Podcasting

I recently completed Blogging and Podcasting for Beginners, an online class, in order to get some CEU's and hone my blogging skills. Unexpectedly, I have been caught up with podcasting.  I downloaded, Podcast Addict, to my phone and have been listening to a bunch of them. (Addictively, I might add.)  Since I've hit something of a dry run with blogging (haven't had much motivation to sit and blog) I thought I would begin reviewing various podcasts that I find interesting and link to them here.  To stay true to the theme of my blog I'd like to state that I think podcasting could be a powerful learning tool, and I've been imagining what different kinds of things they might be good for. So before I start reviewing, I'll begin by putting two of those ideas out there.

One idea is to simply jump start the brain.  Let's face it.  There will be times when we sit down to write there is a blank slate, or even worse, a fuzzy haze that takes unproductive minutes and turns them into unproductive hours.  Recently, I have been taking some computer classes that I think will dramatically improve my marketability, but are difficult and sometimes dull and boring.  Taking a break and listening to something that I find very interesting and engaging gets my brain going.  When it's over I find I can focus more clearly on things that I find less interesting.  I think these would work particularly well as a set or prompt for a lesson plan, or just as a means of adding structure to a classroom.  

The second idea is that having students create their own podcast would be a wonderful long term project that would engage students in ways writing doesn't.  It would be an involved process that would require lots of planning and editing; it would force students to organize their thinking; it would be a way to sneak some powerful repetition in a way that was engaging and fun.  In short, it would serve as another digital artifact that students could come back to and review later in the year.

That's it for now.  Thanks for checking out my blog; good luck in the classroom.