This week's module goes over the effectiveness of Podcasts as an educational tool. I must say I was skeptical about this, as podcasting probably wouldn't come up as an assignment in any course I've ever taken up to this point, but now that I have taken the time to listen to a few of them and read about the technology, I definitely see the strengths of this tool.
Grammar Girl was the first podcast I explored. I definitely think her website and content is very well done. I liked that in addition to the podcasts she offers a written explanation of the content discussed. The podcast I listened to her on her channel was about spaces after periods when typing. Apparently, using two spaces after a period is no longer considered a necessity or even "proper." I do not think most educators are in the loop when it comes to this, or maybe I'm just late. I cannot help myself though, even after listening to that podcast, I STILL am sitting here adding two spaces after each period. I need to spend some time listening to Grammar Girl's other podcasts to see what else I may doing wrong grammatically on a daily basis without even knowing it!
The Stanford University podcasts were pretty standard undergraduate-doctorate level lecture content on a variety of subjects. Undergrad seems like it was so long ago, but I believe some of my professor's at the University of Virginia uploaded and distributed similar content via podcasts. In another online course I've taken at George Mason, all of the lectures were distributed via podcasts so that students could access them on their own time and not have to collectively agree to specific times to hear the lecture via Skype or a conference call. I had to do that for another course, and it was very inconvenient, I wish that instructor used podcasts to record his lectures.
The Blessed Sacrament "Virginia is For Lovers" podcast did not work, but it would have been awesome to hear what 4th graders had to say in response to the Facebook posts.
The Mediatwits podcast about podcasts was interesting, but a little dry in my opinion. The content was great for its target audience, it is just not an area that I have a lot of interest in. It is really interesting how they described the new popularity of podcasts and the reasons why they are once again on the rise. I had no idea there was so much money in podcasts. A very simple technology with very few guidelines becomes a billion dollar industry through subscriptions.
Reptile Radio is the collection of podcasts I explored on my own. Reptile Radio podcasts focus primarily on topics related to reptiles as pets, such as how legislation has impacted the pet industry and why some arboreal species make awesome display animals. One of my co-workers was actually featured on a Reptile Radio podcast that gathered experts on arboreal species for a discussion. SnakesbytesTV is another collection of podcasts that is pretty interesting to me. The host does not follow any standard format, he just decides whatever he wants to film and talk about every Wednesday and posts it...a lot of it is pretty entertaining and he features some gorgeous animals.
I have definitely never spent much time thinking about podcasts, but I definitely see both the educational and entertainment value in them.
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