Thing #17 Pocasts: No IPOD needed!

We just did a roll-in faculty meeting on creating our own podcasts! There is no doubt that podcasts can have a great effect on students. Teachers were telling stories on how other teachers are using podcasts. One teacher in another district creates a podcast over the material that will be covered in the next class and the students' home work is to listen to the podcast before coming to class. Pretty inventive.

I previewed most of the links that were provided. Some were very professional, where others like TechPodZone and Geek!Ed! were not so professional. The ones that kind of rambled on like TechPodZone I won't go back to again. It wasted too much time. Geek!Ed! was better, but not by much. They were playing "radio show" and not disseminating information. I also checked out the math links provided. Way over my Special education student's heads. I was frustrated using the computer with these podcasts because I kept wanting visuals that weren't there. However, I do think downloading to my Ipod to listen to as I travel, or listen to when not tied down to the computer would be better. I can see a need for some type of Sped directory of podcasts. Who knows, it may already exist. I'm gonna go look for it later.

As negative as it sounds, I did find some interesting podcasts. Education podcast with John Merrow from PBS I found interesting. I think it will help me look at education more globally, instead of just in my backyard.

I do believe that there is a place for podcasts in education and I am going to look for opportunities to use podcasts in my classes.