Category: vinylcast

  • The Radio (Summer Camp) Returns

    The Radio (Summer Camp) Returns

    It’s been an eventful summer already, and the next big event is just around the corner: on 18th August the DS106 Radio Summer Camp returns! YES!

    Regular readers will know that I am a huge fan of all things audio and especially radio. So for the past few years it’s been a real pleasure for me to be working with folks who share my enthusiasm and are game to have radio based events, too. Two years ago we ran our first full-radio online event which turned out to be a real success and ever since we have been experimenting with the format.

    This month we are running a 1 day event on the DS106 Radio airwaves, 12 hours of radio to listen to, join in with and blog along to. It’s online conferencing without a screen. All you need to do us tune in – and I very much hope you will as it’s promising to be a very fun day indeed.

    There’s a mix of music, chat and interviews with special guests, a game session and campfire socials, too (check out the schedule).

    One of the things I love about radio-based events like this is that it encourages different types of conversations, and allows for more informal, impromptu encounters and thinking out loud, that listening to someone go through a Powerpoint presentation just doesn’t.

    Another great benefit is that folk who are listening don’t have to be at their desk or stare at a screen to participate. Instead, you can listen in live (and we usually make recordings available afterwards so you can catch up with session you’ve missed).

    Having had the privilege of attending some conferences in person earlier in the summer, I feel this is the next best way to connect with colleagues at a distance, and because it’s free and on the radio, there’s no Zoom link to find or webinar software to make work.

    Come along and join in the DS106 Radio Summer Camp.

  • Turn on your radio #oeweek26 #IWD2026

    Turn on your radio #oeweek26 #IWD2026

    From 6-8 March two of my favourite annual initiatives co-incide:

    It’s Open Education Week, from 2-6 March, celebrating all things open in Education AND it’s also International Women’s Day on 8 March. Perfect timing to celebrate all things (and people!) inspiring in open education and beyond.

    To celebrate in proper style, I am organising a schedule to jump on the DS106 Radio airwaves and bring you tunes over the weekend and I would love you to get involved. Here’s how:

    Tune in and join in the conversation

    It’s easy! Go to https://listen.ds106rad.io/ and listen 🙂 . Say hello, chat and enjoy the music. I will be monitoring the conversation via Bluesky and on Mastodon using the hashtag #ds106radio and I will be posting using the hashtags #ds106radio #oeweek26 and #IWD2026.

    Dedicate a song

    If you’d like to dedicate a song to something or someone who inspires you, in open education or beyond, then send me your request by responding to this post in the comments or reach out via Bluesky and on Mastodon.

    Include the song title + artist, and who or what you’d like us to dedicate it to on air (including any links or tags you’d like us to post out). We won’t be tagging private accounts 🙂

    Join me on air or DJ yourself

    For any aspiring or established DS106 Radio DJs out there… get in touch if you fancy joining me on air OR if you are planning a broadcast that weekend, and are up for joining forces around a common theme.

    Broadcastings schedule

    There are some special guests waiting in the wings, and I will be adding to the schedule with more details soon. For now, my plan is to be on air each day as follows (subject to change and hopefully additions):

    • Friday, 6th March: 3:00 – 4:30 PM GMT | 10:00 – 11:30 PM EST | 7:00 – 8:30 PST
    • Saturday, 7th March: listen to the pre-recorded #oeweek26 #IWD2026 podcast episode with Special Guest Chahira Nouira
    • Sunday, 8th March: 5:00 – 6:00 PM GMT | 1:00 – 2:00 PM EST | 10:00 – 11:00 PST with Special Guest Anne-Marie Scott

    So, get ready to Turn on your radio #oeweek26 #IWD2026 and tune in https://listen.ds106rad.io/ .

  • … we did it again.

    … we did it again.

    A few years ago the OERxDomains21 Conference, a conference of firsts in 2021, fired up the world of online conferencing against the dark backdrop of the pandemic. It was an amazing event, and, as I wrote at the time:

    …it’s been a career highlight for me, to lead my team on a rollercoaster ride which ended in an event we are all proud of. WE WILL DO IT AGAIN.

    I wrote that in April 2021 and as it turns out, WE DID IT AGAIN. This week in fact as another event, another conference of firsts, rocked the radio: DS106RadioSummerCamp.

    When I pitched the idea to Jim and the team at Reclaim, I tried to go all in:

    Imagine summer camp, on the radio, connecting with friends old and new as you tell stories around the campfire, reflecting on the year that’s been and learning a whole lot along the way. 

    At the time, I had no idea whether it would be possible for us to pull this off at all and indeed whether anyone would turn up in the middle of August for a week of radio on DS106Radio… and how we would somehow pull this all together into a coherent schedule for folk to follow.

    Making it open

    One of the things we all agreed one from the outset is that the event would be completely free and open to all, and that all the resources would similarly open and easy to access, download and share again. We get open and we do open, and to round it off you ALSO have broadcasts and documentation of how it works behind the scenes from how to create the podcast recordings to how to host your very own radio station. Reclaim rocks open!

    Making it more inclusive and accessible

    The other thing we wanted to make happen was to make the event more accessible. Radio has some limitations from the outset, and so we started to experiment with recordings and transcripts as a way to help folk access the event in different formats and across time zones. Thanks to a phenomenal response to our open call, we had a lot of speakers and guest DJs join us on air over the course of the week.

    Making it fun

    My favourite thing about the Summer Camp was that is was FUN. Having fun on the internet, with friends, it was amazing. The schedule looked incredible once it all came together… and the reality lived up to the hype. There were so many creative sessions making the most of the medium. Kudos to everyone who gave this a go! We salute you.

    Making it golden

    It’s no coincidence that both of these events were made possible with the incredible team at Reclaim. There is so much gold dust sprinkled around in this space where experimenting is the order of the day and curiosity is prized so highly! That’s what makes it possible to make events like this happen… and to give us the golden moments that we remember in years to come.

    We did it again.

  • Preview: DS106Radio Summer Camp

    Preview: DS106Radio Summer Camp

    I am super excited that we are now not even two weeks away from THE most highly anticipated event of the summer. Forget Paris, it’s all happening on the airwaves this August (and it definitely won’t be raining during summer camp on the radio!). Camp Leader in Chief, Jim Groom, has been blogging about what’s in store… featuring some very cool remixed artwork from Bryan Mathers (who I recently got chatting with on my podcast) – and so I want to jump in and share a preview of what’s in store come August 12th.

    So… what’s a radio conference?!” you might ask. Here’s the concept unpacked:

    DS106 Radio Summer Camp is designed to free you from your screen and enjoy your summer whilst listening to inspiring stories around our virtual campfire. 

    You will have an interactive online programme which shows the full schedule for each day, starting Monday, August 12th and ending on Friday, August 16th. For each session you will be able to click on the link to the live stream from the radio. You can listen to the shows live or catch the recordings (and transcripts, too!) and there’ll be links to resources and references in the programme description for each session. To listen, all you need is a web browser.

    “So what’s on the schedule?”.

    This is the schedule for the camp as it stands at the moment, but keep in mind that some sessions may still move around as we co-ordinate with speakers and DJs from across different time zones.

    Register for free and join us at camp

    To take part, simply register and look out for the joining instructions the week before the event. During camp week, tune in to DS106 Radio and enjoy. 

  • From Record Store to ReclaimPress.

    From Record Store to ReclaimPress.

    I feel very lucky to continue my work with the awesome team at Reclaim into summer, and this month I have bagged myself one of the best pieces of work going: a conversation with Bryan Mathers all about that unique vinyl aesthetic and the brand new venture that is ReclaimPress.

    Over the last 10-12 years I have had the privilege of collaborating on many projects with Bryan, and I deeply appreciate his listening skills, his creativity and his grit. He recently ran the London Marathon and showed once again that once you put your mind to something, a lot indeed can be achieved.

    Every one of our conversations helps me reflect and leaves me inspired. So, yes, when there’s an opportunity to talk about how Reclaim’s aesthetic has developed from the early days of record stores and vinyl covers to the newly minted ReclaimPress, I jumped at the chance.

    I’ve already blogged about it on the Reclaim Blog, but I didn’t want to miss the chance to also shout here about our upcoming Reclaim TV session:

    Join us on Friday, May 17th at 3pm GMT / 10am ET for a very special conversation, a peek behind the scenes of the creative process behind the stunning visuals… and a chance to join the beta programme for ReclaimPress, too. Watch the stream over at Reclaim TV, or catch the recording later on archive.reclaim.tv or our YouTube channel as we go from passion project to web empire… . See you there!

  • OER24: The sound of Open Practice in social media wilderness

    OER24: The sound of Open Practice in social media wilderness

    I am REALLY looking forward to OER24 this year, not least of all because I get to share the stage with Martin as we present out (first ever) short talk on podcasts and radio. If you are curious what we’ll be talking about, you are in the right place:

    Read a short summary of our talk

    How do you share open practice and foster innovation in Open Education in the age of social media fragmentation? What supports and amplifies peer-learning and knowledge exchange between Open Education practitioners as social media platforms like X become increasingly hostile spaces?

    This presentation examines how the changes in social media impact open practice and highlights alternative media of radio and podcasts as a way to share practice and explore ideas. 

    Podcasts have grown in popularity over the past decade, with many easy to use tools for their production and consumption. In 2022 50 percent of respondents in the US aged 12 to 34 years old had listened to a podcast within the preceding month and 79 percent of U.S. consumers aged 12 years or above are aware of podcasting, up by more than 30 percent from a decade ago. Their use in education is expanding, with Shamburg (2021) reporting that educators have used them to discuss topics in a more informal way. 

    They thus provide an ideal medium for exploring open practice and experimenting with ideas, formats and topics. Internet radio is not a new medium in open and distance education, and during the pandemic saw a resurgence as educators took to the airwaves on grassroots stations such as DS106 Radio. In this session the speakers will explore their experience of using these two forms of media to develop their own professional practice and explore ways of connecting with audiences beyond spaces such as X and share lessons learnt. 

    Listen to the preview

    Join us as we discuss our presentation at OER24, a conference all about Open Education, 27-28 March 2024, Cork, Ireland. Listen to the preview podcast with Special guest: ⁠Martin Weller

    ⁠Presentation slides (incl. references)

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    Image credit: Playing Card by @visualthinkery is licensed under CC-by-sa. Remix by Maren Deepwell.