Pedagodzilla in Aberystwyth

At the start of May, we travelled to Aberystwyth on the west coast of Wales for the book launch of Pedagodzilla: Exploring the Realm of Pedagogy. It was the first time the four authors – Mark Childs, Mike Collins, Liz Ellis and I – had met as a group of four, because virtually all work on the book had been done online. The event ran over two days at the university and involved several activities.

Pedagodzilla: The Aber Takeover

The Pedagodzilla team put their integrity in the hands of the good people of Aberystwyth.  We invited attendees to form a team (using self-described roles to break up groups) to design a short segment of a show within a playful structured framework. Groups recorded their contributions, which will go into a special Aberystwyth Takeover episode, to be published on the Pedagodzilla podcast feed.

Pedagodzilla live

A live recording with the Pedagodzilla team. An experimental group session, inviting attendees to submit their own Pedagodzilla-style ‘pedagogy meets pop culture’ questions, to see if the flustered panelists could somehow blag a legitimate answer within a three-minute time limit, in a recorded podcast. Once the recording goes up on the Pedagodzilla site, you’ll be able to hear how we fielded questions on subjects as diverse as Tom and Jerry, Pulp Fiction and The Karate Kid.

Picking Pedagodzilla Panelist Brains

After two days of pedagogic podcasting fun, we invited the audience to pick the brains of the Pedagodzilla team on any subject related to learning, teaching, pedagogy and pop culture.

Why launch in Aberystwyth? The podcast has had lots of support from Aberystwyth’s own Mary Jacob, and show creator Mike is an alumnus of the university. The team has also been pleased to hear that PGCE students at Aber have found the show a useful resource in their studies. As a result, the team felt that Aberystwyth might be a good place to hold a playful launch event to introduce the book to the world, bring the team together at Mike’s favourite university, and run some pedagogic podcasting activities with the community.