January 31, 2010 Podcasts

Smart-board Lesson on iTunes

I'm not sure how I feel about podcasts yet. I'm a very visual learner, so I like to see what is going on and who is talking on the other end of what I'm listening too. As I was listening to the Smart-board Lesson Plan podcast I found that there was a lot of valuable information that I will be using to further my education and will take that to the classroom with me. During the time that I listened they talked about a web site called dumdum.com. This web site is for expanding your education to other students and professionals using a skype kind of set up but modified to benefit teachers and students, and give them the opportunity to use a white board, or the smart-boards where you cannot use those things with skype. With all the great information, I found it very distracting that the gentleman talking was ordering lunch in the middle of his broadcast, and because of that, I was highly distracted and could not focus on all the information that he was giving. That was something I was not a big fan of. You could hear the hustle of drive through traffic and the employees talking also. I just found all of that unprofessional, and very distracting. This was my first podcast experience and so far, I don't like it. This was a very bad impression.

Kid Cast Podcast #62

Video podcasting versus audio podcasting, is something in my opinion that is about convenient and what you prefer. For my learning ability, video podcasting would probably be my preference, yet I understand both sides have a lot to offer. I completely agree with Dan, that audio podcasting forces those broadcasting to be very descriptive and detailed about what they are talking about. Description is something that I feel all educators should be great at doing, and audio podcasting I feel is a fantastic tool to help teach and expand your ability. Video on the other hand you can see what your describing, which to me, helps me remember what I'm learning. Video podcasting is a great way to get a message across if a person is not so expressive in voice, or they have a model or video that will help teach the topic of choice. Dan stated the quote, "If a picture is worth a thousand words then a video must be worth a million," and I have to agree with him. This podcast has left a better impression on me, but I'm still not sure I'm sold on them.

Macbreak Weekly

First I have to say that I shouldn't be surprised that there is a podcast dedicated solely to mac products, but I am. This podcast, which was podcast 177, has to be my favorite that I've listened to so far. I loved how there is more than one person talking, they had a fantastic introduction to the podcast, there is a lot of humor and good chemistry between the people speaking, and it was interesting to listen too. I loved how there was discussion of the naming of the ipad, it was humorous debate which I love! I think that if I can find an audio podcast that has this kind of humor and is on a topic that I highly enjoy listening too, I might just become a huge fan of podcasting!

This Week in Photography

All hope I had for podcasting was almost lost when I listened to this podcast. Yes there were more than one person speaking, but there was no energy, no chemistry, and poor humor attempts in this podcast. I love photograph it’s a huge hobby of mine and I spent two and a half years of my life learning all there is to know about cameras and all that goes with them. I love listening to people who are enthusiastic about photography talk about it. This podcast was not enjoyable to me at all. It was hard to hear all of the guests who were speaking; some were way louder than others. This podcast was podcast 126, and it was about face detection in cameras. They had a good time talking about this subject and had plenty of poor jokes when they finally got into the subject, but this again, is not a podcast I would listen too on a regular basis. I think podcasts need to have humor but it needs to be professional humor if the podcast is educational. The audio was of poor quality and so was the entire broadcast in my opinion.

In Summary

Overall my experience with podcasts, would be that they are extremely useful tools that are a great way to educate, learn, and share information. I think that there needs to be a sense of professionalism, humor, edict, clear audio, and enthusiasm to make a good podcast. Although I have yet to find a podcast that I find thoroughly enjoyable, I will continue to search and see what I can find!