[Sig-bwp] NYTimes: Podcast Celebrity - A History Teacher

[Gerry Mckiernan]

Colleagues/

And Who Says That Teachers Are Not Rock Stars ...

/Gerry 

Gerry McKiernan
Science and Technology Librarian 
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu 

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January 31, 2007
On Education
History Teacher Becomes Podcast Celebrity 
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
STONY BROOK, N.Y.

Fourth period on a midwinter Thursday, Christmas vacation a fading memory by now, and Lars Brownworth took his accustomed place in front of an American history class at the Stony Brook School here. He had been guiding these seniors through the Gilded Age lately, and for this session he planned to personify the era in the form of the oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller.

[snip]

That night, though, Mr. Brownworth, 31, set to work in his own apartment, writing an essay about Alexius I Comnenus, the Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. After revision and rehearsal, the text would become the script for the latest installment of Mr. Brownworth’s podcast. And if form held, something like 140,000 listeners from Afghanistan to White Plains would hear it.

In barely 18 months, Mr. Brownworth’s podcast, “12 Byzantine Rulers” (at http://www.anders.com/lectures/lars_brownworth/12_byzantine_rulers/), has become one of the phenomena of the podcasting world. A survey of 1,200 years of rather abstruse history, starting with Diocletian in 284 and finishing with Constantine XI Palaeologus in 1453, “12 Byzantine Rulers” routinely ranks in the top five educational podcasts on iTunes, and in the top 50 of all podcasts.

[snip ]

But on the day in June 2005 when Apple began presenting podcasts on iTunes, while Lars was on an archaeological dig in Jordan, Anders put up the recording. A month later, 1,392 people downloaded it, and Anders told Lars, “I think you better do another show.” By July 2006, 41,031 listeners subscribed. Last December, after being cited by both Apple and Wired magazine as one of the nation’s most influential podcasts, “12 Byzantine Rulers” drew 140,910 hits.

[snip]

With 13 episodes completed, Mr. Brownworth said he expected to complete and post the last four by the summer. Some other topic, he’s not yet sure what, will come next. For someone used to teaching students by the dozen, life as a rock star still feels strange.

“I can’t believe it’s that many people,” he said of his global audience. “I always thought the only one listening was going to be me.”

[ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/education/31education.html ]