WEEK 9, #21: Podcasts

A couple of years ago I played around with podcasts, and my students made them as part of a project on explorers. That was also the time I began exploring Google Reader, so I added the Edutopia podcast feed to my reader -- way back when -- and I refer to it faithfully.

Probably the most poignant lesson I learned about podcasts, early on, was to take on only the volume of subscriptions that I could manage. I was surprised about how quickly they piled up! The other aspect of the reader subscription that I quickly discovered was that subscribing to podcasts via my reader tied me to my computer.

I'm an Apple junkie, so the delivery venue that makes the most sense for me is to load podcasts on my iPod via iTunes. It's easy to use, and meets my need for flexibility. I can listen to the audio in the car or when I exercise, instead of sitting in front of my computer. Additionally, I can share the broadcasts with my students, all of whom have iPods. (Okay, one of my students last year had seven of them -- go figure!)

As far as locating podcasts, I have some sources that I am especially fond of, such as The Educational Podcast Network and the NPR Podcast Directory. It is important to me that the source of information I listen to is reputable, and I have great success with these directories. I perused Podcast.com and PodcastAlley.com, but was overwhelmed by the amount of content and the time it took to search; the Yahoo Podcast Directory is now closed. Of course, if I have an idea of what I want to listen to, I just google it. For example I googled "alice waters podcast" today and located a program that I began listening to in the car last week. I plan to finish listening to the program on my walk this afternoon!