I had never touch an iPod until last summer during the course I was taking under David Widener. The second time was when I gave my son his iPod as a Christmas present. That is the extent of my practical experience with mp3 players and files.
I didn’t download from iTunes. I actually did that this past summer. And you are correct. It’s the wellspring of all podcasts. So I investigated two other sources – Podcast Alley and Education Podcast Network. First some general observations about both. I preferred the arrangement of Education Podcast network. I liked that I could click on on the icon and hear the podcast without subscribing first to my Goggle reader. The topics I examined were appropriate to the maturity and educational needs of my students. But several of the links I clicked were dead. Podcast Alley did have a wider range of topics. I did not delve into all of the areas available, so I take the course commentator’s word about questionable areas. Interesting though, Religion and Spirituality had 80+ times more topic sites than did Science and Medicine.
In Podcast Alley, I looked? (listened) to selections in “The Naked Scientists” and “Skeptoid”. The former deals with the current events in science. The presentation would appeal to the Pod People. The latter was more intriguing. If I were teaching an Honors section, I might use it to have student analyze pseudo-science trends.
As I mentioned earlier, I did have some trouble accessing some of the listed sources in the Education Podcast Network. Most of the sources were about biological and environmental topics. There were more sources for science listed than in the Podcast Alley. I did look “Science Podcast” from Science Magazine and “Periodicity” from the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers. Again the former was about newsworthy science events while the latter was more about the experience of teachers in the classroom. I have much simpatico with my brethren up No’th.
Will I use pod-casting in my class? I have already decided before taking this course that next year I would record my note taking sessions and post them to Ed-line. I shall save my rationale for my Evoca podcast.
Entries (RSS)