Podcasts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQFKNcdCdLM
-this link gives basic information on what a podcast is.

 I found it very informative as I have absolutely no background in podcasts, yet know that one of my colleagues uses podcasts regularly in his teaching.  He not only has the kids listen to podcasts, but last year had the kids in small groups create a podcast.  Eventually, I too would like to be able to incorporate podcasts into my teaching, but until I am comfortable with how they work I know I won't do that so the purpose of my exploration at this time is to merely gain some experience in listening to them and hopefully creating one.   I think it's an important tool for me to explore as according to Will Richardson  "If there is one thing for certain it's that the explosion in the last few years of multimedia publishing on the Web is going to continue, and that more and more of what we consume online is going to be self produced, home made entertainment."  (Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms P. 111).  For this reason, both personally and professionally gaining a handle on this tool is important for me to do.

My Explorations:

I think this is an interesting site as you are able to then go into podcasts about many different topics.  Here is the link for the page: http://www.podcast.com/

Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to spend some time listening to Podcasts on various topics that interest me so that I can become familiar with different styles and to gain more general understanding of them.  I thought it would be helpful for me to link the podcasts that I listen to for a few reasons:

1) I will have a record of what I listened to
2) It is a way of showing my inquiry into this web tool
3)Others reading my blog might be interested in listening to podcasts I've listened to


Links to Podcasts I've listened to:

http://ultrarunnerpodcast.com/ 

http://www.podcastkid.com/

http://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/tipping-barrels-surf-film-highlights-threats-bcs-great-bear-rainforest.html

http://www.podcast.com/S-1167.htm  **Note:  this link contains a large list of nutritional topics you can go into and listen to.  So far I have just listened to the one on whole grains, and found it to be quite logical and informative.