! Next we will share how you can send us or let us know of content we should include in the schedule.
Who want so tune into the Conference of the Air radio? Who wants to be on the radio?