Teaching Philosophy

If you’ve considered using podcasts in your own philosophy courses, but don’t know where to start, I’ve compiled some resources here that should help lead the way.

“How-To”

What is a podcast? - a brief introduction to the technology of podcasting, which mentions some instructional benefits and considerations for using this new medium for information delivery

Podcasts in the classroom - an interview with a professor who uses podcasts in his courses (though he’s not a philosophy professor, his message still applies)

Collections of Philosophy Podcasts

Philosopher’s Zone - your “guide through the strange thickets of logic, metaphysics and ethics” by Alan Saunders

Philosophy Bites - podcasts of top philosophers, interviewed by David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton, on bite-sized topics

Philosophy Talk - a weekly, one-hour radio series produced by Ben Manilla. The hosts’ down-to-earth and no-nonsense approach brings the richness of philosophic thought to everyday subjects. Listen to Philosophy Talk for free (requires you to sign up at: http://www.prx.org/user/PhilosophyTalk/)

Ethics Bites - David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton go in search of answers to the big ethical questions in this 14-part podcast.

Philosophy: The Classics - Nigel Warburton reads from his book Philosophy: The Classics

LSAT Logic in Everyday Life - a podcast series from The Princeton Review that applies the logic of the LSAT to analyze the flawed arguments in politics, advertisements, and conventional wisdom

Learn Out Loud - spans from the great ancient philosophers to the great minds of today

Eduzendium is an initiative of Citizendium, a newish wiki encyclopedia that aims to improve on Wikipedia by enlisting the work of experts in the field.  Eduzendium is an initiative whereby teachers and their students are enlisted to help create the encyclopedia.  I am not sure that it would work well for most philosophy classes, especially in light of the existence of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  But I’d be interested in comments and suggestions.  It sounds like it would be fun to try, given the right class and students.

Below is a description of the initiative by Larry Sanger, editor-in-chief of Citizendium. 

University Assignments Going Cyber
Citizendium Announces “Eduzendium” Initiative(Read at: http://tinyurl.com/ysknjo)January 24, 2008 - In a radical departure from traditional methods of
teaching, a new way for students to gain course credits is emerging. As with
so much else this decade, it is all down to the Internet.

In a never-before-seen new initiative, the online reference encyclopedia
project Citizendium (http://www.citizendium.org), in collaboration with
expert teachers and lecturers, has launched Eduzendium. The Eduzendium
project allows students to write their assignments online on the Citizendium
on a given topic allocated by their teacher.[…]